Swords of the Motherworld
by Tomyris
Summary: Elrood Sector Force is displaced during an attempt to rendezvous with Admiral Betl Oxtroe at the Empress Teta System using technology in development based upon Gree research. After the death of Akal Zed in combat, Captain Tanda Pryl, Thunderflare Commanding (and a secret Force Sensitive), assumes command and realises they are far from home. (being updated with edited content)
1. Chapter 1

Main battle in deep space, always what the Imperial Starfleet had wanted, and now what it enjoyed a distinct excess in. Three Star Destroyers, and a light cruiser. It was not a force that any could mock for its power and strength. But the days of the age were quite different now. They had bared their teeth in main battle... Precisely and only because the ground had fallen out from underneath their feet. The Admirals and the fleet gurus were getting what they wanted, and _losing._

Endor. Defeat. The Emperor – Dead.

Elrood Sector was falling to the rebels from the first heartbeat of this new and maddening age. Around them, dozens of starfighters and light capital ships tumbled in battle, space lit with the power of energy weapons exchanged and bolts refracting upon shields. She could not believe how they had survived those nine hours of desperate struggle after Endor, the other Captains, the crews, fighting like cadets. She had been forced with her small coterie of special officers to micromanage her ship. In the end, it had been for nothing. Falling back, she had retreated to Elrood and ignored Pellaeon's absurd usurpation of authority. Just to find Zed had done the same thing...

She gritted her teeth. _Thunderflare_ 's shields held and her main batteries sprayed space with fire, for all the good it did when their enemies were so small. But she was keeping them suppressed and off of her, and that was more than could be said for the enemy's hard press against ...

Even after all the years of rivalry, simply the shock of it made her blanche. Until Endor, she had never seen it. She never wanted to see it. Now she had seen it far too much. Shields collapsing, the bridge of her superior's flagship disintegrating, great gouts of plasma that had once been durasteel—and people—erupting from the bridge tower of a ship now covered in electrical arcs from surging subsystems and spinning out of power.

" _Stalker_ is crippled, Captain! We've lost all comms contact!" One of the Lieutenants in the working pits flung a look of tired anxiety to her, Scolus she thought. They had already lost so much.

Black gloved hands tightened together, lain across the small of her back.

"Hold steady. The rebels are concentrating on Port Sixteen, shift secondary batteries to that arc. Maneouvre us to four-five-five and then hold position to cover _Stalker_ while keeping our main fires interposed between the G.R.B. and the Rebels." The _whang_ of heavy fire being soaked into the shield generator mountings and sometimes bursting through was growing more intense as the rebels could now concentrate against them, _Stalker_ spinning off in her crippled state.

"Gree Research Base - Director Asil is asking if he can complete the evacuation now or if Captain Zed's orders hold."

The woman spun on a sharply booted heel. "They do not hold. Inform Director Asil he may evacuate – once he has commenced a countdown for the device." The crew tightened in nervousness around her. "We are returning to Imperial space! He is to set the slingshot device for the Deep Core Control Sector 0004 Empress Teta and commence the countdown. If the Rebels follow us into the slingshot field, they'll arrive in the midst of Admiral Oxtroe's fleet and be annihilated, so much the better for us. Everything else shall be evacuated or destroyed."

"Understood, Sir. ... Director Asil acknowledges the directives. He has pre-positioned most personnel and equipment on the base into the shuttles and they are launching now."

"Excellent." She walked out to the front of the bridge, glaring through the windows and returning to the holoprojection at its rear. The ship skidded under fire to starboard, but she held her balance.

"Localized shield failures commencing in shield sector eight, Captain."

Captain Tanda Pryl, HIMS _Thunderflare_ commanding, stepped over to one of the comm interlinks in the bridge rails and cued it. "Commander Gristholm, I need you to stabilize shield energy with an interest in maintaining another five minutes of combat. Nothing more."

"Shields are failing fast, Captain Pryl, and the rebels are concentrating fire on the bridge, looking to reprise what they did to _Stalker_. Don't know if I can guarantee it, Sir."

"I'll take what I can get." She turned back to the comms pit, keeping her composure. Zed hadn't countermanded her yet, and with the level of damage to _Stalker_ 's bridge tower—she did not expect he ever would again. _Good riddance. So arrogant, so overrated. Good men left to die with him... Ah! Dea, a small mercy._

 _Stalker_ 's tumbling had stopped; someone aboard had managed to regain control. With _Bombard_ close alongside, the wrecked ISD-II was once again alive, if in tremendously bad shape.

"Director Asil reports power generators are at full charge, Sir."

Tanda Pryl clenched a fist, and her wide cheeks flushed their fair skin red. "Get them off. Now!"

"Shields collapsing on the Bombard, Captain! _Stalker_ will be at their mercy in a moment, and then we'll be next."

"Position us to cover her-begin calling the fighters back now. Ignore the station, the charges have been set and timed. The Rebels can't destroy it in time to stop us now." Two squadrons of X-wings slashed across the shields of the _Thunderflare_ and abruptly she was in little better shape than her comrades in the operation. Gouts of concentrated fire ripped through forward trench batteries where their torpedoes had slipped through the growing cracks in destabilizing shields. Tanda spun and reversed the circuit of her pace, showing no further expression.

"Shuttles from Gree Base recovered. Slave links standing by. Director Asil sent us the codes and the links are reading positive to self-diagnostics."

"Very good, Commander Rhae. We can't wait a moment longer. Commence the slingshot operation." She turned toward the comm pit. "Signal Admiral Oxtroe via hyperwave that Captain Zed is presumed lost in action and I am assuming command of Elrood Sector Force, request confirmation and advise we are attempting a special method of reaching Empress Teta rapidly."

"Confirm, hyperwave to Empress Teta established, Captain!"

Commander Rhae raised a gloved open hand, executing the orders he had been given. "Establish control links to the fleet navcomps."

"Ship slave links reported, Commander. Rebels jamming!"

"Compensate."

"Links stabilized, Sir, but we won't have them for long."

"Transmit the control signal to G.R.B."

"Slingshot control signal commencing... now."

Space around the Gree Research Base turned yellow. It looked so profoundly unnatural that even Tanda stiffened. Then the stars returned, already flickering into pseudomotion. She saw the fleet pulled in with them, and sagged in relief. Then a strange purple iridescence swept across space instead of the usual purple-white madness of hyperspace.

 _Thunderflare_ shuddered below her feet. ... A very great lurch indeed, striking, twisting at them, the ship's Captain twisting at her knees to keep herself standing as... a second flash, a twisting feeling, the entire universe starting to feel a little... wrong. She snapped a look down to the pits, saw men vomiting, and managed a frown, but the sensation in her mind, she could not ignore. The part of her so vigorously tamped down, something _profound_ had changed for it.

And then she fell into a console and held on as everything seemed to snap back into place. Coughing, gasping, men rose, and with the attentiveness of her vigorously drilled ship, began to file reports, check system status... _Thunderflare_ kept breathing, both men and machine, operating as a single unit.

Tanda Pryl saw the holoprojector board light up with the first subspace sensor returns. Before them, then: A four planet system with an asteroid belt - the third and fourth planets, orbiting each other in turn, one a green garden world, the other, dead and howling with dust and wind and storms, with settlements under domes.

"This is not Empress Teta. Maintain alert. Report on the ... Flotilla?" Calling her pocket squadron the Elrood Sector Force at this point seemed absurd. And they were so very, very not in Empress Teta.

" _Bombard_ reports heavy damage, Captain Turla is wounded but in command. They will restore shield power in twenty minutes. Chief engineer in command aboard _Stalker_ , Captain. The reactor is not in danger and she is locked down on secondary power. Forty minutes to restore minimal shielding. All ranking officers slain with the destruction of the bridge."

Tanda pursed her lips into a tight smile. "Commander Rhae. Note in the official service log that Captain Tanda Pryl, His Imperial Majesty's Ship _Thunderflare_ , is now in command of the military forces of the Elrood Sector."

"Aye aye, Sir."

" _Rintonne's Flame_?"

"Ah, Sir. _Rintonne's Flame_ will have shields restored in five minutes. Captain Tezrin reports all batteries intact. His ship is ready for action."

 _I have a lamed squadron, but a squadron nonetheless._ "Astrogation, commence efforts to localize our position within the galaxy. Consider it your first priority."

"Captain, there may be a matter far more urgent that stellar cartography." Lieutenant Saukon stepped to the holoprojector and flipped it over into tactical mode. Tanda at once raised an eyebrow – the image updated, and small flashes could be seen as the image updated and focused in upon a battle of some type, over the fourth planet. An eye-tearing flash before them was damped down by the holoprojector limiters as something in orbit exploded rather violently. What remained was a small flotilla of craft, proceeding on toward the green world, past a slowly growing path of wreckage, as a fighter duel in their wake.

"Can we identify the ships?"

"The make isn't in the combat recognition database, Sir. They're unknown ships."

"Those raiders that have been hitting outer rim settlements?" Pryl looked up sharply. At the back of the bridge, her ISB man stiffened imperceptibly.

"That's a rumour, and the information is locked down in the database, Captain."

"But something unknown is here. Find out their comms signatures." She paused. _If you are to retain command – you must be decisive. It is your nature. Don't go against it._ " _Rintonne's Flame_ is to defend _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ whilst repairs are completed. Prepare a microjump to the planet. Whomever they are they aren't interested in identifying themselves to the Empire and are contemptuous enough to ignore our squadron. If they were on our side in these catastrophic times they'd still have at least a code. If the New Order is to survive, we must make decisive examples of those causing chaos in the wake of the rebel treachery we have all endured! Calculate the jump immediately and stand by for action. We will excise this little rebellion immediately and then take steps to assess our situation."

She had worked desperately over the past two weeks to keep _Thunderflare_ 's morale high, and the result was encouraging. The crew leapt to action as the alarms trilled around her. Commander Rhae jogged down into the damage control pit. "All sectors closing blast doors... Transferring emergency power to shields."

"Microjump plotted, Captain."

"Execute!" Now her command flickered around her with the usual burst of pseudomotion, just to lurch back out into the gravity well of the planet a moment later. "Stand by to hail them on the general radio frequencies."

"Radio Comms ready, Captain."

Pryl stepped forward and activated the link on one of the bridge rails. "This is the Imperial Star Destroyer _Thunderflare_. Identify yourselves at once or be destroyed."

There was no reply to the message whatsoever, just a few flashes from the planet, as ground-batteries opened up... and quickly fell silent, kinetic-struck from orbit, as the last fighters were destroyed and the ships started to scream down into the atmosphere. A small pair of the small vessels turned about and started approaching her little flotilla, and then a quartet of respectably cruiser-sized motherships remaining in orbit followed them, all looking as ramshackle as Hutt security ships... they proceeded to turn toward _Thunderflare_ despite the disparities in mass, launching breaching pods as they went in a very headlong, uncoordinated sort of attack. The Imperial officers exchanged stunned looks at the breaching pods.

"They have made their status clear. Full firepower from the forward batteries! Target those heavy raiders. Light turbolasers to engage the pods." Their shields still weren't fully restored, so it was... Somewhat concerning that they were facing such a great force alone, relying partially on emergency power. She did not aim to allow them to strike first.

"Comm transmission coming in! – not in Basic. Running it through the computers, Captain..."

Turbolaser fire was already rippling from the forward batteries of the _Thunderflare_. Commander Rhae glanced sharply to Tanda Pryl. She folded her hands again. Didn't order a cease-fire.

"We are the Blood Pack, and we do not share our slaves!"

The two exchanged a confident glance. The bridge crew redoubled their effort. _Slavers_. The first salvo rippled across the ships, and in shocked derision, they saw the primitive ships torn and scoured without the classic refraction of a single erg by shielding.

"No ray shields, we'll take them in ten minutes, Captain!"

"Quite. Shift fire to ion cannon only, and inform Brigadier Colonna to prepare the boarding parties. I want prisoners to interrogate!"

"Aye, Captain."

With a frown, Tanda turned to the comms deck while her ship's guns thrummed and thundered through the hull, falling away until the only great sound was from the two big aft ion cannon turrets, leaving the thrusters of the enemy ships firing wildly as energy skittered across their hulls. "By the way, what language was it in, Lieutenant?"

"Unknown. It was a Gree Protocol Packet from _thousands_ of years ago, Captain. I ..."

Tanda frowned and looked to the battle-and beyond it. "Where _are_ the Companions, anyway?" Her question was met with silence. _Gree Protocol... Gree Research._


	2. Chapter 2

Mass drivers whanged shots off the particle shields. Space battle could be loud, the sounds strange. Most were transmitted through the hull, from the shield generator mountings, and were the sound of surge and overload, not the true sound of the impact that had caused them. Tanda issued orders without raising her voice. The shields of _Thunderflare_ were strong enough to turn the attacks, but they were stubborn.

Their ships were also quickly being disabled. They seemed to have no resilience at all to ion cannon, and the ionizing radiation they produced was knocking down systems across the ships. Sometimes the enemy's guns worked and sometimes they didn't, and steadily they were removing their ability to fight back. Three of the four motherships were tumbling away disabled, and of the smaller vessels, only four remained to attack.

This was no real combat, just an execution. That was the kind of battle the Imperials had been confident of providing to their enemies for so much of the history of Palpatine's reign, since the last battle over Coruscant of the Clone Wars, and that had only disintegrated as an image of perfection in the age of the Mon Calamari joining the perfidious rebellion. Tanda watched the red ion bolts lancing out, putting paid to the last measure of resistance in her enemies.

"Boarding parties! Secure those ships. I want a full sensor plot of remaining starcraft in the system and their positions, including snubfighters."

"Aye Captain. Commencing long-range subspace scans!" The sensor plotting crew began to get on that, as Captain Pryl stared out the triangular windows of her bridge quietly. Something still felt so very wrong.

Stormtrooper transports made their sortie from the bays of the _Thunderflare_. Three stood in against each mothership. They located the airlocks, interfaced across universal aperture collars, and took fusion torches to the doors. Glowing cherry red, the airlock doors vaporised and burst inward under positive pressure. Under a hail of suppressive blaster fire, the white-armoured figures pressed into the target ships.

They immediately ran into a buzzsaw of fire, rapid and heavy guns fired by giant, hideously tough creatures, a second race deftly used as fodder to stiffen the defence, and their savage fury unrelenting in its refusal to give ground. The enemy fire was strictly from projectile weapons, and Stormtrooper armour was optimized against them. The boarding parties pushed forward, finishing their enemies off at point-blank range with salvoes of blaster bolts as the wounded aliens refused to die, and ripped the limbs off more than a few as they got in close.

Tanda Pryl was listening to the reports from the boarding parties in growing consternation. The heavy weight of the projectiles fired by the weapons the aliens used was so great they were inflicting stiff casualties on the boarding parties, and the platoons using a hail of proton grenades to cover their advance. They might lack ray shielding, but they gave a new meaning of pain to the boarding parties in a way Rebels never had... Fighting savagely for possession of their blood-stained wrecks of pirate ships in a way no normal pirates would.

"Sir, scanning report in," Lieutenant Scolus saluted, his crisp sideburns accentuating an image of professionalism that the crew had maintained in trying times. "There are some small ships huddling near a station in the asteroid belt, a six hundred klick diameter asteroid with a facility as well. The outer gas giant has a substantial complement of bases around and under the moons, with a functional set of snubfighters and heavy shipping traffic. As for the inner planet, yet more stations, Captain. It looks to be an Outer Rim system from the population density, Sir, but with very heavy industry for one."

"Thank you." She turned back to the latest report from Brigadier Colonna, and then keyed the comms channel to Legionary command open. "No sign of captives on the pirates? What are those beasts?" Tanda was staring at the readouts at the same time that she listened to his answers. The sensor data coming in from scanning was revealing a completely uncharted region of space. Rapidly expanding and returning subspace pulses were populating systems for dozens of lightyears around, matching nothing that had been surveyed all the while.

"No sign of captives, and we've already taken close to thirty percent casualties in the first wave, Captain Pryl. I'll need to heavily reinforce the landing parties for them to have a chance. Otherwise we need to order a retreat to the transports, and soon."

Tanda walked back to the comms pit. "Lieutenant, hail the planet and ask the planetary authorities if they've in fact had any prisoners taken by these pirates. If not we'll pull back and destroy those tubs. It's not like we've been getting draughts of stormtroopers lately." The dry humour slid bitterly off the bridge and nobody dared react to it. The ISB officer standing at the back glinted a bit. Tanda didn't care.

"Very well, Captain. Attempting to contact planetary control. I'll use the same language we filtered the transmission through."

On the other end there was a long pause, but not for any problem with the communications channels that the staff on the _Thunderflare_ could see; it was more like someone was debating answering. Then the channel opened to the sound of combat, and a low-quality audio feed, speaking a female voice in... Well, to be charitable, the translators were _mostly_ managing it. "Never seen anything like what you got, human, but thanks, we;" a sound of mass rifle fire "-owe you one! Assuming these jokers don't get us first! Watch it, Aleythia!"

"Never seen anything like us before..." Tanda frowned and folded her hands behind her back. From the way General Colonna had been talking, she had to think fast.

"Pull the stormtroopers off those ships and prepare the main batteries to destroy them! Ready the primary Stormtrooper Legion forces for landing. Prepare the assault shuttles, transports, and barges. Commit the entire Walker force. These pirates are tough in close combat, so let's not give them the chance. Localize this transmission and stand by to land the landing force. Launch regular screening TIE patrols in case the pirates have reinforcements."

"Captain? We're committing to a major ground offensive on this nonexistent intel?" Commander Rhae stepped closer, and Tanda saw the ISB man at the back of the bridge stand up.

She clenched her palms together and frowned. "Execute those orders. We don't know where we are, but once this system is clear it will be an efficient base of operations until we can sort that out. They have gas giant bases, so they have fuel and tibanna gas. That makes it well worth staying."

"Aye, Captain! Standing by now."

"Recall orders issued!" Colonna's voice filtered up from the comms.

Tanda directly activated the return channel to the surface. "Planetary forces, we are landing our combat group to assist you. Hold out in confidence."

"Welcome to Mil! Great place, huh?" Sounds of hard firing guns, intense energy bursts echoed through the feed, roars and explosions and screams of pain. It was a contextless miasma of the din of combat, and then: "Back-back-ba-" Followed by the feed abruptly cutting out.

Lieutenant Scolus looked up with a faint expression of disbelief. "Was that the planetary Governor's office being overrun?"

"Well, we have no way of knowing now," Rhae remarked dryly, and turned away.

Tanda pursed her lips, glanced at her second in command, and shook her head. "Quite. Get those walkers down there with the highest priority. Do we have prisoners from the pirate vessels?"

"... No, Captain." A wince... "Captain, we've barely been able to evacuate our own people. They did not ask for quarter."

"Then let us make sure they do not receive it! Stand by the main batteries to commence fire."

"Main batteries standing by."

"Last of the transports clear, Sir!"

"Portside main battery fire free. Let's see how they hold up." Tanda clasped her gloves together.

"Fire free-Commence fire!"

The huge turbolasers flanking the superstructure of the _Thunderflare_ were intended for long-range combat against the heaviest of starships, equal to her size, and useless for anything else except planetary bombardment. Even the tubs their enemies had might have been able to evade them, except that they had already been disabled.

Green bolts longer than a corvette lanced through space. Where they touched the disabled ships, huge chunks of armour were vaporised and blasted deep into the hull, venting atmosphere in brief spurts of flame and tumbling ruined equipment drifting out into space; the bodies would have been incinerated. Two minutes later, it was over.

The landing force was already commencing to embark upon the dropships. They would be on the planet in two hours. "And make sure they have protocol droids with them!" Pryl added as Colonna made the preparations.

Kesea Avera hadn't noticed the tremor at first. The groundquake had started gently. It had been lost in the sound and the shaking, the rumble and the fury of battle around them. Guns and mortars firing everywhere, Asari pinned into the largest city on the planet Mil, wishing they had managed to escape to the countryside in time. The Krogan and their servants pushing them hard, and Kesea on the highest building in the city, now partially burning, partially wrecked, sheltering behind exposed, shattered concrete walls as she called in mortar fire by networked request.

"Lavea, do you feel that?"

Her companion jerked her head up from her omnitool. "Feel what? I... Oh." The latest pulse hit harder than the others. Then the next did, too. "...Can you localize it?"

Kesea checked her omnitool. "I've still got access to the planetary seismic network. Twenty klicks ... North northeast." She brought up her scanning binoculars, and her eyes widened. All thought of responding to the urgent requests for fire support seemed to melt away. The scanner resolved the size of the looming head, a beast wrought in steel surging across the ground. On legs. _Walking_. And _fast_.

"Twenty-two ... Twenty-three meters high. Moving at sixty klicks an hour. Five... No, six, no... Ten."

"The humans in orbit?" Lavea's eyes widened as she saw them, too, and now with her naked eyes.

"...If not, we're screwed. If humans have these..." _Maybe then we're screwed, too_.

The ground was rolling under their very feet. Surging, shaking. The machines were of utterly enormous extant, and they were timing their steps to resonate through the ground to maximum intimidating effect. Striding rapidly over the freshly ploughed fields of the Asari farming colony, the Walkers dwarfed over the rest of their own force, led it, surged on toward the town with a kind of relentlessness that now wheeled or tracked vehicle could match.

Kesea found herself admiring the attention to psychology that had gone into their design. The Krogan had seen them too... And they were actually disengaging. Even the _Krogan_ knew they would need _everything_ to face this force. Cheers swept through the snipers posted in the immediately lower floors, and through the network feeds.

The Krogan reorganized themselves as they disengaged, formed their Vorcha underlings ahead of them, and swept ahead, moving quickly to get close. They weren't given the chance. The Walkers opened fire in a ragged salvo of energy weapons that made Kesea and Lavea gasp. Angry red bolts lanced across the fields with a booming scream of their firing while parts and barrels on the Walkers recoiled as visibly as if they had been projectile weapons.

But like some weapon in an adventure novella, they melted the ground and incinerated the Krogan by the hundred. A few of the Blood Pack's combat vehicles erupted under the massed power. A wave of heat rolled up, distorting the atmosphere, from the edge of the town. The guns commenced rapid fire after that, though not once matching the power of the first salvo, intentionally altering their destructive power to protect the city.

The Krogan continued to attack. But the display had been so powerful that many of the Asari were now pushing out in _pursuit_ , hitting them while they were down with weapons and biotics. The Blood Pack troops were caught between two fires, and the third came when a deep throated scream tore through the air and more energy explosions rippled across the ground in its wake, strange, squinting double-cylinder craft screaming through the sky above on bombing missions.

Any cohesion was lost, and the Krogan surged ahead in frantic disorder, to at least fight their way past the Walkers, which continued to methodically fire through their formations, their heads tracking to find concentrations and then salvo fire into them with total impunity against the infantry. As it seemed that they would get clear, smaller two-legged walkers surged up from behind their greater cousins, and troops began to debouche from the rear of the Walkers, floating boxes of combat hover-vehicles approaching to provide even more troops, white armoured troops deploying with heavy support weapons.

Abruptly the armoured head of one of the AT-AT walkers erupted in a blinding flash, Kesea dropping down as the micro-nuke detonated from one of the Krogan who finally had the range. She peered back up as the flash faded, the dead leaves and the dust and the debris of the city churned up in the wake of the blast.

The Walker was untouched, and firing red bolts of energy back on its attacker. It was a scene so heartening to the Asari, so demoralising to even the Krogan, the Walkers surging forward in absolute confidence now. But Krogan did not die easily. They turned their fire on the infantry.

They fought hard, but surrounded and hit from above, from every side, with the walkers in support-the only thing that seemed surprising to the white armoured men when it was done was how the enthusiastic Asari embraced them straight through their armour.


	3. Chapter 3

"Captain Tezrin reports that _Stalker_ has restored her shields and has full engine power. _Bombard_ is standing by at reserve power but has sufficient energy for full combat shielding-Captain Turla will recover from his injuries, but Tezrin remains in command of the squadron for now. Shall he bring the squadron into planetary orbit, Captain?"

"Yes, affirm that Captain Tezrin should bring the ships into orbit. We will form a defensive formation here in orbit. Forward me the list of killed and wounded on _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ as soon as is practical."

Tanda stepped over to Commander Rhae. "Commander, go ahead and have us stand down to Condition Two. I want you to establish a bridge rotation without me for the next several days."

"Captain?" Two sets of blue eyes from profoundly different worlds-Rhae was one of Tarkin's old men who should have been a Captain years ago, just like Tanda thought she should have been made an Admiral—met in an uncomfortable moment. They had, before, trusted each other. Now, however, her XO was prospectively questioning her authority and wisdom in a completely unanticipated situation. And she needed that to end.

"Commander. I have to establish control over the entire squadron. For the moment, I might as well be the flag officer—until we receive further assignment, of course. And I am growing concerned that will not occur for a while. Come with me." She gestured and headed to a briefing room behind the bridge, one of the orderlies presenting steaming hot kaff which she picked up in a navy mug and held while standing. The holoprojector was activated.

"The Unknown Regions?" Rhae stiffened, imagining the countless permutations of trapped they might be.

"If only it were so," she gestured with the mug, "then Companion Besh should be visible to astrogation from an angle- _here_. It isn't. So, we're doing more scanning, but, we may be _in_ one of the Companions."

"This is too large of a starscape for one of the Companions, Captain." He tensed imperceptibly, though Tanda felt it. "This is another galaxy."

"I'm glad you had the courage to say that before I had to," Tanda remarked diffidently. "Since normally that's considered a sign of madness."

"As the Captain says, but however improbable, when all other possibilities are removed..."

"Quite. And we were playing around with Gree toys at that base. Summon Director Asil for me, please, and perhaps we'll have some answers." She moved to sit. "And don't worry, Commander. I'm going to make you Captain of _Stalker_." She smiled.

Estwiler Rhae grinned back. "Thank you, Captain Pryl. I'll get Director Asil up here immediately. If they sent us here..."

"They should be able to send us back, given time, yes. While you're at it, contact the planet and instruct them to send the Planetary Governor, provisional or otherwise, to meet with me."

"I'll have the directive issued. Captain!" He saluted, turned on heel, and strode out of the briefing room.

Tanda guzzled her kaff shamelessly and looked at the galaxy in front of her. _But the aliens on the surface act like there are already humans here..._

Then the door hissed open. "Captain Pryl."

"Commandant Kessingon." She looked squarely at the ISB man. "You have some concerns?"

"I cannot access headquarters over the Holonet, Captain Pryl. I am alone, and the ranking ISB officer of the fleet."

Captain Pryl looked levelly back. Her hand shifted to her thigh. _The hold-out blaster. There._ "Commandant Kessingon, we believe it is because we are in another galaxy, thanks to the use of the Gree equipment that was under testing. Director Asil will be up shortly."

Kessingon moved to sit, and Tanda relaxed a bit. "Very well, Captain. I, indeed, have come to a similar conclusion, and I wish to share with you details of a project which may explain why the aliens on the surface know of humans. It's called Outbound Flight, and if there is any connection, we must be extremely wary."

"Why would an explanation for a mystery give us more concerns?"

"Outbound Flight had a large contingent of Jedi onboard, Captain. The first and principle enemy of the New Order."

Tanda rocked forward. "I...That would be very bad indeed, you're quite right." She reached the carafe to pour herself another cup of kaff. "I've sent for the Planetary Governor to obtain more information, which should resolve this for us."

The door trilled, and a droid reported, "Director Asil for the Captain."

"Send him in." Tanda decided that with no immediate threat from her security services, she'd involve them as closely as possible. She didn't need, nor want, dissension and disagreement and needed every talent she had, even the ISB.

The bedraggled looking Togruta research scientist presented himself with a bow and a flourish. "Captain, Commandant. May I sit?"

"Please do, Doctor-Director," Tanda answered formally. "I sent the full scandoc from astrogation for your personnel to review..."

"And review it we have. We're in another galaxy, it's so. It's well within the capability of the Gree technology that we were studying."

"Excellent news," _Thunderflare_ 's Captain met the bedraggled eyes of the predator across from her and added an inflection of sarcasm. "That said, for all my frustration with the failure to meet the objective of a smooth translation to the coordinates of the Empress Teta system, I will give you everything need to get us back."

"What we need are a vast trained workforce of millions of highly skilled engineers and technicians. We will need extensive factories and fabricators. We will need to begin from first principles."

Captain and ISB-man alike sagged in their chairs. "Where in the fifty hells am I to find that, Director?"

"That's for you, Captain. But if you can give it to me, I can get us home, absolutely."

Kessingon and Tanda exchanged a look like they rather wished to eliminate the Togruta, but he was just too useful. They could go from having a long shot at returning home to none at all... That was blatantly obvious. She sighed. "Very well. We will try to find it. Is there any other alternative?"

He leaned forward, clasped his hands together. "Ah, so you ask, Captain. Maybe. Gree-they like fixed installations. Our technology was copied from an ancient fixed installation the Imperial contingent supervising the Gree gained access to. If the Gree have been here before... It may be a simple repair of an existing gate."

"Any idea where that would be?"

"No, Captain. Just speculation that it even exists at all."

"Well, thank you for it. It gives us two avenues to pursue. If I could find any evidence of where a Gree gate might be, we could employ our probots to localize it. Otherwise... Perhaps these other humans will be of assistance. Perhaps even these aliens."

Director Asil was silent as the two humans exchanged a sharp glance at each other. Then, with Pryl's nod, he beat his retreat.

Tanda started quietly reviewing the casualty reports. One ISD-II, _Stalker,_ her bridge tower half-wrecked. _Thunderflare_ , an ISD-I, only eighty casualties aboard. One VSD-II, _Bombard,_ and one _Bayonet_ -class Light Cruiser, _Rintonne's Flame_. Overloaded with starfighters evacuated from the platform and the pickets. Thousands of slain in battle. But they had enough spare parts to make the repairs this time. Deploying this force in battle she could level entire sectors' worth of aging hulks with mass drivers like the ones they had just fought.

 _And then, we will run out of spare parts. They will launch guerrilla raids like the Rebels. Our casualties will not be replaced. Their casualties will. They will build new starfighters in remote systems, they will attack us with old freighters. We will destroy them again and again, we will vaporise their cities and slash their improvised fleets to cinders. They will keep coming back. They will bomb our stormtroopers on the surface from civilian vehicles. When we stop to inspect ships, they will explode with anti-matter. We will have no reserves, no reinforcements to concentrate against them. The harder you try to clench sand into your fist, the faster it slips away._

She looked up, bleary-eyed, at the wall. _How did the Emperor last so long, then?_ Heresy, but the Emperor was dead. The Emperor was dead and she might not even ever receive a command bearing the sigils of the Azure Hammer again, of Central Command, let alone of Sate Pestage. She was alone, and she was in command.

Her eyes widened. _He had Lord Vader. The Force. You know what you have to do._ It was almost like someone else was speaking to her. But it strengthened her resolve.

An alarm interrupted her grim reverie. A minor one. She reached over and activated the comm channel. "Go ahead, Commander."

"Captain Pryl... The colony doesn't _have_ a Planetary Governor."

Tanda grimaced. "Was the planetary governor killed by the pirate raid? No standard procedure for replacing him?"

"No, Sir. They... say that they don't have a government. Or any politicians. They... use 'net chat rooms to debate and vote on everything. The closest thing we've found is that... each farming village elects a head of the militia... but each village has its' own militia." It sounded like Rhae was having profound trouble even grasping the concept, himself.

"This is ridiculous. Is there a _System_ Governor?"

"... No, and in fact, Captain, the fifth planet isn't even under the same regime as the inner planets. There appears to be no organised government at all. They debate in their 'net rooms... And then agree to obey the decision."

"And I thought my father's stories of the Republic before His Majesty's elevation as Chancellor were terrifying. I see. Well, then. Tell them I want them to elect someone to come aboard the _Thunderflare_ to represent their people. It is against the dignity of an officer of the Empire to discuss affairs of state in a Holonet Chat Room!"

"Yes, Captain. I will make it clear that this is..."

"Not a request."

"Not a request. I would save such a threat for if they refuse, Captain. They are fractious, and may refuse simply because such a statement is made."

"Thank you for the advice, proceed as you see fit, then."

"Thank you, Captain. Commander Rhae, out."

Tanda rubbed her face, and pushed herself to her feet. The kaff was wearing off. _Sleep_. She went to her sea cabin and fell in all-standing.

And in a few hours, she was slapping Tygellian rosewater across her face to wake up, uniform hanging open as she reached for another jacket that wasn't rumpled. They had apparently spent all of those hours in debate, based on the report, but they _had_ elected someone. Her servitor droid was waiting with the kaff, and she drank it as she crossed the bridge floor to a snapping of salutes. It was a deceptively normal day on the _Thunderflare_.

It was one of the blue alien women in armour, if something that seemed to define _shape_ quite so much could be called armour. She had presented herself at the cantonments of the Legionary landing forces on the ground, hopping out of a hovercar. There was a Lambda-class shuttle waiting, with a small guard of stormtroopers who sat in silence for the ride up.

Their guest was quiet, perfectly silent, while in turn the Stormtroopers looked facelessly back. Observing, too. The Stormtroopers followed her straight up to the meeting room near the bridge via turbolift as Tanda finished freshening herself up and Commandant Kessingon arrived and settled in along with a bevy of other officers from her command staff. The perspective to a foreigner would be incredible: The Aurebesh writing everywhere, scurrying 'droids underfoot and alongside, right up to the gleaming golden one that waited inside the briefing room with a pseudohumanoid form. The sheer mass of the enormous size of the crew, continuously busy everywhere with their assigned duties.

And the Imperial officers, fixating one and all upon the sort of holo-gauntlet she was tapping at as she entered. Not hiding anything... just allowing herself to be led into the room. They were an odd race: The woman was dark skinned, nearly purple, with patterns on her face, some of which looked a lot like eyebrows. Then they were face to face. The Asari could see, at one end of the table, a woman. Her chair and decor had the same crisp minimalism as the rest of the ship; her features were possessed of pleasant blonde hair, blue-gray eyes. Fit, though with a somewhat roundish peasant face. Sharply braided hair. Gray uniform as the rest with just the single board of coloured squares and some metal cylinders, unpretentious, functionalist by the standards of human military uniforms.

Tanda smiled. "I am Captain Tanda Pryl, Elrood Sector Force commanding. You are?"

"Matriarch Jalessa V'Lasi." She crossed her arms under her breasts and looked... somewhat impressed, really, if their facial expressions were at all similar. And they certainly seemed so, as pretty as they were. "I've seen humans, but nothing like what you got. How many secret groups running around outside government control with their own fleets of ships does the Alliance have, Captain?" By this point, the translation from the protocol droid was seamless.

"We're not members of the Rebel Alliance and if those are the only humans you know of then you're in for quite the surprise!" Tanda nearly got out of her seat as her eyes flared in shock and anger, and Commandant Kessingon paled. The protocol droid reflexively cowered.

"Don't hurt me, I'm just the messenger! She said the _Alliance!_ "

Tanda sank back down into her chair. "This region of space was uncharted to us recently, Matriarch V'Lasi, but if there are rebel terrorists here that explains a great deal, particularly the prevalence of piracy." _You don't need to know just what I know about where we are_.

"Whoawhoawhoa, Rebel Alliance? No, I meant the Systems Alliance... you know, the government all of you humans are supposed to belong to? Not that that matters out here in the Terminus Systems... isn't any law or central governments out here. I thought that's why you were here. You some sort of break-away and splinter group? We'll pay you as best we can for your help, and not tell the Council about you if that's what you want, fair is fair..."

Tanda's eyes glinted. "I am a commander of a sector fleet of the Galactic Empire. I do not need to be paid to establish Order in a system."

A blink. The Asari Matriarch didn't audibly respond to that.

Tanda took the opportunity to smile neatly. "Now look, we did arrive here using an experimental derivative of old hypergate technology. I expect that we're in the Unknown Regions and overshot our primary destination-But it will only take us a few months for our scouts to reestablish contact with Imperial Centre."

"There was clearly ancient contact between our peoples or we would not have your languages in our protocol databases. In the meanwhile I will need to requisition supplies for the fleet forces, but we have no need for money."

The woman started, and her eyes widened as she had encountered something new, something genuinely new, something that was the first genuinely new thing in a very long time. She spent a while looking around the room, shaking her head, and then began to speak. "... Oh you poor dear, you are lost, like in a bad holovid, aren't you... you're not a mad cultist, I met one of those before, and he ranted way more... really, this is way too..." She glanced at the droid that was translating for her, and it quizzically looked back. "This is way too convincing to be anything else."

She tapped her... hologauntlet, to bring up a map of the galaxy. "You're in Mil, in the Sigurd's Cradle cluster-human homeworld is over past the Attican traverse-Sol, I think they call it...? ...Dearie, you are lost or insane, and five hundred years means I think you're lost."

Tanda had almost been on the verge of exploding at being ... _matronized_ so much by the Matron. Then her last two sentences brought a chill across the room. A very particular kind of chill. "There is no human homeworld, Matriarch, it's lost in the mists of time," Tanda stared at her... And knew she was telling the truth, abruptly, inside. About everything.

She stiffened, then made herself relax for the benefit of her officers. "A lot of people think it is Imperial Centre, formerly called Coruscant, but it isn't. I'm an educated, cosmopolitan woman, I know that much. Nobody knows the original homeworld of humanity. Just that humanity originally started spreading through our, _our,_ " a wave around her, "home galaxy from its origination as the Thirteen Battalions of Zhell on Coruscant. Which at the time was called Notron, I might add."

"That isn't our galaxy..." Lieutenant Scolus, who hadn't already been briefed, was trembling, realising for the first time what Tanda and Commander Rhae had already figured out.

Tanda settled back in her chair, calming herself and steepling her gloved hands. "Yes it is," she answered Lieutenant Scolus. "Oh yes, this is our galaxy. This is _our_ Galaxy." She looked levelly at the Asari. "You're not stupid. Does that world 'Sol' have a full genetic ecosystem related to humans?"

"... I've been around a few times. Yes, we can feed you. Asari and humans can eat the same food-my niece even paired with one, they've got a wonderful daughter, but-if you want to stay here for a while, Captain, you can. You showed off those Blood Pack vultures well enough, and fair's fair."

"No, sorry. I meant Sol. Matriarch, is it—fossil record, genome, related species?" Tanda's eyes were gleaming, and her command staff was starting to follow her line of thinking, shifting and glancing at each other.

"... Sol? Fossil record and everything, yeah, I remember when we contacted them. It's definitely the human homeworld..."

Tanda leapt to her feet. "That's the homeworld of humanity! Here! We've found it! We arrived in the Prime Galaxy through a Gree hypergate at least, and probably a lot more than thirty-five thousand years ago then—that settles it! Gentlemen, we have just become the first humans to rediscover our homeworld since the founding of the Republic."

She sank down into her chair to the looks of shocked and stunned disbelief and excitement from her officers, and capped it off. "And I only have astrophysicists along for the ride!" Tanda laughed. "Where are all those bloody useless archaeologists and historians when you need them?" It broke the tension; the other men laughed and roared.

The Matriarch settled down, watching. And, quietly, using her Omnitool to record it all.

"Shouldn't we be contacting this Systems Alliance, then?" One of the officers spoke. "It's the native government of humanity in this galaxy, of our ur-World. For as long as we're stuck here, we should be working to assist them and to introduce the tenets of the New Order."

"No-We take the Matriarch's offer," Tanda answered after a moment. She had her good reasons, and they passed between her and Commandant Kessingon in a single glance. _Outbound Flight_. "We will want to conduct a full reconnaissance to determine the wisdom of contacting their government. For the moment, we are however the emissaries of the New Order here, and we must conduct ourselves accordingly and not be-hasty-with our... Family reunion."

"Please, Matriarch, we will cooperate with you and your people fully. We will need space to install our prefabricated garrison base on the planet, but other than that we will tread lightly, and assist you in your defensive needs." She settled her hands onto the table. "Ultimately, we may go on our way to this Systems Alliance, but we should like to-learn a great deal about where we find ourselves, first."

"In the meantime, piracy, smuggling, terrorism, and internecine raids in this region of space will come to an end."

V'Lasi took a breath as she finished listening to the translation. "Space is something we have... just, well, be careful. Terpso, the last planet is... sort of a neutral ground, so everyone from the Terminus comes to meet there. Criminals, warlords, Terminus governments... they mostly just mine Helium-3 out of the gas giant, even so. We've got uranium telepresence mining on Lisir, the second planet, and terraforming going on in Mylasi and Selvos. It'll take a few centuries, but, it's a good investment in the future... if you're plotting... okay, look, the Citadel doesn't bring order to the Terminus because every species in it would unite and make it an utter mess. You want to carve out an isle of stability, fine, but you're getting in a lot of trouble if you do."

She grumbled. "Just the sort of thing to make far too many wild-eyed maidens think to join you in it, too."

Tanda bit at her lip... Then smiled a bit. "I am not a fool, Matriarch. We will be conducting reconnaissance, as I said. The more information you share, the bigger. But I don't intend to permit this sort of-ridiculous scum-from further causing trouble. If your 'Maidens' want to join us, I can use the recruits."

Kessingon's eyes widened in shock.

Tanda pointed her index finger at the protocol droid and made a chopping motion across her neck, and then looked levelly at the ISB man. "We will co-opt and rule, exactly as humanity does at home. Clear?"

"Very well, Captain."

Tanda turned back to the Matriarch, and smiled brightly, waving with her other arm to the still-cowering droid. Translation resumed. "Shall we get down to the details, then...?"


	4. Chapter 4

Kesalia Sevaras was afraid she was the only Twi'lek in this entire galaxy. Twi'leks in Imperial service were not common, and rarer still as officers, even as a Lieutenant from a sectoral academy. Oh sure, she was the junior officer of the ship life-support systems maintenance staff and spent most of her time overseeing droid maintenance techs, who got away with more disrespect toward her than any other officer on the ship would countenance to _dream_ of tolerating. But she was in the Imperial Starfleet, and no other Twi'lek in the whole sector force.

Even then she owed her career to the mysterious machinations of her commanding officer. Tanda was rich, Tanda was intellectual, and Tanda was obsessed with her private theory of the force and fascinated with the end of the Jedi. And as a reward for providing a few more clues down her path of exploration, Kesalia had been feted as the perfect alien, provided a slot at a sectoral academy by Tanda's family connections, and given a respectable job of the kind most Twi'lek women could only dream of.

But Kesalia knew that her boss was playing a very dangerous game, and had included her in on it by their mere shared existence. Unlike the other officers of the fleet, she had breathed a quiet sigh of relief when the Emperor died. Force users didn't like competition, and Tanda, with her refusal to give herself up and join the Inquisitorate, had been competition. By extension, so had she.

The ending of that chronic terror shared between herself and her benefactor was so anticlimactic as to be silly. While the other Star Destroyers had disintegrated in chaos at Endor, Kesalia had found herself interpreting orders for engineering from the bridge, Tanda cool and confident where the other Starship Captains were disorganized and confused, and indeed most of the crew too, in the strange lassitude following the Emperor's death. _Thunderflare_ had flitted everywhere, fighting hard in the rear-guard and getting off unscathed compared to the rest despite her effort.

For all that, the galaxy seemed slightly safer afterward, at least for people like her. Kesalia could imagine Tanda going far. Then they had been wrenched out of it, and they were alone. In a place where the men were eager for shore leave on a planet of nothing but blue women, and where there were most assuredly absolutely not any other Twi'leks.

 _Will we really ever go home?_ Tanda had been much too busy to have any of the usual meetings with her adepts, and the thought plagued Kesalia as she went to the officer's mess. As she placed her order with the droids and orderlies behind the counter and moved to find a table, a bombastic conversation reached her ears.

"Well now we know what happens when a sexually transmitted disease evolves for long enough! Loathesome, isn't it? The men are all stark raving mad for them, and if the information from their version of the holonet is accurate, women should be _too_." He was green eyed with sandy hair and sideburns, sitting sprawled at a booth in the officer's mess with chairs scattered around filled with men, listening with varying degrees of focus.

 _Lieutenant Commander Eustus_. Kesalia sighed and slunk over to her table, the food brought up quickly. It was good, at least. To preserve the tastes of home, over the past weeks, they had already started serving Asari food from the planet below them, so every day was a new culinary surprise.

The man continued to pontificate as Kesalia tucked a blue lekku out of the way and adjusted her cap for the appropriateness of her uniform. They had received some limited assistance in the repairs to _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ and a steady stream of information from the Asari, who seemed to have no idea of how to hide information nor interest in doing so. They had all been browsing a broad Codex of galactic information and access to the planetary 'net had been achieved, though under strict ISB censorship. This, of course, did nothing at all to prevent rumours from freely circulating. The voting had been in favour of welcoming and providing assistance to the force, the criminal gangs were suitably intimidated by their presence in the system, and Mil had taken on a certain kind of carnival atmosphere, even as the bases were established on the surface which would hold the planet against even a major offensive back home, two interlocking theatre shields defended by fields of planetary turbolaser and ion cannon fire.

But their minds had been opened to other things, too, the potentials and dangers of a new universe. And it was this aspect of the events of the past weeks which had seized the Lt. Commander now ranting in the mess. "Parasites, you see. They have sex with us. What happens? They give birth to an Asari! Not even a half-human or a pseudohuman. They seek out, exclusively, other species' men and women alike. They take from us our best and most adventurous, breed with them-and produce only Asari. The human genome dies out, the human spark dies out. What is left is blue clay splattered with the imprint of what had before been a vibrant human lineage. It's far worse than any other kind of alien imaginable."

He gestured to Kesalia, and she stiffened. "Look at her," he continued, "She can live among us. She might have half-breed children with one of us. Men lust after her species. But in the end, she is part of the Empire, and mostly, especially the responsible ones like the Lieutenant, they marry in their own kind, have their own children. The Asari are as attractive as Twi'leks, but with a sinister chemical element, a subversive design to make them attractive to anyone, regardless of one's natural inclinations! And then they predate on the very foundation of your mind to reproduce, and leave you with nothing to show for it. You fall in love, you grow old, and your genome dies out."

"They're parasites, I say, and the Captain's strategy, while it's good with normal aliens, is dangerous when we're dealing with parasites. These new Asari we are to admit as brevet officers and as enlisted personnel into the fleet to fill our personnel gaps – that's dangerous. That's what they want. To wipe humanity out by parasitizing upon us, you see. They'll become, if reintroduced to the home galaxy, in short order the biggest threat humanity has known since the Hutts, and are a mortal threat to the survival of our homeworld. If we're going to have nonhuman allies, we should seek out ones that will never pose a threat to the survival of humanity."

Kesalia, relieved and guilty at once, turned away and back to her food. She knew better than to intervene in the noncommittal agreements of the crew with some idle talk of a kind which might as well be hullplate from a COMPNOR rally and was a fact of life for any alien growing up in the Empire. Most of them didn't really care, though the ISB man who wrote it up might be more sympathetic than usual to political grumblings of the crew, as it would dovetail with what she imagined was his own ideology. A twisted thought did come to mind, though. _Maybe_ ** _I_** _should date an Asari, at least then my kids would be blue like me._ For her it only drove home the fact she was the only Twi'lek in the entire galaxy.

And then everyone shut up as the Captain went breezing into the Mess. It was the size of a spacious and well appointed large restaurant, and still frequently crowded, but it did not take long at all for the knowledge that _Thunderflare_ 's Temporal Lord and Master had arrived to spread to every table, Not At All. Of course, there was no rank in the mess, but the conversation quieted a bit nonetheless.

She headed to Kesalia's table with a precious snifter of Corellian Brandy. "Lieutenant. I was going to hunt you down over the formal channels, but since we're both here, I wanted to let you know that I am sending you down to the planet to take charge of security at the Mils Capital Military-Civilian Spaceport. You'll have a full detachment of Stormtroopers for starship inspections, and I want you to keep an eye out for other things as well."

"Captain, I'm honoured for an independent duty. Thank you for telling me in person."

"You did very well at Endor with your work in engineering when the crew was incapacitated in the wake of the news of our Emperor's death. I believe that demonstrates the responsibility required, and justifies this small reward, when the circumstances prevent me from recommending you for any other." A few of the other officers shot looks, but Tanda maintained her level and confident expression.

"I will work to uphold your trust in me, Captain Pryl. Thank you kindly." Kesalia kept eating, wondering what the Captain was getting at.

"Commander Eustus," Tanda glanced over. "I'd heard your line of conversation earlier. I just want to say that I have my own concerns about the Asari, but their relations with the Salarians for so long suggest that they can be managed without becoming a contagion. So, I will be trying to counterbalance them by recruiting others into the Imperial service and securing associateships with other planets in these 'Terminus' clusters to avoid trusting one race or nation to our survival. It's exactly that same principle that's why we're settling down here for now instead of working immediately to introduce the New Order to the Systems Alliance."

"You think there will be opposition to that, Captain?" The officers drew closer around her.

"Oh, certainly," Tanda answered. "As the 'net access shows, the Asari style of unrestricted democracy has been propagated inside the Systems Alliance, and they're enamoured with first contact with other species. How we first got to the Prime Galaxy, it's clear, is a matter of mystery-there seems to be no record of a prehistoric spacefairing civilisation on Earth-but it is clear that the current human civilisation regards aliens with a kind of unblushing fascination our ancestors never had."

"Why do you suppose that is, Captain?"

"To be honest, those ancient mystical legends of prehistoric Empires fighting over our galaxy seem more honest now. We don't know who built Centrepoint Station, for instance. And, well, we're here because of the Gree. A Gree connection is favoured speculation. I would say our ancestors were brought as slaves, and we proved rather harder to keep in that status than, say, a bunch of Wookiees. There is no dishonour in the founding myth of our civilisation turning out to be a slave revolt. It shows what an unquenchable thirst for freedom we have—the very kind of freedom our late Emperor restored to our civilisation and provided to us, He who restored to the people of the galaxy their liberty and bread and delivered us from the kleptocracy and corporate feudalism of the late Republic. Now, perhaps, our spirit has come full circle with this opportunity to offer a counterbalance to demagoguery and majoritarian politics in the Systems Alliance. But it's too early to tell."

Kesalia knew that the 'we' did not include Twi'leks, or her. She smiled nonetheless. It was, even she recognized, a bit of propaganda for the sake of propaganda. A stirring speech for men who cared about such things, and a reassurance that the _de rigeur_ was still in effect to the ISB men who would invariably get their hands on the conversation. "So, Captain, we will stay here and build the New Order?" She dared ask.

"Why, yes, Lieutenant, that's exactly it. We will be building an example of what we can offer to the Systems Alliance, so that we can win over the masses of humanity, unite the races of the Terminus systems under our guidance."

She smiled wryly, and for a moment, Kesalia almost felt Tanda was guilty over the words. But then she was done with her meal, and until she received her formal redeployment orders, had to prepare for duty.

 ********************

"Lying on Imperial forms is a serious offence." The introduction to the service had not been as enthusiastic as one might have hoped. But Kesea Avera owed her life to the Empire, and she had navigated the bizarre and impolite questions about her prior background as an exotic dancer with aplomb. The officer at the garrison base had seemed bemused and perhaps inclined to refuse her, until her medical had shown her biotics potential. Then, the next day, it had been a shuttle ride from the planet to the _Thunderflare_... Some Asari obsessed with starship design would probably sign up for twenty years of service just to get onboard of her.

...And there she found herself face to face with the ship's Captain, the Imperial commander. She only barely recognized the woman, though, as the dark-skinned human ensign who had led her took her a secured chamber nestled deep in the droid maintained sections of the stores' holds, and revealed Captain Pryl dressed in white lightweight sparring costume, hair pinned back, looking confident and light on her feet. "Ah, Miss Avera. We saw your interest in volunteering with the Imperial Forces. I personally was greatly fascinated by your varied background-Lawyer, security guard, nightclub dancer. And combat militiawoman in the recent fracas, too. But the lawyer part rates you the potential to be an officer. Please sit." She gestured to a small line of chairs on one wall.

Kesea gave the woman something of a quizzical look, and sat. This was not at all a normal indoc for military service. "Well, Captain, I didn't think I'd managed to stand out _that_ much yet. I was thinking I'd try ten, twenty years and see if it was something I liked, no loss if it's not, and your people seem interesting enough. Saved us too, so, why not?"

"The Imperial service is a serious commitment to law and order in the universe. There is a great deal of law and order lacking from this region of space, which will keep us busy upholding that commitment for the foreseeable future." A thin smile. "There is, in fact, one way you stand out from a typical Imperial recruit that is especially interesting. Tell me about biotics, from your own perspective. Tell me _everything_ about biotics. How do you access the wellspring of this power?" Her voice flitted with a higher sort of air at wellspring, as if addressing the mystical.

"... Uhm? We're born with it... Captain Pryl? All Asari are, aside from a very few with genetic mutations. We draw it from... well, within ourselves? Energy doesn't come from nothing, so I'd need more rations if you expected me to be using my abilities a lot." The question had put her on edge from when it was being asked. She was being led somewhere, and the unfamiliarity with biotics was almost startling. The Empire had shared little information in return, and everyone had just assumed they had biotics.

Tanda was frowning at Kesea's response. "Within yourself, you say? You don't feel the current of life throughout the entire universe?"

"No, that's just not related to biotics at all, Captain. Asari have element zero nodules throughout our nervous system... when energized by the brain's electrical impulses, we can generate mass effect fields. Other races, they only get biotic abilities on rare occasions from in-utero exposure to eezo dust." She shifted about in the chair uncomfortably. The conversation about something physically quantified seemed entirely much too... Spiritual. "I mean, we believe in Siari, sure - universe is a consciousness, every life is an aspect of the greater whole, and death is merging spiritual energy back into the universal consciousness... but I've never really felt it."

"But you have just described the Force, Miss Avera." Tanda took a breath and concentrated. Kesea and her chair started to float up off the ground, wavering and unsteady, but she was floating nonetheless. "Some people are naturally born with this talent in our galaxy. It is fickle, found in the quiet places of the galaxy, in places where life is hard and where one must turn to one's inner passions and emotions for the power to survive. In the region we call the Outer Rim-that is where the famous practitioners of the Force have come from."

"... I... don't... think... that's... you aren't glowing." She wasn't weirded out by the floating, but the Captain's tone of voice and the lack of the tell-tale signs of biotics _were_ troubling. "I don't feel the distortion flutter either..."

"There most assuredly is nothing like that in the Force. I had hoped biotics and the Force were linked." She lowered Kesea back down very cautiously. "But it would appear not so. The total absence to the Force in all references in your galaxy made me wonder, greatly, about the nature of biotic powers."

Kesea took a breath. _Might as well start to explain to her how this works. So many scientists would be killing for the opportunity to study what_ she _just did._ "May I? I have enough control to make this safe."

"Certainly." Tanda smiled wanly. "It's what I brought you here for, Miss Avera. Commence."

She settled herself on the ground, braced herself, and made a gesture, and all it took was that gesture. Concentrating through the motion of the body, blue tendrils lit up, tracing around her arms and body. Kesea knew the Captain would be feeling a sudden surge of weightlessness as Tanda... floated up into the air, though Kesea was in fact producing a second cancelling gravitational force from above.

"Flashier." The Imperial Captain was grinning brightly, and her next question was vaguely sly. "Do you think you have a good hold on me?"

Kesea frowned. _Holding?_ "Maybe... Somewhat. This method is not meant for holding—so I'd rather not."

"Fair enough, I won't test it then."

 _I also don't want to upset her._ "If you wish, I can attempt to hold you."

"It's all right. We will have plenty of time later, Kesea." She looked down coolly at the blue tendrils around her, then frowned. "Or, yes, go ahead and try your best. Not just hold, but whatever you would do in your powers to nonlethally restrain someone."

"This may be unpleasant for you Captain..." she saw the expression on Tanda's face and shut up. "All right." She released the human woman, allowing normal gravity back into full effect-and then she made a motion, a strong aura of concentration emanating out from her... and Kesea proceeded to slap a stasis field onto the captain. The Asari watched the human frozen in place, in a world of mud without her own ability to act. Then the field would fade away, a quarter of a minute on. Kesea was wreathed in sweat, this much biotics already posing a strain.

Tanda shook out her wrists, frowning. "Now, I insist, try to do it again."

The voice brooked no dissent. Kesea stared at her for a moment. _I hope this isn't a fetish_. "As you say, Captain, I will do it." She concentrated to reimpose the stasis field.

Suddenly, her target wasn't there. Kesea nearly fell over from the abrupt loss of the target to direct her anchored power into.

Tanda exploded out of the way of the forming stasis field, arcing into a pirouette through the air of the training room that seemed impossibly high, Kesea's eyes trying to track as every combat instinct screamed that it was much too fast... While a small cylinder leapt out of an alcove and flew through the air.

Igniting with a snap-hiss, a gleaming red energy blade was abruptly at Kesea's neck as Tanda stood there holding the chromed cylindrical instrument, having escaped from the very moment of the stasis.

"Excellent. There is sufficient warning," she grinned.

"... of... course there is..." She was holding herself very still, looking at the energy blade humming without heat next to her neck, feeling genuine fear. It seemed to bemuse Captain Pryl. "There is a mosaic of powers that must be used in combat, else your enemy will soon find a counter..." She swallowed, eyes watching... whatever that terrifying thing was.

Tanda made a small gesture, deactivating the blade, and then with a toss of her hand sent the cylinder flying back to gently land without a noise in its alcove, clearly slowing as it arrived, under control the whole while.

"We will give you a commission as an Imperial Officer, Kesea, as a Lieutenant. You will not speak to anyone without my permission about what we discussed in this room or more precisely what you saw here. You will begin your training immediately-I will let you choose your preference in field of service and specialization. But for now—for now, your primary function is as an adjunct to Me, to assist me in fully understanding biotics and help make sure that I can keep my people safe from them as they are used in the hands of our prospective enemies."

"... Okay, well, Captain, just so you know, we talked about it on the 'net, so there's going to be a bunch after me, I just got elected to be the test case... Captain?" She had a rising tone to her voice, trying to reflect how she was both a bit put out and nervous over the entire display and the curious instructions. "I mean. Certainly that's a fine job, that's what we asari get hired for all the time, being biotic support."

"I don't want you all for your biotics, Kesea. I need regular serving officers and enlisted in every branch." She smiled gently. "But I need someone to teach me how to defend myself against this power, and as the first and one of the best, that shall be your job."

Stretching out, the woman went to one side of the training room, opening a door. "Attrition will be an issue for our forces, but we will have to organise Imperial crews for captured vessels and so on in time to increase our strength. I have decided to bring order to the region. Slavers, pirates and smugglers need to be exterminated."

Kesea shook her head. "You do know they're all going... to attack you for it, right? Once they realize what you're intending? I mean... it's... noble and all, but... Exterminate? _All_ of them?"

"The independent statelets, the pirate gangs in the Terminus Systems?" Tanda laughed. "We don't need to be afraid of them. You will see soon enough, Kesea Avera, what this squadron can do. Now let's hit the sonic shower, we're both soaked with sweat."

"...Sonic shower...? Why not a real one?" She decided it was, having been hired, quite inappropriate to further question her Captain's commands. And this woman gave off a slightly malevolent air.

"The Empire prides itself on a certain kind of minimalistic efficiency. Sonic showers are very efficient. You'll see that efficiency at work in other areas, soon enough."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

 _Hair isn't a Asari concern._ It was a bemused thought as Tanda her own into order and started with the regular Imperial officer's braid. Over the past few weeks she'd become thoroughly convinced that, no, the Asari really were pretty much just a bunch of blue females. No wonder the men like them so much. _'Monogendered'. They reproduce with us. It has my ISB and COMPNOR people so upset. About as attractive as Rutian twi'leks... But the HuMan culture men are calling them parasites. Hrmm._ And, of course, admittedly, _yes, they are pretty attractive to anyone._

Kesea had promised her recruitment goals would be reached from the Mils system alone, and it was mostly coming true. They were people at the end of employment contracts, or whose farms didn't work out. The Asari were curious, and the idea of a parastatal authority imposing order in the Terminus systems fascinated them. Conversely, it seemed nobody believed they were telling the truth about their origins. Most people assumed to believe they were a human splinter faction, despite the evidence to the contrary. It had grown more irksome the longer it lasted.

Then the trivial things, like issuing the provisional order exempting the Asari from wearing uniform hats. That one led to the current conversation with Kesea, who had settled into serving as one of Tanda's flag lieutenants-and she needed those now. Her uniform bore the tenuously defensible promotion to Commodore, which allowed her to assert squadron authority from a somewhat removed height. The rank was an automatic courtesy promotion in certain situations. It would stick back home, in light of what had happened, she was sure, assuming Oxtroe hadn't already done it based on her last communique.

But the conversation at hand was about something else entirely, and Kesea's words drew her back into sharp focus. "...I see. Human biomedical knowledge is relatively common among Asari?"

"They've spread themselves out quickly! Less than a century and already spreading like mad... and we take enough mates from them to be able to look up the information if we wish," Kesea replied avidly. The two were in the turbolift after another sparring session, heading back to Tanda's office.

"Yes, that is an interesting subject, taking human mates." _And humanity is very effective even here, that much is clear. I wonder what took so long for the technology to catch up, though._ "I am not against it, but some people," she remarked in a turbolift, "Find the idea of... So many Asari fraternizing with humans to be problematic. Humans, after all, need to reproduce themselves, too. Though in the case of this force it is overwhelmingly male so I am going to dismiss these concerns vigorously; humanity is healthy here, clearly, and my men would just upset the balance of local human colonies."

Kesea frowned. The subject was straying into grounds of humanocentrism she'd noticed repeatedly from others, and it was another worrying observation to see Tanda shared some of it. "Well, it will not be so common forever. It has just become quite the fad to take humans as mates, given their vitality."

"A fad. My species is a fad." Tanda pursed her lips. "Humanity in our home galaxy has been in space for... Thirty thousand years, give or take, Kesea."

Tanda cleared her throat, and finally said it explicitly: "We are the dominant species of the entire galaxy."

"... Huh. I wonder how that could have happened? I mean, they're... You're... tough..." Kesea pursed her lips, and tried to imagine thirty thousand years of spacefairing history. Even the Protheans hadn't had that. "Well. We treasure the time we have with our mates, as we outlive all of them but the krogan, and you'd have to be a bit deviant to mate with one of them."

Tanda laughed as she settled into her chair with kaff waiting, shaking her head freely and ruefully at having to imagine a human and a Krogan. "Sounds about as loathesome as sleeping with a Hutt. Yes, you're very fortunate with your lives. My family has had the maximum legal life extension treatments and with proper medical care I could live to about," she did the conversion; fortunately it was very similar to Coruscant, "Two hundred Sol years, give or take, with certainty of mental health."

"Otherwise," Tanda continued, "most humans would be forced to retire from the military by a hundred and die around a hundred and twenty-but for my childhood, it was only the best."

"I'm already a hundred fifty, here." Kesea shrugged. "We have learned to take a longer view."

"Galactic civilisation is incredibly ancient." Tanda quietly rose again, and with a nod and holding her kaff, headed for the astrogation dome-to bring up the immense holographic projection of their home galaxy.

"Populate Imperial space," she ordered, and the dull red tint swept through the galaxy to the Empire's claimed territory, a vastness that coloured two-thirds of that immense spiral galaxy.

"Identify Sector Zero and home in." The galaxy shifted from view, and swept down toward a centrally located Core point, much further in than civilisation in Kesea's galaxy normally was, in this 'Milky Way'. It was choked with the names of planets.

Then - The Coruscant system. "Planetary view." ...The planet was a city. And that, Tanda knew, was not matched anywhere here.

The Asari woman stared, half in wonder, half aghast. "... That... seems insane. We'd never be able to ship in enough food; the human homeworld only has... twice the population of Thessia, I believe?"

"You will find in the core grainships which could make my Star Destroyer look like a shuttle craft." Her voice turned the words into a syrup, longing and evidencing the wonder that even in a hardened spacer the great core lanes could bring forth. "Imperial Centre is hardly the only ecumenopolis in the galaxy." Tanda hesitated a bit on the new name. It didn't have the same grandeur as the old. "Perhaps if we are able to return home someday, you will see them for yourself. There are in fact almost forty ecumenopoli in the Core."

"I was going to say, I'd love to see it... but you probably want to see it more."

"It would be nice. But I am realistic about the matter. I have started to adopt myself to the prospect of exile."

"... The idea of being exiled..." She shuddered. "... well, I suppose my people are useful in that way as well, then, Captain, easing that pain of loss."

"We have managed to avoid a rash of suicides. Careful information management, certainly the Asari presence also helps." She folded her hands on the railing. "The Empire was in the middle of a very grave crisis, but the loss of three ships to the battle-line will not materially alter the outcome. Here, we will plant the seed of what we believe, and I will demonstrate its efficacy in organising this area of space."

"... Well, as I've joined you, I hope you're right, Captain."

"I have no choice but to make myself right." She loaded the map of 'Milky Way', focused in on their position. "With _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ to defend the system, we will respond to the next relay reports of a pirate attack. The press will begin, and we will not let up until we have ended piracy in this region of space, permanently."

-

"Preparing for the reversion from hyperspace, Captain."

"Action Stations. Set Condition One throughout the ship."

"Chief, call Action Stations, Material Condition One throughout the ship!" Scolus repeated.

"Lieutenant aye sir!" The Chief spun toward the intercom and the familiar klaxon of the Imperial Starfleet began to sound as his perfectly stentorian voice came over the 1MC. "Action Stations, Action Stations. All Hands to Action Stations! Set Material Condition One throughout the ship! Up and forward to starboard, down and aft to port! Action Stations, Action Stations!"

Alarms trilled across the bridge, warning of the eminent reversion from hyperlight and joining the disciplined cacophony of the crew swinging out to Condition One. As the flicker of pseudomotion signalled their reversion, a ramshackle old squadron came up on sensors. One ship, the biggest, was barely a cruiser, the other ten frigates, orbiting a moon near the gas giant whose mass shadow had nearly triggered their grav field warnings before reversion.

"Time plus two minutes!"

"All bulkheads in critical sectors secure, Sir!"

"Shields. Set course for the gas giant, battle acceleration."

"Aye, Sir." The crew standing in their pits very crisply went about their duties as the Thunderflare accelerated. It was their first action of consequence since securing Mils, and with a base and a home behind them, against the enemies of this galaxy, confidence was very high.

"Time plus three minutes! Watches on reserve bridge and engineering controls set!"

"Time plus four minutes! All compartments secure!"

Tanda checked her chrono. "Very good. Commence launch of screening squadrons. Hold the rest of the wing in reserve." The Gree Research Base had been guarded by the latest model TIE Advanced and V38 fighters, and a squadron of each had survived the battle, now to be used as the chasers for dangerous duty close in against capital ships where their shields gave them a great advantage in resilience. They screamed out of the bay on their ion drives, pulling ahead of the already fast Star Destroyer.

Then Tanda opened a comms link on the usual open channel used in the Terminus systems, smirking whilst she did. She took a particular pleasure in this sort of reminder of Imperial authority. "Attention pirate brigands! This is the Imperial Star Destroyer _Thunderflare_. Surrender immediately or be vaporised."

About on par for the course even when back home, seeing the massive Star Destroyer bearing down on them, the piratical force at once turned tail and ran for it, driving hard toward the Mass Relay.

"Do we have the sublight turn to overtake them?" Straight line acceleration of a Star Destroyer was kind of terrifying, so Tanda expected they did, but she didn't want a futile pursuit if not.

"Yes, Captain, with plenty of reserve," Lieutenant Scolus confirmed after a moment.

"Helm: Pursuit. Lieutenant Scolus, scan the mining facilities in passing to see if there is any need for a landing force to control a raiding party. Fire Control, you have authority to commence the engagement as soon as you have the range."

 _Thunderflare_ could open fire at such a great range that the enemy appeared to see the hopelessness of their effort to reach the Relay almost immediately. As the power on the great Star Destroyer surged and flared and she fairly leapt through their sensor tracks, the pirates tried to turn back and burn in to engage. Even this was almost impossible. Tanda could choose the range of engagement, and as she saw them offering battle she folded her hands behind her back and smirked. Back home, the pirates and rebels rarely did this, and it was for good reason.

"They are offering battle. Excellent. Clear the main batteries. Shift fire to ion cannon only when we have them knocked about a bit. That cruiser may be worth something for planetary defence. Maybe." It had at least been quite good to prove that ion cannon disabled local electronics. She glanced over as Kesea strode to her side.

"Few people would want to serve on an old Batarian cruiser, Captain, but it would serve against many lesser pirates," she offered. "Shall we have Asari prepared to assist with the technology aboard in the boarding parties?"

"Yes, stand ready, assuming we shall get the opportunity." She turned to the fire control pit. "All batteries commence firing!"

Following the savage dictates of the laws of combat, the first target was the cruiser. _Thunderflare_ altered her course and raked her with both turbolaser and ion cannon fire at once. Hull crackling with blue lightning, the cruiser's mass driver fire fell wide as her thrusters started to misfire. A few shots were rejected by _Thunderflare_ 's shields, the creaking in the hull transmitted through the shield generators a familiar gentle sound to Tanda Pryl. The turbolasers ignored the particle shielding of the enemy, and the result was terrific. They cut through the cruiser's armour and vented compartments, air into plasma, bodies into carbon, with every shot that struck true.

Grimly, the frigates kept closing with the _Thunderflare_ , using her main battery fixation on the cruiser to clear the distance. The shields came under a sharp hail of fire, but their guns were very light. The medium and light batteries of the Star Destroyer were now hotly engaged, and space was light and wroth with green and red bolts, and status reports crisply echoed across the bridge. There was not the slightest sign of surrender from her enemies, and even Tanda shook her head, glanced to her Asari flag officer.

"Batarians are stubborn to yield, Commodore," Kesea offered simply. "But it is an execution—Sir."

"It is an execution," Tanda agreed grimly. "Of that there can be no doubt. Still, I need not be an _executioner_."

And almost exactly on time with that comment, the cruiser hove out of the line, disabled. "Shift fire!" Tanda instantly ordered. As a practical matter the frigates were nimble enough to essentially silence the main batteries at that point.

Before long a ragged line of disabled ships was struck across their path, with _Thunderflare_ slowing and all but her ion cannons, being used to keep the enemy beat down, having fallen silent.

Tanda stepped over to the controls that let her open a general comms channel again. She did not bother hiding that her spirit was flush with victory. "Are we perhaps now interested in surrenders?" Her voice lilted over the aether, and then holding the channel mute for a moment, was followed by orders that soon had them matching _v_ with a collection of disabled, spritzing darkened ships as her guns were laid in.

"Damn you, human!"

"Damned human I may be. Nonetheless, the New Order has arrived to establish law and prosperity in the Sigurd Cluster. You shall surrender at once or be destroyed, I repeat. My main batteries are laid in and you cannot manoeuvre. You are doomed."

... Something of an incoherent roar at her was the reply, and Tanda replied by snapping her fingers across her neck in a gesture more universal than humanity itself, the channel being cut off instantly.

"Comms, repeat my message to every one of the frigates. Let us see if all of his captains are as much of fools. Give me a detailed readout on that cruiser. I want to see if it's really worth the life of even a single stormtrooper—I am getting the impression that few things are, here!"

The sensor sweeps showed the crippled cruiser of marginal use, but also of such heavy casualties having been suffered by the enemy crew that her taking by spacetroopers would not be of great difficulty. Tanda held her fire. Of the frigates, six offered surrender. Four refused. For Tanda, that made the situation very simple.

"Secure the ships that have surrendered. We will destroy the other frigates as an example and then ask our erstwhile warlord if he is prepared to reconsider." And that was exactly what they did-secured the six surrendering frigates with stormtroopers-setting up Imperial ident codes, locking away the prisoners, getting some Asari onboard to advise them with the systems as recommended by Kesea, and supplying maintenance droids to assist them. The others... _Thunderflare_ 's guns were laid in, and she blasted them to atoms. Then the ISD-I turned back to the cruiser and asked the question again.

The cruiser surrendered.

"Let him stew his heels a bit once he is aboard—in one of the cell blocks, of course. There's no need for interrogations." She turned her attention to putting down garrisons and automated warning beacons, while sending her newly captured ships home... But her next target wasn't to return home. Instead it was her intention to use the mission to continue on to the Decoris System. Securing the allegiance of the Sanctum corporations was her primary objective in the near term, and the piracy suppression operation had given her a good pretext under which to act. Once that was done, the _Thunderflare_ could return and bring the fifth planet of Mil under Imperial control more decisively. She was not going to have a surviving squadron if she did not dare to expand, and expand she would. Terminus _would_ be brought to heel!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Their next target was a human colony system. This time there was no enemy to fight. It was instead the first move toward her objective. The system was as tumultuous as all the others they had dealt with so far. One set of farming colonies, multiple mining concerns. The Asari access to the extranet provided an almost ludicrous amount of common intelligence for their operations, and with the preponderance of force represented in _Thunderflare_ they had a level of confidence that had been impossible when operating against the Rebel Alliance.

Tanda had no reason to keep her approach a secret. "This is the Imperial Star Destroyer _Thunderflare_. I direct the people of this system to send immediately to _Thunderflare_ a selection of representatives able to negotiate for all independent organisations and make suitable arrangements for your protection by Imperial forces. You will come aboard in shuttles after confirming which system organisation you represent. These terms are not negotiable."

Tanda left the ship at Condition Two and retreated to her sea cabin for lunch. She let her comms officers deal with what would be an incredibly long set of bickering arguments from people who treated them more like pirates than professional officers. Her own men were left none too pleased by it, but with _Thunderflare_ lurking overhead, compliance was ultimately obtained, and something like a dozen humans, of mixed ethnic groups and sexes would take a series of shuttles up and present themselves aboard _Thunderflare_. It turned out they were corporate managers, every single one, for even the farming land was held by industrial concerns, and this aspect further bothered Tanda Pryl, for it meant they did not have leverage over them by their _living_ in the area.

The welcome had been arranged meticulously. They were greeted by serried ranks of stormtroopers in the hangar bay, and officers led them up to a single meeting room, Tanda sitting at one end. Every moment through the trip her men worked to impress upon them the strict utilitarian efficiency of the Star Destroyer's operation. The objective was to impress and intimidate and reinforce the fact they had never dealt with its like before. There was faceless crisp professionalism oozing in every pore of a well-run star destroyer, and even in the circumstances, Tanda Pryl had a tight ship. Their welcome was stage theatre, but it was stage theatre from start to finish intended to drive home the fact that _Thunderflare_ was no pirate, and they were dealing with a human ship on a scale never before wrought.

Tanda spoke from sitting down. She did not rise when the representatives entered . "I am Commodore Tanda Pryl, Commander of the Elrood Sector Force of the Galactic Empire. My remit is to bring order to this region of space. You are part of the proud legacy of the human species. We are your siblings, lost to this galaxy for thousands of years. Our arrival presages the restoration of a respected and proud position for the human species throughout this galaxy. We come with technology that is sophisticated by the standards of all the races, and an absolute remit to use it to secure peace and order."

"I have decided to bring this cluster immediately under a provisional Imperial sector administration. Accordingly, the planet Sanctum and the Decoris system are now under the control of the Galactic Empire. The Empire believes in free trade and free commerce and respects the rights of corporations. We require, however, that the needs of the Imperial Military Services be met, that this system receive an Imperial Governor and a garrison to prevent the continuation of piracy, smuggling, and other outrages to civilised peoples, and that the taxation of your corporate operations be undertaken in respect to the interests and needs of the Empire. Henceforth your business activities in this system are now to be conformed with Imperial law; but with that comes the interest of the Empire in protecting, developing, and promoting them. You have my full assurance this will always remain the case. Nonetheless, it is now a simple fact that the abrogation of good governance in this cluster is at an end. Decoris has been annexed by the Empire, and I expect cooperation."

The response was undesired. About half of them stared at her, and... More than a few rolled their eyes, and half laughed. They were uncomfortable with what they had seen, but to present a strong face to Tanda, they seized on the absurd story to fuel their disbelief. Humans, like the Asari, were a democratic species, and new to space.

One of them by the name of Robert Morris, a representative of Fengxing-Tinto, started laughing openly. "I get it, I get it, where's the camera, come on..."

He was echoed by another man in the front row of those assembled in the conference room. "Come on, tinpot galactic empire, humans ruling everything? This, who's doing the movie?"

The second comment made Tanda clench a fist. She was from their social class, back home, a Commenorean of wealth, breeding, taste. She was being treated like a crass holonet joke, and it brought a flash of powerful anger. "Chart a course for the first planet in the system and execute at once. Bring these executives to the bridge." Tanda rose and stepped out lightly, belying the fury in her heart that Kesea could nearly sense through the air, hastening after her.

The mockery and derision fell away when the Stormtroopers began to hustle them out with readied blaster carbines. Jokes generally did not extend to hostage taking, even in the Terminus systems, suit could be brought back home in the Systems Alliance space. That recognition made the prior attitude melt away. _Something_ was happening. As they were hustled in front of the windows, Tanda reappeared very calmly while the uninhabited planet Laena came into view below them, having left Sanctum quickly behind and repositioned within the space of a few minutes, which made the group mumble in surprise.

"Assume Z-positive inclination normal to planetary surface at range thirty kiloklicks." Tanda snapped her gloves over her hands. "Condition One, Action Stations."

...Some of the officers looked at each other. A kind of breathless chill swept through _Thunderflare_ 's bridge crew, and as the orders were given, the officers in the know looked at the positional order and grew hushed.

"Unlock turbolaser power and main battery positional inclination limits for planetary bombardment code Base Delta Zero."

"Reducing shield power to fifty percent focused ventral surface," came the first of a drone of reports. Crewmen paled, and the main batteries swung out as alarms blared.

"Standing by-safeties off, Base Delta Zero, confirm, confirm." The guns swivelled up and locked in so that all twelve could bear toward the planet at once. There was no other way to deliver sufficient energy fast enough with half shield power devoted to weapons.

"Optimizing turbolaser trajectories for core melt thermal dispersion."

"Powering down ion cannons and secondary batteries."

"Main cannon barrels fixed vertical for overcharge dissipation."

Tanda looked over the group of executives. She shook her head, and in the end, said nothing. To them. Plenty to the rest of the ship: "Execute code Base Delta Zero on the planet Laena, first planet, Decoris System."

"Executing code Base Delta Zero."

"Confirm code Base Delta Zere."

"Base Delta Zero confirmed," one of the male officers on the bridge answered neutrally. "Logged and confirmed."

"Commence firing."

The ship thrummed and shuddered under the power of the main batteries being salvoed at such an incredibly powerful charge. Green streaks swept down to the surface below and seemed to light it up from terminator to horizon, the clouds themselves burned away from the impact zone as the rising rock vapour spun away into glowing green remnants and showed through spreading clouds of vapourised rock in the atmosphere, a faintly visible set of a dozen glowing molten craters in the surface. But two seconds had passed... So the second salvo was on its way.

"... Are you mad? You're... think of all the palladium you're burning!" Now there was muttering, and a woman from the back shouted; "Fine, we'll pay your bloody protection money!"

The continued disbelief made her stiffen. "I am not interested in protection money. Colonel Larrus, when the operation has been completed, prepare to land the 2nd and 3rd regiments of the 93rd legion on Sanctum with our full complement of Walkers. These companies are to be nationalised by the Empire."

"Take these 'representatives' away to the detention block and bring in interrogation droids to probe them for data on their corporate operations so we can manage them without their assistance, Commander Kessingon."

"With pleasure," the ISB man answered. He sneered contemptuously at the executives.

The tumult that resulted was profoundly impressive. Some gibbered in fear, others just stood in shock. A few more, looking around again, perhaps had it dawn on them that something was going on outside of the narrow context of their world. And Robert Morrris hauled off and punched the nearest Imperial in the face. The Lieutenant dropped to the deck with a sputtered gasp of surprise that a civilian had _hit_ him.

Morris was immediately forced to his knees by the stormtrooper guards, slammed into the ground with his hands interlaced to the back of his head as a blaster rifle was shoved into the side of his skull, the trooper's finger on the trigger.

"Remove the offending hand." Tanda said simply as she folded her own behind her back and watched impassively. It was clear that the corporate officers needed to see this, anyway. One of the Stormtrooper officers in dress blacks drew his blaster pistol, adjusted the setting to the lowest... The man was forced to his belly with a single crisp order, and one of the other troopers stepped on his arm to hold it out. Then, without scarring the bare polished metal of the deck, the officer coolly burned off the man's fist with his blaster pistol.

The screaming and crying and panic from what was by now more or less a herd, served an immensely satisfying role to that entire veteran bridge crew. They were all still utterly astounded at how the civilians had mocked them, questioned them, even in the face of such a demonstration.

"Assaulting an Imperial soldier is punishable by death. Be thankful I am feeling lenient today," Tanda remarked calmly to her prisoners, and then half snarled in an open show of emotion for the first time: "Now, you blubbering fools, you can either profit from serving the cause of the New Order, or I can teach you respect."

"Don't try me, the order's been given and if the stormtroopers finish dragging you away before you change your minds you won't get the chance to!"

What followed was the sound of every single one of them submitting to her and her New Order. Whether or not they truly believed what she said, it didn't matter to her. She had taught them to respect her force, and that, for now, would be sufficient.

"Cease the Base Delta Zero operation on Laena and return to orbit of Sanctum. Secure these people, we'll sign deals with them in turn. Get the wounded man down to medical, we shall show him the kindness of the Empire by providing him with a cybernetic replacement hand."

"You will soon see that doing business within the Empire can be a profitable exercise. Our rules allow for a great deal of corporate flexibility." Her nostrils flared. "But the New Order will not be insulted or disobeyed!" And with that Tanda strode from their presence. Later on they'd doubtless be able to make their own scans of Laena... And be utterly terrified by the result of even ten minutes of firing.

Tanda wasted no time. With this power revealed, she had to act quickly. So she returned to Mil and moved at once toward the fifth planet. This time, rather more politely, she was going to conduct another annexation. They had seen plenty of _Thunderflare_ and with two other Imperial ships in the system, had a pretty good idea what they could do, so Tanda bluntly explained that a Provisional Sectoral Administration was being formed, and that they should accept a garrison and start familiarizing themselves with Imperial corporate law, as the entire Cluster was now operating under it. The authorities assented.

-

Tanda would be shaking her head in her office when Kesea came in that day. They had been at the fore of a whirlwind operation through a dozen colonies, destroying pirates and smugglers, landing troops, establishing garrisons, securing mining operations. They had dealt with Asari, humans, Turians, Salarians, Batarians. Countless ethnicities, cultures, languages of every species had been interacted with, and that, at least, was all in a day's work for the Empire. But what she'd found out about the Turians was the latest headache for evolving a state administrative apparatus in the heart of what had before been chaos, even as she knew that the longer she took to order and organise the Terminus systems, the more certain it was that resistance would begin.

"Well. Something new you hadn't mentioned before. It seems I have to establish an entire second supply chain for food. I didn't know this about Turians at all. Or at least didn't process the implications, I should clarify. Anyway, not a fault in your duties, L'tenant, but just an irritation for me. Do you have the information on the force concentrations through those Asari contacts that I asked about?" Tanda had lost a bit of weight from worrying, though was if anything fitter now than before, if the responsibility for the fragile little construct she was building was definitely starting to get to her. In this case, the matter of establishing a supply of food and medicine for Turian recruits was contrasting with reports of a large-scale massing of piratical and smuggler ships at the Omega station, supposing that she meant to take it and intending to put together a big enough force to fight.

Kesea handed across a datapad. Training with Tanda and clerical work-so far, the job was a bit staid, despite the adventure of unifying Terminus. "It _is_ a well-known fact of Turian biology, Commodore. Here's the scandoc, and if I may, you look poorly for a human yourself." The contrast between the two, with the way the Asari worked to somehow tailor the uniform for the maximum effect and minimum regulation fabric, felt especially frustrating now.

"Medical droids say my baseline is normal." Tanda was more slightly envious of the woman's tailoring. _I have an excellent bust stuffed into this thing. Hrmph._ "So, L'tenant," she jerked her eyes away, read the scandoc.

"... Yes, Commodore? I am still concerned."

"Just confirming that there are nine cruisers at Omega now," Tanda answered, frowning. "And the medical droids are quite certain I am within normal parameters."

"Yes, Commodore, that's a correct number. And of course you VIs surely know best." Kesea mustered all the sarcasm she could at the ghastly state of Imperial medicine. Then she quickly changed the subject of conversation again, before Tanda could dwell on it for very long. "If you do establish the supply chain for Turian recruits, it is then possible for you to open some form of relations with the Migrant Fleet as well, Commodore."

"Ahh, yes, they have the same problem. Them. Hrrm." She started reviewing the datapad. "That's an interesting point." The details of the Quarian Migrant Fleet had caught her attention before.

"As you say, Commodore." She... settled into a stiff parade rest. Discipline did... well. It stuck on duty for the Asari, but off? That was enough to give heart attacks to staid sorts. Tanda had seen the neverending list of complaints about the Asari, and finally told everyone to just shut up about it. They needed the replacement crew.

"I like the idea." Tanda folded her hands behind her head and stretched. "Sit, speak freely. Tell me more of your thoughts about the Migrant Fleet."

"To be truthful, Captain, I don't know very much about them-nobody does, aside from the common knowledge that you don't want them in your space. Strip-mine every asteroid in a system in weeks and dump all their criminals off on you. Good technicians, though, if you can keep all your gear around after the experience of having them on your ship. They seem to lack the sense of private property that most species have evolved."

Tanda seemed to be ignoring that part as she focused on picking up a cup of kaff from a servitor droid. She had fixated on the first part of the statement, instead. "They sound like they have the foundry capacity we need."

"Well, they could provide a lot of foundry capacity, I suppose... They need to be doing _something_ with that ore, but you'd have to give them a planet. It's what they've wanted, that I've heard, almost forever, but, well, who'd just give them one? And they dream of the one they lost to the Geth."

Tanda snorted and splashed kaff onto her desk. "...That's all they want? A planet? There are planets everywhere." She paused, reaching for a towel to wipe up the spill with. "I know that it's very hard for your peoples to actually colonize much of the galaxy, but even the local clusters are - well, it's very easy to just keep going a bit further. Hrrm. This ... "

"Not garden worlds. Remember, Commodore, the opening of new mass relays is banned, so settlements cluster around the ones already open, and if there's no gas giants to discharge FTL drives at on the way... well, it's as effective as a wall in terms of blocking further settlement."

Tanda raised an eyebrow. "Then hyperdrive makes a triviality for me what is a luxury for anyone else."

"Yes, Commodore. That is the most profound thing you can keep in mind here, really. You have access to far more in the way of resources than anyone else is aware of."

Commodore Pryl was now fully engaged, clearly in planning mode. "Do we know what the Quarian homeworld was like?"

Kesea did the thing with the holo-field appearing around her off-hand, the 'omnitool' interface, tapping away at it. "Arid. No insects, and most flora and fauna had symbiotic relationships-the Quarians' immune systems are so weak that a conventional garden world is likely to kill them from disease." She popped up the information.

"Interesting challenge. I can despatch a tranche of probots to finally fully scan the cluster. And the surrounding clusters. It will give me a full hyperdrive plot of the area for rapid response operations with the fleet, anyway, and provide us information on other planets we can colonise. The plan has no real downsides. If something comes up as a good prospect planet, we may have a surprisingly strong negotiating standpoint."

"If." Kesea... gave a small smile.

Tanda shrugged. "It's a big galaxy. Unexplored planets may indeed have suitable ecologies. And I have a lot of probots."

She smoothly continued to the next topic. "So, with that number of cruisers at Omega, they're clearly concentrating against us. You are familiar with this space, right enough, having lived here for so long. They're taking quite a lot of time to organise a counterattack. I would have expected one already by now. In short, do you anticipate they'll actually be able to hold that fleet together?"

"... Not unless you keep hitting them, Commodore. They, well, are held together by fear of you. They will splinter, in time."

Tanda hrmmed. "We could jump in with all three destroyers and take them on in a decisive engagement. It is not like Thunderflare's shields have been penetrated once since these operations began."

"It... is an option, Commodore. A large number of frigates and fighters... and likely a few cruisers... you would leave a major power vacuum in your wake."

"That is not disadvantagenous to Imperial interests in this section of space. On the other hand we don't really have the ability to hold a lot of ground yet. It could also encourage intervention."

"Accurate. If you destroy the pirate fleets... there is little to stop the Council from finally attempting to establish authority here."

Tanda smiled wolfishly. "Well, one thing or another. At any rate, it seems the best thing to do is consolidate on our existing ground and let them splinter on their own. So I won't further expand, I believe I have made up my mind on that matter, except in one direction..." Tanda brought up a hologram. "Rosetta Nebula. Almost completely uninhabited even by the standards of this region. Also a veritable cul-de-sac in the relay network."

Kesea had grown quiet at Tanda's contemptuous remarks toward the Council. "So you say, Commodore, but I am still young. Advice on your decisions should only be given by a matriarch..."

"Some of my people would not be pleased if I started consulting Asari matriarchs before making decisions. To put it mildly."

"And they are pleased by our having conversations, Commodore?"

"Probably not." A thin smile. "I don't need to tell them, anyway. You are simply my Flag Lieutenant. Hrmm. Well, then. I haven't been down to the planet yet. You're my aide. Come on, you can show me to the important people." She pushed herself up. "Could use some fresh air, anyway..."

"... Of course, Commodore. Your aide, am I? So you say. The populace will be sure to love the meeting. You are incredibly famous on Mils these days."

-

They were greeted by one of Tanda's adepts on the planet below—Kesalia Sevalas, who had been busy with the job of arranging security and keeping back the great number of blue-skinned alien women and their bondmates had turned out to watch her land. In addition to the common people interested in finally seeing Commodore Pryl, there were about a dozen and a half matriarchs waiting in what was the public meeting hall of the main spaceport.

"Commodore!" Kesalia came to attention and saluted.

"At ease, L'tenant. Fall in with us," Tanda answered readily. Her stress had let a bit of accent slip into her Basic from her homeworld, and with the two alien women to her sides, she slipped off to the side to face the Matriarchs.

They stood when she entered, at least, as one of them, wearing a rather rich looking dress, approached her and offered: "Greeting, Commodore Pryl. I am Matriarch Iraia, and we Matriarchs have been deemed to represent the asari of this world before you—considering your interest in always having elected representatives with which to discuss issues. To my side, this is Matriarch T'Nara. She has arrived to observe on behalf of the Republics."

Tanda pursed her lips." _Interesting_." She decided to be polite. Even so... _What game are they playing at?_ "I was not informed of an emissary. I would appreciate if that is rectified in the future. Normally we have some trivial human ceremonies for greeting foreign emissaries," she concluded with a wryly bemused smile as the best spin she could put on it for them, and then turned her attention to the new Matriarch. "I am pleased to finally meet a representative of the Asari Homeworld, when your people have already provided so very much for us, Matriarch T'Nara."

"She is not an emissary, Commodore," Matriarch Iraia offered a small bow. "We are thankful for your efforts to impose normalcy, and allow our colony to develop in peace according to our customs. Matriarch T'Nara is merely here to observe this process."

Tanda frowned, then shrugged and chose to ignore it. "As you say. There is in fact a straightforward justification for it. Asari do not need the whip hand of the Empire over them. They order themselves. That is a valuable trait, and one I appreciate in allies. I also appreciate efficiency. The Empire is not a tyranny, what is already working does not need to be fixed."

"We have our own renegades, Captain, but... it is welcome to hear. We are content under your protection currently by a significantly double-digit percentage."

"Thank you. Do lead on. I shall have Lieutenant Sevaras follow with us, as well as Lieutenant Avera. There's no need for anyone else from my side, your ability to defend yourselves and your friends is excellent, demonstrated from the very first raid..." _That woman is either a spy, or a diplomat in fact. I need to get to the bottom of what ties they keep to their homeworld, and quickly._


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Tanda was not used to having to pitch the future of Imperial plans and efforts to a group of blue alien women, to put it mildly. She was much less used to having to include someone on those plans whose intents might be actively pernicious to their execution. However, the Asari of Mils had become a bedrock to the nascent Imperial Regime of the Milky Way, and accordingly they had to be placated, had to be assessed for support, and won over to her objectives. It was a political job, but she had been, at least, raised no stranger to political jobs. Her parents had _not_ been pleased when she had gone to Anaxes instead. Despite her distaste for the position of being a pitchwoman, she would simply have to do it.

She tried to be polite, anyway, as she walked with them to a suitable meeting room and settled down, standing and waiting for all the Matriarchs to sit. Using a hologram, she began to outline her plan.

"Hyperdrive revolutionises the colonisation of this galaxy. We have already done a great deal to establish peace and order here. The Sigurd's Cradle Cluster is now under a stable government with only the Systems Alliance' Skepsis system at the Mass Relay _here_ ," a tap of a pointer, "being outside of our control. It is not our interest to behave in a hostile fashion to organised and recognised governments. Thus, we now have a stable government stretching across fifty at least lightly inhabited systems-stations and other forms of colonies included-and about five hundred uninhabited systems as well."

She paused for a moment, and then Tanda smiled and continued. "At any rate, you can see that the outer expanse of each cluster size defined by the most advanced Asari faster than light drives is defined as a series of interlocking spheres from the two mass-relay systems."

"Using hyperdrive-especially aggressive patrols by our hyperdrive equipped fighters and gunships-piracy, smuggling, and slave trading have been brought to an effective end in Sigurd. This has naturally and inevitably resulted in a concentration of the forces of disorder, chaos, and barbarism against us, preferring to make the headquarters of their fractious coalition at the Omega system. I do not believe that concentration will last. I do not intend to further attack, and I do not believe that our enemies can coordinate an offensive against us. If they do, the conserved firepower of the Elrood Sector Forces is adequate to destroy them. Settlements in Mil will be adequately protected by reserve fighters and planetary shields over the course of such operations."

"Without any desire to continue offensive operations into the rest of the Terminus Systems, my only interest is in the even smaller, less well known and explored, and extremely lightly peopled Rosetta Nebula cluster. It is isolated from the rest of the network save a second relay into the Omicron cluster, and does not even have substantial piratical activity. Securing it provides a 'deep flank' to our operations, new opportunities for corporations under Imperial law to expand, and the prospect of an additional range of habitable colonies. Most importantly, however, it is relatively close in realspace terms, which means hyperlight transit via hyperdrive between the two clusters will be readily possible. This will allow for the colonisation of planets outside of the usual radii of travel from gates within a local cluster, and ultimately create the backbone of a strong state that can maintain order in the region and negotiate with the coalition of Council Space on the grounds that we will be able to largely exclude piratical raids from the Attican traverse."

She paused again, her voice getting a bit hoarse. The tone required for this sort of presentation was profoundly different from the tone of command. "Therefore, my desire is to expand a series of control points into the Rosetta Nebula, to bring it under our authority, and then to use my scouts and probe droids to fully understand and map the region of space between the two, and begin searching for regular hyperroutes."

"This ties into another initiative. Thanks to the relatively light population of Sigurd's Cradle, our long term industrial output is extremely limited, and this is profoundly concerning in terms of our ability to maintain Imperial technology. A powerful industrial resource that is unaligned politically exists in the galaxy today: It is called the Wandering Fleet, or Refugee Fleet, of the Quarian people. They are traditionally discriminated against and forbidden settlement, treated as criminals, but really the fleet has strict laws against piracy. They look for worlds on which to resettle; but worlds are a precious commodity in the current modality of faster than light travel, so people have opposed them at every turn."

"With hyperdrive we can break out of that modality. My probe droids will be looking for a suitable planet for Quarian colonisation. In exchange, Quarian incorporation into Imperial territory and law will allow them, in settling down, to remove the cause for the distaste they are held in across a wide range of space, and will thus allow us to harness their mechanical and technological prowess to adapt Imperial technology to a long-term, stable base in these clusters, and to begin large scale production of the supporting equipment required to maintain the Elrood Sector Forces beyond the six year endurance provided by our internal supplies."

"That, you might say, is the essential plan and objective of my government at this time, which I have chosen to share with you to seek your input and observations before considering final implementation."

Tanda regard them in a silent pause. They had watched her presentation very politely, and didn't interrupt. Soft discussion broke out amongst the group when she finished, most of the women talking amongst each other-one offering, a bit sharply; "You sound like my wife, talking about breaking stagnation by bringing all the races together. Why? You are over-extended, with a limited base of ships - and how will you win the Migrant Fleet over, when they are so isolationist?"

The Commodore filed through her mental list of names. "Matriarch Lasava, I believe that I can find what they want in providing them with habitable planets which will be secure from all outside threat, being accessed through the range and capabilities of hyperdrive rather than traditional travel modes. These will allow the Quarian species to recover in peace and prosperity from its demographic catastrophe. As for the rest, I do believe that as our probe and reconaissance efforts continue to improve astrogational mapping, travel times with hyperdrive throughout the area will improve exponentially, as they did in my home galaxy. Ultimately this is a force multiplier which matters considerably more than the actual number of ships in the Elrood Sector Force."

There was a great deal of discussion amongst the older women there, but they, in the end, narrowly endorsed her course of action with only minor suggestions, wishing her... luck. With stability, well, many things could be done. Now, of course, they would have to win over the Asari electorate, but Tanda had come to realise that was mercifully likely if the Matriarchs had endorsed her plan. Some order existed, after all.

The torrid climate at the capital of Mil was miserable for most this time of year, and Tanda had quickly retreated back inside during the subsequent reception to avoid becoming a sweltering mess in her uniform, but the asari seemed to take it in stride. Most humans ran for the air conditioning, as herself was included.. And there was that one... observer.

Tanda Pryl came straightaway for her... And offered her hand to the Asari woman. "A pleasure to meet you. I appreciate the risk of your having come out here from settled space to... Observe us."

T'Nara took it, with a small smile. "Commodore, most Matriarchs prefer to return to Thessia, but we cannot offer wisdom we do not have, and there are questions that must be answered before certain decisions can be made."

"I welcome the establishment of trade with more settled space, Matriarch. Do you wish to arrange a meeting in private, or are you content with your ... Observations, here?"

"If you are offering... we can discuss matters."

"I am."

She gave a small bow of the head. "Then, Commodore Pryl, at your convenience."

"Come on, back to the customs office, then." She let her two subordinates fall in. She considered it a trust building measure that she wasn't asking the woman to come up to the fleet... And it was a good excuse to get away from the reception early.

"Of course, Commodore." She gave a glance to the other asari in Imperial uniform, and a longer glance at the Twi'lek... but followed along, looking keenly about as she did. Tanda wondered what kind of spy she was.

Customs had Imperial equipment in it, but was otherwise a buildout of the existing spaceport. Tanda settled in after receiving the salutes of the Imperial Army personnel on duty and flopped into the chair that the Lieutenant normally had. She felt far more exhausted than she did after combat. Kesea and Kesalia stood while Tanda motioned to the chair across from her, well, one of two but the other would be unoccupied as a matter of protocol; both subordinates would stand. "So. You're here from the Asari government."

"Such as it is." She sat, calmly and gracefully as every damned asari seemed to—that much, Tanda had figured out. "You have somewhat of conquered one of our colonies."

"I don't think we've conquered them. They've agreed to cooperate with the Empire voluntarily. Furthermore, you didn't extend claims of control out here like the Systems Alliance did with its base at Skepsis. I saved this planet from a rather severe slave raid. We've been cooperating since."

She waved arily. "The concerns we have are balanced with an equal opportunity. The Asari position is based upon our technical and diplomatic leadership of the Council. You threaten a disruption of this position. Negotiations are indicated."

"What do you want to negotiate _on_ , Matriarch? I have no interest in offending Council space or Council interests."

"We... desire access to your technology, Commodore. I am _not_ here on behalf of the Council."

Tanda pursed her fingers together and resisted the urge to frown. "That is not something I can give out easily. First of all I must establish the means to replicate it."

"We have interest in facilitating this development, Commodore."

"I'm quite certain that you do," she smiled back. "Please understand however that I am somewhat constrained. I am not the whole Empire, Matriarch. And, I must keep interests of the Imperial way, the New Order, well in heart." She paused a moment. "There are however certain technologies which are not under Imperial Interdict and that can be freely shared with anyone. We can certainly make those available."

She gave something of a look. "Commodore. You are not in contact with your superiors - effectively, you are your Empire—surely you can be realistic about this? You are not a figment of the imagination as other stories we have heard, and the Republics must... not lose their position, for the sake of galactic stability."

"I am only the first," Tanda answered, shaking her head. "You surely must realise that about humans. I will have to give an accounting of myself on Imperial Centre when other Imperial forces arrive here, perhaps to the Vizier Pestage himself." _We did it once we can do it again... right?_

"Commodore, if your method of arrival was easily repeatable, surely others would have come from where you do in the past, would they not?"

"It was a modification of technology abandoned twenty-five thousand years ago, Matriarch. A profoundly experimental one, to be sure. The scientists are here, certainly—and yes, that will complicate replicating the experiment-but the plans are at Imperial Centre and another station will be built in time once the galactic situation has stabilised. I am playing a long game, but I do hope to return home, someday."

"As I said, there is plenty of technology not actually military restricted in the Empire."

"Then let us negotiate, Commodore."

The words frustrated her, for it seemed they were moving in circles. Still she indulged. "Well, what shall you want from me? I can publish a standard list of unrestricted technologies and we can work on prioritizing them. We intend to market and export aggressively when our manufacturing base is established, but, of course, you are clearly interested in your own works."

"I would need the list of what was available, Commodore - we have... some technologies greater than yours, but you have demonstrated a great deal of such in all aspects of spaceflight and energy manipulation. We can offer... what assistance you need, covertly."

"Pulling the unrestricted technology list now..." Tanda smiled wryly. "Really, though. I somewhat question our technical base to, for example, be able to produce even a restricted hyperdrive."

"Perhaps so, Commodore, but technicans and resources can be made available to you and yours."

"You seem very eager to collaborate on this matter," Tanda murmured. "We've barely gone into any details."

"... Are we not permitted to have our reasons, Commodore Pryl..?"

"You certainly are. Do I need to know them? I'm not sure. But I must be careful..." She looked to the Twi'lek, who gave her a single nod to confirm that the room was clear of bugs.

Tanda looked back and smiled wanly. "Of course, the Internal Security Bureau officers may remove me from power if they judge I am acting contrary to the interests of the Empire."

"That would probably be unfortunate for all involved."

"It would." She folded a leg over another, and slightly leaned back in the chair. "Assistance can be provided in that as well, if you deem it necessary."

Tanda folded her hands. That was going into dangerous ground for when she was called to account before Pestage. Or whomever would replace him. "What are you talking about?"

She... waved a hand. "I mis-spoke, it is nothing, Commodore Pryl." She offered a mask of a smile. She'd said nothing _quite_ seditious. "You can be a danger to the Republics, one we seek to remove in a friendly fashion."

"As you say. Ion cannon are perhaps the most useful technology I can transfer to you immediately. You may have heard the reports on their operation. Also lighter anti-fighter and anti-vehicle lasers, hyperspace sensors and coms, our very advanced ionization engines with gravitic thrust redirection vains... Anti-gravity technology in general, hrrm, proton torpedo and concussion missile plans, hyperdrives up to class I, civilian ray and particle shielding - military generators are more powerful for a given mass by about a factor of two -" she added blandly, "droids except those lacking in nonviolence programming or HRD models, and sundry other things which perhaps demonstrate that the Empire is quite... Unresticted, when it comes to our regard for technological dissemination. Of course on the other hand by providing the data, even if it is legal for civilians to possess, I am remitting to you Imperial property and this will be a financial transaction..." She looked levelly across at the Matriarch.

"I can make no promises, when we regain contact with the Empire. I am not allowed to. And if that should not come to pass..."

"...Then you really have nothing to fear."

"Then the specifics of discussion can be carried out, Commodore, and prices set." She smiled, and it seemed a brilliant sort of thing, so very disarming that it made Tanda want to rub her eyes. "Perhaps including a premium for your... discretion in such negotiations with others not of the Republics."

Tanda stiffened sharply. "Matriarch, I was born and raised in a society where aliens were a normal presence." She gestured to the Twi'lek lieutenant. "You know we are not exclusionist! We have a definition of concern for our species that is, I think, fundamentally more liberal than that of most species in this galaxy. But I must be able to help the homeland of my own people, too."

"I can at least assure you that we will evaluate carefully our interests. But I think that your galaxy is lightly populated enough that the wide-scale dissemination of hyperdrive will result in a general development of pacific pursuits. There will be a hundred inhabited planets for every one known, in time."

"That will keep people busy for a while."

The Matriarch frowned. "That is not in our interests as we see them, Commodore Pryl. If it is in yours..."

"It is, and if you don't want a deal, that is your prerogative. But I cannot prejudice my own people. I will not, and I never would. Do we understand each other?"

"Perfectly, Commodore."

As the weeks began to turn into months, the Galactic Empire lived a stripped down existence in the Milky Way, in this putative homeworld of humanity. They had started with 115,000 people in their little Sector Fleet, and the population of the entire cluster they had subsequently seized was - light.

Perhaps the same as the single planet of Bakura, perhaps a bit less, still. That irritated Tanda, who saw the need for rapid industrialisation in every logistics and maintenance status report that updated to her comp. In the meantime, it guaranteed a rapid audience for the man coming to talk: When Tanda had heard of it, she was immediately suspicious, but nonetheless had given the order to get someone to hear the man out. Carefully.

The human male assigned to the job had essentially been put to work studying an offer. Not the Asari Matriarch's, but an offer received in the subsequent week of a different tenor, entirely. The analyst assigned had been one of the engineering project managers from the Gree Station, and Jak Starsoul—perhaps the most ironic family name ever considering his disposition-was skilled enough in the bureaucratic ways to rapidly evaluate what they were offering-and ranked enough to report directly to Commodore Pryl.

The man who arrived greeted him very respectfully, and had seemed sincerely impressed from the moment he had come aboard the Star Destroyer, carefully hustled around to avoid Asari. "Sir - I represent... an organization whose fundamental ideology shares certain interests about the future of humanity with your just and fair Empire. I have been instructed to sound out the possibility that we could... gain mutually through cooperation in seeking the survival and rightful place of humanity in this galaxy. You have achieved much already, if through... some worrisome employment decisions."

"The Empire is committed to the precepts of the New Order. The Empire values efficiency and values pragmatism," the manager responded dryly, Jak using his very best manager-speaker. So far, he wasn't particularly impressed. "You are coming here representing a certain sectional interest of the Systems Alliance-that much seems clear."

"The Systems Alliance would be displeased to know of our meeting, sir. It has thrown its' lot in with those who would enervate humanity until it was swallowed by the alien mass." He replied, with a hair of affronted tone.

"I see. What is it that you want from me-and what is it that you can do to serve the New Order?"

"I would wish to speak with Commodore Pryl on behalf of my employer. He can offer much to you. Credits, ships, resources, technicians... or is it the Empire's intention to build itself up in this galaxy for the asari to pluck everything you have accomplished from the geriatric survivors in a century?"

"Don't question the intentions of the Empire," Jak answered flatly. "You will be contacted tomorrow with instructions on your meeting arrangements."

"Thank you." He would stand, and offer a hand. They were... polite, at least...

Tanda Pryl was waiting for him the next day, as unamused as Jak Starsoul had been. She was sitting in her office in full uniform, the walls blank, the crisply professional sort of background the Empire aspired to, with little in the way of adornment and a carafe and servant droids on the table as well as a holoprojector and a few flimsies. Pleasant things on the walls-that was saved for private cabins.

The human man from Cerberus arrived. From Europe by his appearance, he gave a small bow upon being shown in. "Commodore Pryl. The Illusive Man sends his regards. He hopes all is well in your territory."

"The Illusive Man." She folded her hands up, showing the black gloves she wore even then. "I see."

"Yes, Commodore. May I sit? He wishes you well. Our organizations appear to share a common interest in humanity's future."

"You may," Tanda poured out a cup of water for him as she gave him a moment to sit, and then continued. "I think it is humanity's Present, Sir-Asari and Turians and what have you may dismiss it, but I am not a madwoman and am quite sincere when I speak of the Empire beyond this galaxy. I do recall the name of the Illusive Man—and the organisation you represent-from the ISB briefings. May I be blunt: Do you therefore represent the interests of an internal insurgency against the Systems Alliance government?"

"It is one way of phrasing the situation, given their refusal to defend humanity's interests in any form of full-bodied fashion. You... do not appear to so refuse, but there have been certain... worrisome elements."

"None of the Asari will be promoted past L'tenant," Pryl waved her hand. "That's hardly abnormal in the Empire. There are practical problems with dealing with a mass of non-human sapients within galactic civilisation even when it is ruled absolutely and unquestionably by humans. It would be absurd not to have a certain level of participation from other species."

"So you say, Commodore. That will be... a great relief, if I may. We... understand you require certain assistance in some areas." He folded hands onto his lap. "And certain information."

"Well, Sir. Let's start with your name. And then get down to the information you think I will find so useful..."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**  
"I am certainly interested in learning more about the stubborn foothold of humanity in this galaxy, but I think I am holding my own quite well here, and I am also fairly deftly dealing with the problem of the Asari already having come to me hat in hand in their effort to obtain Imperial technology. They were not happy at being restricted to civilian examples, I assure you. Under the appropriate terms of cooperation for Cerberus, that won't be a necessary restriction, of course, but I hope you understand - you are dealing with the Empire," Tanda found herself disliking most of the Cerberus men that she was dealing with. Now that she had comms links via the Extranet, she had found herself limited to communicating with one cell. The Illusive Man refused to speak with her. That was – _insulting_.

"Humanity is humanity," she continued, glancing furtively at her chrono. "The Illusive Man understands this. And the dominate branch of humanity in the universe is the Galactic Empire."

The man's voice answered neutrally. "He merely wishes to achieve the same level of... respect that you have gained in your own galaxy, Commodore Pryl. Would it be through the Galactic Empire here, such he understands as a possible outcome. He would not presume to rival the human who had made himself supreme ruler of an entire galaxy and subordinated tens of thousands of species."

"I can provide that assistance," Tanda replied with a sigh. "I intend to and desire to, even. To be part of the spectrum of human existence is the birthright of my men. Of course, I am here because I understood the limitations of trying to impose the New Order outright upon the Systems Alliance. Would you rather I have simply landed thirty AT-AT walkers on Salisbury Plain and seized the economic heart of the Systems Alliance by, ah, _coup de main_?"

"Of course not," the man answered dryly. "We _do_ understand why you did what you did."

"Good. Then you understand that my ultimate objective remains the education of Milky Way humanity into the precepts of the New Order."

"The Illusive Man does not have an objection to this. He believes that they can be made to embrace it, in time - as humanity did in your own home."

Not very ill-informed, they were, not very ill-informed at all. Tanda frowned. They were already exceptionally knowledgeable about her home and that bothered her. "That's certainly accurate. Is Cerberus prepared to collaborate in this process?"

"We are." He gave her such an assuredly level look. This was a chance for... humanity to achieve its' "proper" place in the galaxy.

"Then I need you to prepare the way for me to act. And it is certainly unwise for me to give the image of adhering to Cerberus objectives."

"Certainly. We will be in touch with details..."

"Tell the Illusive Man that I am acting in the interests of humanity. I am simply very patient."

"He wants a meeting with you, Commodore, to be sure of this."

"He is welcome here," Tanda answered.

"No, you must come to him."

The screen cut off before she could reply. In a burst of rage she ground her fists into the desk, and then heaved a sigh. _Damned upstarts_.

The buzzer on the door sounded again. The group of Asari matriarchs she had started consulting with was waiting for their appointment. Tanda gulped heavily of both water and the coffee she'd started brewing to save the kaff, the first taste of the native fruits of Earth. Composed herself. Put on a blank, pleased expression. She knew how to play the game.

"Come in, Ladies." Tanda watched the group file in, Kesea leading them and taking a position at her right hand. The unnatural attractiveness of the Asari remained incredible, and for Tanda, vaguely unnerving in a way that she wasn't sure about. Nobody else around her shared that feeling as far as she could tell, but she'd started using it to help keep her distance.

"I present to you, today, the matter of utmost urgency and greatest pleasure." She tapped up the holoprojector. "AJM-22. It is a world that appears to have evolved without a typical form of bacteria. Located three hundred lightyears rimward from Sigurd's trailing edge—very approximately." She was fudging the exact position, since part of the offer to the Quarians was the _security_ of a world outside of the beaten clusters.

There was a sharp set of expressions, some inhalation, as the Matriarchs studied the readouts. "It's barely a garden world, but I imagine the Quarians will like it more for that. They love very hot planets. Yes, it looks like they could start to grow crops there almost immediately."

"Precisely. So, my profligate expenditure of probots has paid off." Tanda pulled the view back. "You can see the beginning of a map of hyper-lanes in this section of the galaxy as a result of the reports. What took the Republic thousands of years to map at home, we do in months, thanks to the whole attendant assemblage of modern technology..."

"That leaves the question, Commodore, of how the Quarians are to be contacted for these negotiations you've plotted," Matriarch Lasava pressed.

"Well, Matriarch, that's why you're here. Are there any Quarians who might be directly approachable by humans, then? Any with good experiences from us, or any regular diplomats they have? I need some method of opening the path to making them an offer."

"There are no Quarian diplomats," one of the other Matriarchs spoke. "However, there is one who has collaborated with humans lately. She was working with Spectre Shepard in the defeat of the geth on the Citadel, and I believe remained aboard an Earth ship working with the Spectre until her unfortunate demise. Of course, locating her may prove somewhat difficult. Tali'Zorah, I think..."

"Yes," one of the others agreed, "she was known to assist Commander Shepard in her fight against Saren."

Tanda was bringing up the data files on Shepard, shaking her head softly at the full backstory they contained. "Very useful contact... Is she with the fleet after Shepard's demise, then?"

They briefly conferred. "We are uncertain. She is seen on an irregular basis outside it, apparently at the behest of the Quarian government."

"Thank you for providing me a way forward. It is very much my desire to obtain an agreement with the Quarians to settle in our territory, and I will keep you updated about my efforts to do so."

She got a series of bows, and odd looks. The Matriarchs were divided into the camp who saw trying to get the Quarians to settle and recover as some bizarre quixotic quest, and those who had figured out it was a counterbalance to their own influence and a way to get an industrial base separate from the Asari Republics, and were not pleased about the development. But the Asari being the Asari, neither group would outright oppose it... Yet.

Tanda looked to Kesea after the Matriarchs had left, and shared a sigh, shaking her head. She poured another cup of coffee, and thought. The Quarians seemed like a spice mine that nobody had bothered to tap from her perspective. _I need engineers to produce Imperial technology. And once they're in my hands, they'll not be able to leave them. Ever._ She was quite unreflective about the sentiment behind it... But she knew enough not to share it with Kesea, by now.

She put in the orders to have her officers bring together all the intelligence they had accumulated on the details of the Refugee Fleet, its movements and its composition; and the ways that people usually attempted to contact the Quarians. Tanda further ordered patrols to monitor for any sign of Quarian vessels, and then considered her options for external resources. It occurred to her that just because she didn't actually intend to attack them... Well, Omega was legendary as a useful resource for many things.

"Recall liberty details from the planetary surface and order astrogation to begin plotting a course to the Omega system. Just because it is inadvisable to clear out that den of scum and villainy doesn't mean we can't extract a toll from them." When Tanda came onto the bridge saying that, the Imperial officers grinned in pride and looked at each other ruthlessly. They were confident, and only growing moreso the longer they worked to suppress piracy through the clusters in which her pocket Empire was now operating. They had faced no serious opposition. The course of action was reassuring to the general collective sense of the crew that slowing down now would only be foolish.

And then Thunderflare left her new home under a flicker of psueodmotion and would begin threading her way to Omega as probot data flooded in from the regions of the Terminus systems that Tanda Pryl had chose as her sheet-anchor in this strange and wild galaxy. Even after a prospective Quarian colony world was located, the probots continued to transmit enormously valuable survey data.

A day passed, and then a night. They were not far from Omega... And then they were there, tunnelling through space as a shape of tachyons, through a form of existence that almost defied comprehension. They were not the first to come this way under hyperdrive. Tanda Pryl watched on the bridge as the reversion alarms began to sound, imagining the Gree who had come before her. But the Gree were a smudge of a shadow. The Empire would grow, instead. Light gray durasteel appeared before Omega under a flicker of pseudomotion, hull-hugging shields that could repel both particles and energy, that utterly distinctive utilitarian death wedge, her engines outputting the thrust of a small star...

 _Thunderflare_ had arrived at Omega.

The nearest ships started scattering in frantic evasive courses as the comms channels lit up with utterly terrified chatter. They were the exception. However their reputation was as pirates and smugglers, they were not cowards. Omega's defences... flickered to life. They were not insubstantial, either. The strength of battery the station mounted was enough against anything but a battle-fleet... or a Star Destroyer.

"Commander Thunderflare for Governor of Omega, Commander Thunderflare for Governor of Omega... Respond to this hailing signal. This is Thunderflare Actual, you are commanded to respond directly. _Not_ with subordinates, Governor!"

... It was distorted and anonymized, but the signal did crackle to life... after a few minutes; "This is Omega."

"Governor, I understand that the Omega facility has been expecting an Imperial attack for several months now," Tanda began slickly. "I can assure you that I have no intention of carrying that operation out."

"The invoice for this forbearance will no doubt be forthcoming..." Whomever it was had a whippet quick and dry wit, and absolutely no doubt about what was going down.

"We are interested in information only. It is not something suitable to be discussed over an open channel."

There was a pause. "Your shuttle may dock when you wish."

"Stand by," Tanda frowned.

Lieutenant Scolus looked up in shock. "You can't be serious, Commodore? Into that pit? They are only looking for a hostage, Sir. You are being much too kind."

"They're under our guns and cannot be complete idiots. I daren't show weakness," she murmured back with the channel on mute, looking down, frowning at her men, and then reopened the channel.

"I wish to dock, Omega—one shuttle. The timing is-immediately. Come on, L'tenant Avera." With that, she turned from the bridge... But for the first time ever, she brought her lightsabre with her, hidden in a pouch sewn into one of her boots.

The Lambda negotiated the bays cautiously for the fin clearance, and settled to the ground with her mouth-like boarding ramp opening. A gaggle of mercenaries waiting for her below watched the silent craft with fingers twitching toward their guns. They were led by a batarian. Their final assigned position was docked near the tip of the spire, too. He grunted; "Aria's waiting."

"Guard the shuttle, or it will be stolen," Tanda snapped to the stormtroopers, and then stepped forward to the Batarian. Only Kesea followed her. "Then let's not keep her waiting for long. Lead on."

It was just her and her flag lieutenant, sure, but Kesea was a powerful enough biotic that Tanda fancied she could take care of herself. And she already knew about the lightsabre.

He nodded... and she was led to a nightclub. Of all the places one might expect a governor's office to be, even the governor of a pirate port, this was the least likely. A shadowport club and bar... the worst kind of cantina, with dancers packed in up to a lounge area and cavorting, balconies for card tables overlooking the entire thing-there was a desk there, but she was directed over to a side area.

There was simply a low table, and an Asari with a hard look, who appeared basically like her suit was vacuum sealed to her, a jacket over it, lounging on a leather couch. She gestured to the seat next to it... giving quite the hard look to Tanda's... flag lieutenant. Kesea managed to return it neutrally, despite Aria's infamy.

"Aria, I understood." Tanda moved to sit.

"That's right." She said it simply, lazily, all coiled menace. She did keep a... rough kind of order in this place, that she was respected was clear.

"I'm Commodore Pryl." She sat down, crossed her legs, her L'tenant standing next to her. "As I said, I am only looking for information."

"You can find a lot on Omega." She didn't quite blow her off, but...

This woman was direct and more than a little brusque. Despite everything, Tanda decided she could work with her. But only if Aria was willing to play the game; if she wasn't, any kind of coexistence would at once be impossible. "Yes, you _can_ find a lot on Omega. I imagine everyone can." Tanda smiled. "And in this _particular_ case I require information on the positions and operations of Quarian scouts and a method of contacting particular Quarians known to liase with humans, or else a particular Quarian who I received information on who had done so in the past-Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. In the long term Omega does not offer me anything of value and I am prepared to let you be. I do not have the objective of galactic conquest."

"I'm not your pet information broker." Her lip curled in disdain. "They come here sometimes. Some work here. She hasn't." Law... rubbed this woman the wrong way. Tanda came off as if someone had distilled law into the shape of a woman.

"That is not quite what I asked. Certainly it's a requirement of mine that I receive what I need; elsewise, my needs may change at your disfavour from the want of what I don't have. The Empire exists for law and order, but it is also practical. And I am, effectively, the Empire. My toleration of Omega will be predicated upon a certain measure of cooperation." Tanda's voice was turning menacing, and unlike the corporate executives who had mocked her, Aria T'Loak had an excellent idea of the threat that represented.

She looked at her nails for a moment, delaying the answer anyway. "Hold out a prize or convince one of the young ones hunting for glory. They will come for that. If you want to contact her, on the other hand, this can be provided-in a few days."

"I can wait a few days." She folded her gloved hands together. "I am not expecting that you deliver to me instantaneous result."

Her sneer... flickered across her face. "Result you will get."

Tanda frowned. "I'm not doubting your ability to obtain the information." And with that, she rose again. "Inform me when you have... Governor T'Loak."

"Of course, Commodore." She gave something of a... snarl, as Tanda's flag lieutenant tried not to shudder.

Two days, with a comm-code, via a multitude of relays and cutouts. Tanda was waiting for it. She knew her presence in the system would put something of a crimp into business, after all, so this 'Governor' would want her to leave relatively quickly, as Tanda correlated it with her own knowledge of Quarian fleet movements. Reading through the file and dossier, she came to the end, and then shook her head in almost overwhelming bemusement. Started laughing. Kesea came running, worried by this point.

"She gave me the Extranet address of one Tali'Zorah vas Neema. The girl's apparently found herself a ship. I am going to..."

"Engage in the most momentous diplomatic negotiation of your life via text message on the Extranet, Commodore?" Kesea had already figured out the things which bemused one Tanda Pryl.

The woman laughed again, and this time clearly in humour, however tinged with wryness it was. "Precisely so. Now we just have to wait for an opening to send a message that she will pay attention to."

Then Kesea pointed to a section of the report. "I think the rest of the information provides an in for you, Commodore."

 _Conflicting claims a sign of future trouble in the Nubian Expanse?_ Tanda read past the headline, and then she interfaced the Mil extranet... And started to write.

 _Miss Tali'Zorah vas Neema. I am prepared to offer my services to mediate the developing mining dispute between the Eldfell-Ashland corporation and the Migrant Fleet. I was provided with your contact information by friendly parties in the belief that you might be willing to accept such a brokerage from a human with a respect for the law and right. Commodore Tanda Pryl, Elrood Sector Force._

She was surprised, really, at how quickly the message came back. The extranet at times seemed superior to the holonet. It glared on her screen, her first contact with a Quarian.

 _I question your motives in making such an offer, but we cannot stop you from inserting yourself in the matter,_ came the reply to her message. _Why do you care?_

 _I wish to conduct negotiations to achieve mutually beneficial agreements between the Empire and the Migrant Fleet. I am not going to gain your trust except by acting in your interests unreservedly_.

The next message was very direct. _... I'll meet you on Pragia._

Tanda strode onto the bridge with considerable swiftness in her step. Instead of seeming hurried or unprofessional, there was something in her stride and aura that made the bridge crew nervously cringe and look at each other while trying to hide worried expressions. The words out of her mouth confirmed it. "...Set your course for the Dakka System, Commander, and prepare my shuttle!" 


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"A lot of Batarian stupidity went into creating Pragia," Kesea explained as they slid into orbit of the hell-world. Sometimes the ability of _Thunderflare_ to get around the galaxy was downright scary, even if it was painfully slow compared to her experience back home.

Tanda clasped her gloved hands together. "Batarian stupidity seems to be a common theme of many events. Well, it doesn't matter for this one, other than that our Quarian friend appears to be interested in having the planet on her side." Thunderflare quickly maneouvred into a stable low orbit of the planet, her old ISD-I type scanning masts far-reaching through the system and constantly reporting and updating positions.

The quarian had sent a cryptic message, consisting of nothing but a communications frequency... that a slowly strobing beacon was on-down on the planet. They were, then, indeed to go to the surface. _As I expected, everyone will try to gain a little power by forcing me to go negotiate in person somewhere other than my ship._ But she did go, because she was going to get the Quarians on her side; she had settled on it, she would see it through... She needed seventeen million born engineers to turn into an industrial base.

Tanda landed in a clearing that had been burnt by flames to create a massive beaten zone, with a small pre-fab crate in it. And there was...a suited figure, holding a slugthrower, a floating combat drone at her side. The Quarian watched impassively as the shuttle went to land, but of course, all Quarians looked impassive from the outside. It was only a single moment later when Tanda came striding down into the charred soil; when the ramp dropped, the first thing out of the Quarian's mouth was; "Keelah, I hope your ship is cleaner than this!"

She was greeted by nothing. Nothing at all. Tanda was simply staring in shock. Staring in shock and trembling more than a little. _So this is the answer. This is what the Force gave me. This is fate. Her. Of all people. No wonder I sought them out!_

"Is something wrong?"

Tanda started. "The interior of Imperial ships is pristine, I assure you," though she had to take an uncertain breath. "You are Tali'zorah vas Neema, the Quarian who fought with humans—with Shepard?"

"Y-yes... can we have this conversation in your shuttle? My filters are about to clog just from standing here..." She seemed so cutely flustered by it, too, young, and a bit defensive, and if anything, seeming more trusting of Tanda than Tanda had expected, certainly considering the way...

"You chose the planet, and I don't have a damned idea why," Tanda couldn't help but grin slightly, though. Steady herself. She gestured, offering to let Tali up into the shuttle to sit on the utilitarian benches in the utilitarian gray interior that was a Lambda class shuttle.

She... tried brushing off the suit as best she could, turning off and pocketing the drone. "Quiet. Nobody lives here. If you weren't telling the truth, the fleet would be safe." Colourful she was, too... well, the suit was. A flickering HUD behind it could barely be seen.

"Well, the last is admirably important, at least." Tanda smiled tightly. "Put the air on maximum recycling," she ordered to the crew. The shuttle's droid scurried around cleaning up the tramped dirt. "You must have surely been following the imposition of Imperial Order in the Terminus Systems with some interest."

"Of course we have," she answered for all Quarians rather than just herself, then, "Who hasn't?" She threw back, glancing about at the function of the droid with interest.

 _She is the one. The first._ Tanda decided to be personable as a result: "Well I'm pretty sure several Asari news networks only follow events in the Empire to comment on my hairstyle and the shape of my ass, but with that aside, I allow the point."

"Don't forget the lurid speculation about all the-ah, anyway, you said you wanted to mediate." Tanda chuckled darkly. "Yes. I want to mediate. You'll get what you need out of the system. All of it-because I tell them you will, and I will make them obey me."

Tanda sensed that Tali'zorah was not perfectly comfortable with the answer, and amended the statement. "I'll bribe off the company with something else, of course. But needless to say, the outcome of the mediation is 'pre-arranged' ."

"You... are a very direct person, aren't you..." The voice, accented through the speakers, and a hint of suspicion through the faceplate.

"The Empire is built on principles of directness and efficiency as much as order, Tali'zorah vas Neema. I, bluntly, regard myself as having the predominant force to be inserted at will into anything as small as a mining dispute. Perhaps I must tread with more care around the great powers of this galaxy, but that is all."

"... You sound like Admiral Han'Gerrel."

"Perhaps the Admiral would make a good Imperial officer, then," Tanda answered. "May we depart?"

"... No, he wouldn't." She sounded... sour about that, crossing her arms over her chest. "You want something, no-one but Shepard ever aided a Quarian without wanting something—and yes, let's go to your ship."

"I will continue with bluntness." She leaned forward and addressed the flight deck in Basic. "Take us up to the _Thunderflare_ , pilot!" Tanda immediately ordered, and crooked a cocky grin as the Lambda immediately began to lift off, wings swinging down and locking. Then she continued.

"I fired off hundreds of probe droids to scout the areas of the galaxy around my home systems, to determine the habitation qualities of planets which are not normally open to settlement, too far from a Mass Relay, you know. This statement without context would mean nothing. But we are sitting here together talking, Human and Quarian. That provides all the context you need."

"The cost of that... Profligacy... you want to entice the Fleet to stay, don't you?"

"Yes. I want to give you a home as Imperial Citizens. Seventeen million born spacers with a natural engineering talent, that's what I see when I look at the fleet. Think of me! I am a galaxy away from home. No necessary ability to return. Think of my entire life spent with the technology of my home, looking at the peoples of this galaxy and seeing all you do not know, all that you must rely upon the ancients to achieve. Think of how I feel when I'm staring down a yawing cavern at trying to build a sustainable industrial base. I have chosen the Quarians as the most likely to help me in this task."

"... We might agree to do that. I won't rule it out." She folded her hands across the knit fabric of her hips. "We haven't had a home in so long, but we can live in so few places... at this point, we'd need transition stations to live in that would take generations to get our bodies used to living on a planet again..." The idea of a home... made her very wistful, and it carried through in her body language and tone.

It made Tanda shiver. _Will I sound like that in fifty years?_ The Quarian longing for the idea of home made her sympathetic to them. She was developing her own. Lovely Commenor. The Hall of the Families—the founding stone of the planet, the legacies woven into a framework of Humbarine and Kuat, the heritage of the Tessents and the line-plazas of Alsakan brought forth in the Queen of the Colonies, of verdant splendour carefully maintained between immense arcologies, linked by endless high spires supporting vast and slender viaducts over the park-valleys... She realized Tali'zorah was looking at her.

"I am starting to develop a similar longing for home."

The answer was a bit bitter. "You don't _really_ understand. Your home - it's just very far away. If you die here, you'll know it's still there - you can _remember_ it, and know it's much the same as when you last saw it. Your ancestors will still be worshiped and remembered by the rest of your family and people will dance in your memory. Our homeworld is nothing but a dead, bitter memory, occupied by our our creations - which became our executioners. So _don't_ tell me you feel the same."

Tanda squeezed her gloves and pressed her locked hands against her face. _She's right_. Tanda was nominally a Deanist, though Pius Dea had been an obscure and mostly dead shadow of a religion for thousands of years, and her belief like most of the Imperial upper class was these days a sort of vague ancestor worship and filial piety that included a distant watchmaker of a Creatrix somewhere at the top. It actually wasn't that far from Quarian beliefs, and the allegory of ancestral rites struck home. "And that's why I'm offering you the chance to have the triumph of survival, Tali'zorah vas Neema."

"And that's why I haven't turned you down," she shot back. "The logistics of a new Quarian homeworld are very complex, though."

Tanda pursed her lips. She wanted the shuttle ride to be over. "Our medicine might be able to help in some respects. And of course the worlds would be very secure-not attackable by the current technological modality of this galaxy. I am offering you a veritable paradise, Tali'zorah vas Neema. And of course I want something. Plenty of things, in fact, plenty of effort from your people. I will be honest, in that I will take a lot in return. In exchange for these worlds and Imperial protection, you will provide me the mass of skilled technical labour required to make the technology and the life that our technology confers in the Galactic Empire something that I can maintain here indefinitely, and provide to my men in their old age the same comforts a retired Imperial soldier should have back in our home galaxy. And if, as I expect, the Empire will send through ships to follow us, it is in the Quarian interest to already be part of the Empire when they arrive. But you will be with me, hand and fist, Tali'zorah vas Neema. We will be an unshakeable union—and the way I see it is that neither of us has anything to lose."

"The others won't believe it, not at first. Not when so many still hope for some way to return to Rannoch, and not when other species have always treated us like criminal outcasts."

"I could take Rannoch, but I'd probably have to render it uninhabitable to do so." Tanda leapt up and started to pace. "That would bring the Council down on our heads and what would be the point of ruling again your native world if it were a molten husk of rock?"

"Exactly, but Han'Gerrel doesn't see that."

"So he does not. I don't expect this to make your people perfectly happy. They must subordinate themselves to Imperial interests. Work for the Imperial cause. But you will have a world, in time, more than one. You will have the time and the stations you need to adapt to them. Your population will grow without bounds. Someday you'll walk free on the surface of your planets again."

"I can give them the offer, but I can't make the fleet take it... I can just be a messenger, Commodore Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare."

Tanda smiled, and the response reassured Tali—using the Quarian styling had been a little bit of a test.

Then Tali launched into what was truly important, at least by the standards of anyone who had fought with Shepard. "Besides, the Reapers are coming - if you put enough effort into finding me, you at least know the rumors that it was more than the geth - you probably should worry more about that first."

"The more rapidly I produce military equipment to the calibre expected by the Imperial military, the greater certainty with which I can deal with - what I only know half-rumours about right now. But I am taking the threat seriously."

" _Good_. They're very real. We... oh keelah, why did Shepard have to go and die?"

"I don't know the answer. I'd have liked to have met her. You directly faced them, if that's true - and I'll be very interested in everything you have to say. But from what I do know, they don't show any special ability to operate away from mass relays, and because of that agreeing to my proposals would arguably protect the Quarian civil population from them in a way that no other species has a hope to achieve."

"You're right - though they'd probably be willing to take the slow route, it would... I'll take the fleet the offer you're making, and talk to my father about it, but I can't do more than that."

"If you are worried about these Reapers, continued collaboration between us directly is also to be recommended. If they attack, I will meet them."  
"... You'll have to. If you bleed and travel the stars, they want you dead."

"As you say, Tali'zorah vas Neema. Still, they aren't here – yet-that gives us time, if we can arrange terms of our cooperation."

"I can take your offer, like I said. Nothing can make the Conclave accept it."

"I am aware that you cannot speak for your people. Nonetheless I should like to demonstrate conclusively that we are prepared to help and interested in assisting you."

"We wouldn't say _no_. Your ship... well, we've heard stories."

"Would you like a tour?"

"Yes! - I mean, if you're willing..." That had been such a happy 'yes!'... like a child getting a Life Day present. Tanda imagined Tali as an enthusiastic human teenager under the suit; she couldn't help it. A young lieutenant, fresh into her career, with a world of possibilities ahead of her. _They must be Near-Humans_ , she decided after a moment. _Yes, she will do._

They could look forward now as they rose up to the _Thunderflare_ , with two TIEs on overwatch swinging in as escorts and approaching the looming, mile-long ISD-I...

"Wooow..." came through her suit speakers, listening to the roar, seeing how fast they climbed... oh, she was hooked.

They approached the main bay to show off the capacious internal operations, landing smoothly with a sharply drawn up side party having been sent for, the shuttle crew treating Tali'zorah like a visiting emissary on their own initiative. No internal adornment, everything in metallic colours with strictly functionalist symbology and Aurebesh directives in Basic kept short and crisp and minimised. Tanda would lead Tali off the shuttle, seeing very much that she had an in with the Quarian in the guts of her ship. "The Imperial class Star Destroyer like _Thunderflare_ is a multirole heavy combatant intended to be the primary galactic patrol and deterrent force."

"Patrol? Keelah, she's twice the length of a dreadnought! Bigger than any warship we have... nowhere near enough colour, though, but so much space... So _clean_. Your air filters are the best I have ever scanned on a ship!"

"Just as long as you don't go into the trash compactor rooms, I might well believe it," Tanda replied, finding the girl's enthusiasm to be infectious.

Tali, for her part, was looking around something like a new recruit rube, though that mostly had to do with how huge everything seemed to be... But she could not help other than to wonder at all the droids trundling around, and the sheer numbers of crew, which certainly contributed to the intensely sterile environment of the ship. It was not just clean but really the lack of adornment could only be adequately described as a sterile, and clinical, sort of detachment from all forms of culture. Tanda led her through the ship, showing off turbolaser batteries, sickbays, maintenance facilities with equal aplomb. Like any Captain, she very much loved her Ship. And then...

"SFS I-a2b Solar Ionization Reactor. We expend the amount of energy that some entire planetary civilisations produce in a year on a single jump into hyperspace."

"... Can I see it?" She asked... very eagerly. "We'd have a lot more people... you have more than any other ship I've seen, but I think one of our ships would have... how many do you have aboard?" She glanced about, tapping at her omni-tool on occasion.

Tanda pointed to the solid but slightly curved wall in front of her. "Forgive me. I meant to say that you're already looking at it. I can show you the control room next, but, ah, the reactor occupies fifty-two percent of the ship's volume-so the reactor itself is volumetrically larger than one of your dreadnoughts."

"If only I could make that of eezo..." She murmured it breathily. "What I could do with power like that..."

"There are other forms of power even more impressive in my home galaxy, I assure you," Tanda murmured, too... And her voice was in almost a seductive air when she said that, though Tali missed it. "As for the crew, actually, well, we have a crew probably... ten times what your's would be on a ship this big? Our total crew is forty-seven thousand including the starfighter corps and the Stormtrooper legion."

She seemed to think. "Four to six times, then. Maybe. Hard to tell... I cannot even think of what you put them all to work at!"

"There's always more work to do," Tanda answered, and led Tali down into the reactor control room, then, the crew coming to attention as ever with their Captain and Commodore arriving, and Tanda in her black gloves no less. She promptly started explaining the arrangement.

"You can see that the reactor power leads cross into heavy charge capacitors and then into the backup reactors mounted to either flank. The engines use gravitic thrust redirection so that physical reorientation is not required for deacceleration. Generally I have found myself confidently meeting the acceleration of even Council-space snubfighters, let alone any capital ships."

"In conclusion, she's not very maneouvrable, but in a straight line, nothing here can beat her."

"With that level of power, you would... I mean, your fighters use ion engines that would give a good acceleration turn to a megafreighter."

"In that case it's simply a matter of miniaturization over a long period of time," Tanda remarked. "We can supply full power to weapons, acceleration and shielding simultaneously, as befits a patrol vessel which will need to seamlessly combine pursuit and heavy combat scenarios."

"You keep saying 'patrol vessel' and I keep hearing 'dreadnought'..."

Tanda laughed. "When I was in the Death Squadron Thunderflare would be blanked out like a gnat in the shadow of an Imperial Dreadnought. I unfortunately have none with me... But she's mine, and I couldn't be prouder of her."

"I don't think I'd ever come down off the high of being deemed worthy of captaining a ship, you know... Sovereign - or, _was_ bigger, and Destiny Ascension might mass the same, but..."

"Sovereign? That's the geth dreadnought that assaulted the Citadel, is it not? Under the traitor Saren?"

"Not geth. That's a Reaper. There are... we don't know how many. Hundreds, thousands? It was using Saren as a puppet... they twist organic minds until you're a puppet."

"Twist organic minds until you're a puppet..." Tanda shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "Sounds almost like those alien raiders and the rumours about them after all... Don't mind me, please. I'm just thinking of a problem from home that was being covered up for some reason I never got to the bottom of."

"Well, then. That's a Reaper."

"Yes. I have the data, Shepard let me have a copy before... _Normandy_ was destroyed and I went back to the Fleet. The geth were working with it-worshiping it as a god..." She trailed off. "Of course, I will share that with you. I think that no matter what you are going to fight the Reapers. I can just tell, there's never been anyone except us on _Normandy_ who even took them seriously before." She paused, not wanting to remember the loss of the _Normandy_ more. "Anyway... your ship is beautiful. Needs more colour, but aside from that..."

"Thank you. Anything else you'd like to see? I'd head to the bridge otherwise, and we can put you back down on the surface, or some other planet if you prefer, Tali'zorah vas Neema."

"... Do you have hydroponics...? I can travel aboard your ship, if you'd not mind it... I can work my own way, of course!"

"No, we do not. We instead simply have stores aboard sufficient for six years of independent operations," Tanda answered. "Food can be a little bland toward the end, you know, but our stasis is very sophisticated. Where do you wish to go? It wouldn't be appropriate for you to work when you are loyal to the Migrant Fleet, as of course, Imperial officers-and you are officer material-must be Imperial Citizens. So you are an honoured guest, instead, and indeed my personal guest, to whom I shall accord the same courtesies as a diplomat."

"That's odd to hear, you know. I'm not a diplomat, not really, and I can sign a work contract... but we'd not hire on help to support the Migrant Fleet, so I see the point."

"That is precisely the equivalency. Where do you need me to take you to contact the fleet? Clearly someone left you on that jungle hellhole."

"I can use a comm-buoy from your ship as easily as anything else, or we can travel to Dakka, and meet a scout ship there."

"In the same system?" Tanda almost snorted. "We can be there inside the hour at sublight."

"All right then. They'll be behind Zirnitra."

Tanda led her up and onto the bridge, with its control pits and standing command overlook. The triangular windows... Tactical holo-projectors at the back. The prevailing clinical atmosphere of the operations was as apparent as elsewhere. Tanda paused in the back of the bridge there and brought up the system projection while surreptitiously checking to see who was on duty. She was losing track of the watch schedule for her ship with all the other duties she had taken up...

"Lieutenant Kerhuff, set course for the fifth planet in the system. Maintain full systems scanning. "

Tali stood beside her, silent. The bridge should have been a lot cramped, a lot darker, and generally more chaotic. Even on a human ship. Or even a Turian ship. Tanda turned back to her. "Let us go over the information on the Reapers."

"I would rather not," Tali answered. "I will give it all to you, of course, but remembering my friends is... Hard."

Tanda looked out across the bridge, and remembered DEATHRON disintegrating in battle over Endor. "I understand _that_ very well, Tali'zorah vas Neema. Very well, there is no need. Just transfer the information. We have the appropriate ports."

Tanda was still beginning to go over the whole of the grim tale when they arrived at their destination. A small, old frigate hung in orbit behind the moon, keeping herself shaded with a pair of drones able to watch in-system. Cobbled together, she was a shadow of a truly functional warship, evidence of something the quarians didn't want to admit. The fleet was falling apart. They had to end the exile or find new resources, and they had to do it fast.

"One frigate, Commodore," Lieutenant Kerhuff reported. "No other ships detectable in the local gas giant's orbit, though she's got a couple of probes out."

"No trouble then, I'd do the same. Hail them and tell them we are returning Tali'zorah vas Neema after our parley."

"She identifies herself as the frigate Farka, and... clears us to approach."

Considering that she could fit inside _Thunderflare_ , it brought a smile to Tanda's lips. She turned back to Tali'zorah.

"It has been a considerable trial to maintain the fleet through all these years, has it not?"

"... Nothing goes to waste when people give you token gifts to make you not enter their system." She was... a little bitter about that one.

"The Fleet is welcome in mine. You have my offer, and I am proceeding to supervise the disputed system. Is there anything else that I should know about these Reapers before you depart, Tali'Zorah vas Neema?"

She shook her head. "No. That DSD is everything Shepard gave me on them, and everything I saw. Maybe you'll take them seriously."

"I intend to. Any other particular concerns? Hrm. An immediate point of interest from what I've already scanned: Is this related to the colony attacks we've heard reports of?"

"I don't know. Possibly? _Normandy_ was investigating some missing merchant ships when we were attacked."

"Which could be utterly banal. I see. Thank you, Tali'zorah vas Neema. I will escort you to the hangar bay, now."

She nodded. "Thank you, Commodore. I hope I can come back. _Thunderflare_ , she's beautiful."

"You are welcome to assist the cause of the Empire no matter what, but I do not ask for your loyalty against your peoples' interests. Carry on with your duties and I hope the association of the Quarians to the Empire will come about with a new dawn for your people. And regardless, I _very much_ desire to have your return. Our hangar bay is always open to you as a refuge or simply to visit, Tali'zorah vas Neema."

"Of course, Commodore." She would depart, with a wistful glance back at the hangar bay... Wondering all the while at how kind the woman was to her and why she had of all Quarians had had the luck to find two such selfless humans.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**  
Tanda would bring the _Thunderflare_ to the Nubian Expanse at once. Life went on, as it always did. She was bringing her other apprentices up to Kesalia's levels of ability, and reasonably confident against biotics. The needs of the fleet predominated. Supplies were consumed, and slowly not being replaced. Some basic parts were being fabricated by the industry of her protectorate, but they were nothing critical or important. Spin-sealing Tibanna gas from her territory had required the acquisition of very specialized research centrifuges from the Asari Republics which had been enormously expensive to obtain. ...Fuel, for that, Tanda didn't even know where to start. Direct anti-matter annihilation could provide enough power for primitive applications of hyperdrive and ray shielding, but that, too, would be an enormously expensive infrastructure to establish.

 _And somewhere out there, I have an enemy who may easily overwhelm me._ There was a tempting thought in that. Just take the ships, massively stockpile foodstuffs, leave everything else behind. Aim for the home galaxy—they had a fairly good idea of where it was now by correlating the impulses of ancient supernovae—and hope they could, in deep intergalactic space, make enough time to arrive in four years.

 _But what kind of coward abandons her homeworld to an alien terror when she has even a rock in the hand? The daughter worlds of Alsakan sustained and supported their Mother in Seventeen contests for the fate of the Republic, as a human don't you owe Terra at least one battle?_ She inhaled a ragged breath and looked uneasily at the small imitation Tessent on her desk. Looked at a new picture, too, of a place so much like that in the famed plazas of Alsakan: The vast lines of Nazca. She imagined fire falling from the sky and blotting them out, when she had never looked on them with her own eyes.

One thing was clear, she had very little doubt that the Reapers were real and were a threat. Her dreams were plagued with whispers, now. _There is a path for you to take... There is a place for you to come, for the power to crush them._ It had been confirmed. Tali'Zorah's existence had confirmed it. The force was here, and with it, a legacy of what had come before.

 _When all is in order, secure Terra. Secure the homeworld. When you have defeated the Reapers, they will cheer as you make yourself their Queen. You can do more than see the Nazca lines; you can have them bring the sceptre to you, on the Saksaq Waman, with the sun rising at your back._ Tanda had no doubt now that the origins of humanity of Coruscant were in a maroon-camp. It was still strange to digest, but it had made sense from the first. Otherwise the natural progression of humanity would have denied technological development until long after the Hutts had conquered the whole galaxy—or the Duros.

But in the inestimable human spirit, they had revolted. They had fled. They had warred. They had stolen and innovated in equal measure. They had spread across the whole galaxy, created countless unfathomable cultures and even evolved to meet local circumstances. _There is indeed no dishonour in the Imperium we called the Republic having been founded in a slave revolt. Follow the inestimable example of your nameless but valiant ancestresses and take what your right hand can hold_. Tanda lowered her head, paused in the moment of indecision.

The alarm for her comm trilled, and she started, activated it, reached for her carafe of coffee. "Go ahead, L'tenant Saukon."

"We've detected a Quarian squadron standing off against one cruiser and eight frigates, probably corporate ships, Commodore. Orders?"

"Give me a comm channel to the corporate fleet."

"Understood, Commodore. Attempting contact now."

A moment later the indicators blinked over. The voice on the other side was very subdued. " _Thunderflare_ , this system is the legitimate property of the Eldfell-Ashland corporation. We are defending our legitimate palladium mining claims from the _Vagrant_ fleet."

"I do not care what you think of the Quarians. I have decided to make myself the arbiter of the Nubian Expanse. The Empire will make decisions here. My ship's name precedes me, and it is the name of your demise if you do not leave the system."

"... _Thunderflare_... Why would you help those damned vagrants? They've spent the past centuries roaming from system to system begging and stealing instead of putting effort into colonizing a new system. _We're_ the humans."

"You are not privy to my objectives. Break off." Tanda killed the link, pushed herself to her feet, and headed out to the bridge. "Condition One, Actions Stations."

But Kessingon was there. And looking balefully at her.

Tanda pursed her lips, and drew up short. "Look, we've got a plan, and we're going to follow it. Obedient Quarians are better than humans unwilling to subordinate themselves to the New Order."

"As you say."

Tanda brushed past. She wondered if this were the moment of the breach. The bridge was far more silent than usual, but seemed to crackle with energy. She glanced back to Kessingon, to the stormtroopers on the bridge. Thought of calling for fleet troopers. Suddenly every officer there was acutely aware of how tenuous their command structure was. Men were wondering, evaluating themselves. Did loyalty to her trump loyalty to the ISB as the representatives of COMPNOR? Who would be in charge back home? Did the Commodore's plan really make killing humans over aliens okay?

A thousand different ideas slipped through the heads of a few dozen men. Tanda and Kessingon glared at each other. Nobody dared speak. A single word might be sufficient spark to start the battle – which would it be, barratry or mutiny? Who, at this moment, in this galaxy, could even tell how it would be seen, who would win?

Then Scolus spoke from the pit. "The corporate fleet has come about and is departing the system, Commodore."

The moment fled. The two exchanged a grimly respectful glance, and it seemed Kessingon was as thankful as Tanda was.

"Hail the Quarian squadron."

"Quarian cruiser _Vandertrask_ responding, Commodore."

" _Vandertrask_ , have you received communication from the _Farka_ regarding our intents yet?"

"The Admiralty Board said to be expecting you, _Thunderflare_... where are you? Our sensors can't pick you up yet."

"In the outer system. We are quite certain you will find supralight sensors a useful extension of your existing supralight communication technology," she commented perhaps a bit dryly. "We are proceeding to your position."

"We confirm, and welcome you."

An hour later, it all went to hell. As they proceeded in company with the _Vandertrask_ and her squadron, the comms boards lit up. "Distress messages from the Eldfell-Ashland force, Commodore. Say they're under attack by _aliens_."

"But the Quarians are with us, Commander Gristholm!"

"Nonetheless—we are triangulating the position around mass relay comms... The message has been cut off, Commodore."

"Don't wait for me, make the jump to lightspeed at once." She kicked up and out of bed, slipping into her boots and pulling on her uniform jacket. The alarms for Action Stations sounded as the _Thunderflare_ hauled out, and then shot into hyperspace fast enough her deck groaned from the acceleration.

Tanda padded out to the bridge. The Eldfell-Ashland fleet had been moving through regular FTL to the nearest gate. That meant they were so close to where the attack had taken place that they should be there in minutes. The bridge windows showed only the swirling of hyperspace.

"Did we get any kind of data from them?"

"No Commodore, just the distress message. It was heavily jammed and breaking up, without our computers to filter it we'd have received nothing comprehensible," Lieutenant Scolus stepped up to her side, then lowered his voice. "Commodore, there's also a tiny human outlier colony in the system."

"...The colony disappearances."

"Whomever has been committing them, Commodore, has excellent timing. The Eldfell-Ashland fleet shouldn't have been there. We made them be there. We may have interrupted them."

"Thank you, L'tenant. We'll find out momentarily." The countdown to reversion was already beginning.

With a tearing jerk of reality, _Thunderflare_ erupted into the system, through the scattered plasma of a fleet.

"Scanners, report!"

"Starship grade hull armour, Commodore—and there's an enemy Destroyer in the system."

"Shields."

"Shields at full power, Commodore."

Scolus routed the image onto one of the window overlays. The tactical projection on the holoplot followed a moment later. Tanda glanced between the two for reference. It was bizarre, a ship of rock, like an asteroid turned into a warship. And it was accelerating rapidly. As rapidly as a Star Destroyer could. Away from the planet.

"Main batteries, do we have range?"

"Four light seconds beyond maximum range, Commodore."

"Flank battle acceleration. Give pursuit." The planet was left in the wake of the two ships, as _Thunderflare_ 's engines howled. The deck creaked a little. The officers stayed on their feet. Reactor power generation was reaching maximum with all batteries ready to fire and shields and engines at full.

"We're not making ground on them, Commodore," Gristholm reported a minute later. "They match our sublight turn. Permission to prepare a full deck strike?"

Tanda crossed her hands. She had a limited quantity of fighters, and an even more limited quantity of _good_ fighters. Worse, a TIE bomber only had about 114% of the acceleration of an ISD-I; a full deck strike would be hobbled by the slowest snubfighter in the force, and would take a very long time to overhaul the fleeing ship. "No. Cease pursuit. We will render aid to the colony and recover survivors."

"Commodore, these are the people who have been destroying human colony after human colony..."

"And I have less than three hundred starfighters even after we've assembled the knock-down kits. Come about!"

"Commodore, we've got something on sensors still in the system."

"Identify it. Maintain Condition One." Tanda turned back to the front of the bridge. The enemy ship disappeared into FTL.

It was a single escape pod, on a ballistic course.

"The ship's already gone, Sir-nothing else on long-range scans, Commodore - one life sign in the pod!"

"If they do not need immediate medical attention have them brought to my briefing room. Maintain highest degree of watch and enter orbit of the colony."

"Aye sir."

It was... an interesting question as to whether the woman, ethnically Hispanic as the Terrans marked such things, wide-eyed and shaking from shock, needed immediate medical attention. She didn't look physically injured, aside from bruises sustained during the lifeboat blast-away sequence. She was carried straight away to the briefing room after the medical droid scanned her, though. Tanda, waiting for her, took one look and keyed open a cabinet, producing a bottle and glasses. "Corellian brandy. You seem like you need a shot. What's your name?"

"C-Camilla Guiterrez... I was... the Navigator on the MSV Stanislaw... brandy s-seems like a pretty damned good idea now... ma'am."

The snifter was slid across the table to her. "Tell me what happened, Navigator. We only saw the debris of your ships."

"... I didn't see much... the quarians, they didn't have anything to do with it. That silhouette... it was just massive, no way they had a monster like that in their Flotilla. I've never seen anything like it... whoever it was, they blew out our engines before we knew what hit us, there was smoke and screaming everywhere... I heard the captain, he yelled something about boarders before he ordered us to the lifepods... They kept hammering us all the while, I jumped in, there was an explosion, and I was out of there... I blacked out, wasn't really restrained right, and next thing I knew... there weren't any other pods. The beacon hadn't gone off, so I hit it manually. Then you showed up. It looked... I don't know, kind of like an asteroid with a station strapped on? I'm not sure. It was big, and I didn't see much before I blacked out, but no, not that at all."

Tanda showed Miss Guiterrez the image of the ship they had just pursued. "Like this, perhaps?"

She hissed. "That! That's what hit us!"

Tanda sighed. "Report the condition of the colony on the surface," she glanced back to Kesea, who stepped onto the bridge. A moment later her voice came through the comms. "Looks like they were hit by some kind of very powerful weapon centred on the colony. But we have survivors. The enemy didn't have enough time for a landing, it appears."

"Thank you, L'tenant Avera." Tanda poured her own shot of brandy, then cleared the intercoms. "This is the Commodore speaking. We have saved the humans of this system from total extirpation. We will be sending troops to the surface to render humanitarian aid. Stand down to Condition Two."

Tanda tried to _think_. This was a terrifying sort of war, because she really had no very good way of tracking ships through Mass Relays like she did using subspace sensor technology to monitor ships in hyperspace or FTL that was as old as Xim the Despot. "Is there a way to track where a Mass Relay last activated to?" She glanced to one of her Asari officers.

The woman seemed to think; "No, it would be the traffic buoy that would have the record. We don't know much about how the relays work... they might have a record, but it is illegal under galactic law and convention to tamper with them."

"Is there an intact traffic buoy in this system?"

The woman checked her Omnitool. "Negative - it appears to have been destroyed along with the human ships near the relay."

"I see. That's a Secondary relay so it has a great number of destinations that ship could have arrived from." She frowned.

"That is correct, Commodore. They could be anywhere." The blue-skinned woman offered.

"In otherwords, I shouldn't bother looking." Tanda sighed. It was getting to be a common feature of her life. "Very well, then. Arrange accommodations for Miss Guiterrez. We will make the appropriate dispatches to the Systems Alliance in due course."

"Yes, Commodore."

They were certainly capable of being professional and disciplined on duty! ...Even if their off-duty performance still tended towards the scandalous.

-

When they returned to the Quarians, the Captain of the _Vandertrask_ was not pleased. "...Destroyed?!"

Tanda took a breath. "Destroyed."

"... I... I'm sorry, we can't help you... oh, the bosh'tets are going to blame us for this."

"I'll take responsibility for it."

"Commodore?" Gristholm stared at her.

Tanda blanked the pickup and shrugged. "Well, we can't protect aliens who kill humans, now can we? So we can't let anyone think that the Quarians did this. Whereas some kind of impertinence from another of these absurd corporations seems highly likely to me, so why wouldn't I want to give in and kill them all? - And we need the worker population that the Quarians provide. It's that simple." She knew a lot of her officers were translating that as slave. She had done so herself, but after interacting with the Quarians she was more confident that would not be necessary. If they came to her voluntarily, they could be as trusted as any other reasonable client species, like the Falleen.

Tanda reopened the channel. " _Vandertrask_ , assume defensive posture appropriate for an unknown force being in the system. Just to be safe. We will accompany you to the fleet, now. _Thunderflare_ out."

Then Tanda settled in to wait, the skittering of subspace comms back to her home space... Download the probot reports, and any information from the constantly roving hyperspace patrols. The Quarians started mining the system, and Tanda kept _Thunderflare_ there, waiting for a reply. But the response, given that they were Quarians... was not a communication for more negotiations or even to accept the terms. It was when light ships started appearing at the system mass relay.

Then medium ships.

That was all, for a while... and then the heavier ships started arriving.

Tanda rocked back on her heels. It could only mean one thing, and she sucked in her breath. "The last survivors of a great race and storied civilisation, undone by hubris as grand as that of the Contispex Chancellors." Tanda regaled her crew. _Thunderflare_ held position. "This is the migrant fleet, gentlemen. A real fleet, worthy of the fleets of home."

The ships kept coming.

"And since they've come, it means only one thing. It's our fleet now, too, and with it, the Empire here can't be cracked." 


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

The fleet took four days to arrive. When it was finally fully there, Tanda couldn't help but repeat her prior sentiments. "That's more the size of fleet we're used to seeing, isn't it?" Tanda offered a small grin, and then contacted the Quarians. With the entire Migrant Fleet there, they would have the Conclave, and it was the Conclave for the moment that would matter. The hailing frequencies were routed through a few ships before converging on the appropriate channel, and then she began to speak. "Quarian Conclave, this is Commodore Pryl. What is the status of our proposal?"

It was a formality. The answer came back instantly. "Commodore Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare, the Quarian Conclave accepts your offer of hospitality and refuge."

"And I am grateful for your associate to us. We will be proceeding to Mils," Tanda answered. "I should like a liason staff to assist in the integration process. Sterilized quarters are available and we can treat your personnel with bacta if infections arise. It's my recommendation that the fleet break down the palladium asteroids and take what mass as it can haul for later processing, and then we begin the retrograde movement to Sigurd's Cradle. Preparations for the colonial establishment in the identified system whose information I communicated to you will commence there. I will begin immediate dissemination of Imperial civilian technological information at the conclusion of this communication. Military restricted material and our ideas for your assistance in realising its production will follow after we have settled out the structure of governance. The Quarians are henceforth Imperial Citizens, and disrespect toward Quarians by the races such as Salarians, Turians and Asari will... Accordingly cease."

"The proper processing HVAC equipment for setting aside certain rooms on an Imperial Star Destroyer for perpetual Quarian habitation already exist on _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ , I might add, so we can begin welcoming your personnel immediately." No need to explain why, since only Tanda, privately, knew: Lord Vader might randomly decide to bring his hyperbaric chamber along, so the filtration equipment hookups were built into the entire class.

"Confirmed, Commodore Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare. We are sending a representative party at this time." There would be a shuttle with a small team on it, one of whom was... the eager Quarian from before, standing quietly behind another Quarian woman, and a squad of four with rifles escorting them. Tanda was waiting for them with a knot of her officers, who watched the inscrutable Quarians, wondering what they were thinking or even looked like under their suits.

Tali'Zorah would step forward; "Commodore Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare, Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay."

A pause, and the Admiral spoke. "With your permission, to be Shala'Raan vas Thunderflare."

Abruptly, Tanda was put on the spot. Her command structure was still under the Empire, still governed by a bureaucracy. She knew enough about the Quarians to know that... For Admiral Shala'Raan this was a profound moment. But it was also a terrible danger. Would the Quarian Admiral think she had the right to issue orders to Tanda?

"Conference of rank and integration into the command structure, Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, adhere to certain Imperial formalities," she stiffened, and then cracked a small smile. "I must ask you to avoid assuming the name until those formalities are complete." She looked around at her people. They expected her to maintain firm control over the Admiralty... Which means she couldn't let the Admirals mess her around.

"You will first witness my assumption of the title and powers of an Imperial Moff. Then I will confirm your name as Shala'Raan vas Thunderflare and also confirm your rank at the same time." She swallowed.

Kessingon stared. Gristholm stared. Even Scolus stared.

"Understood, Commodore Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare." There was an odd emphasis on the title, one the translator seemed to have some trouble with, but the Quarian Admiral reacted with equanimity. She appeared to deign not to notice what was going on in front of her.

Tanda shot a look to Kessingon. _Do you want an alien giving you orders?_ She wanted to shout. _If Pestage disagrees, you'll die when contact is re-established. If. Until then, you are the law unto itself!_

"Admiral vas Tonbay, I trust you understand that for me the matter is simple. I command the loyalty of my squadron. On that basis I am declaring myself Moff of the Sigurd Sector." She clasped her gloved hands behind her back and started to walk at the Admiral's side. "The Governing title of Moff automatically confers status as a High Admiral."

"If His Majesty the Emperor thinks I assumed the rank in error when contact is resumed with the Empire, I will be executed." _No reason to pretend that isn't the case_. She saw that the simple declaration won over her men, too. Kessingon saw the point, grudgingly.

"Lacking contact with the central government, however, it is my right in the exigencies of circumstance, understanding as I do that my outcome could be judged as much a criminal usurption as a legitimate course of action. However, until it has been evaluated by the appropriate Imperial authorities, forces under my command and Imperial citizens have a duty under the precepts of the New Order to obey."

"If you believe my assumption in error, an appeal to the Imperial government against it will certainly aid in my prosecution." She began to walk to the turbolift, the entire group following behind her stamping boots.

"Until such time as that takes place, I must act in the interests of the Empire as I see necessary, and that means establishing regular sectoral governance for the territories which I secure."

"If my life becomes superfluous as a consequence of those decisions, then I have done my best to serve the Empire, fallen short, and I accept my accordingly just fate."

"There is nothing else one can do, than what one believes is right and correct, if discipline is to be upheld. We know this well."

"I will confer the separate existence of the Quarian military as a sanctioned Planetary Defence Force and Planetary Militia going forward from this moment. Quarian personnel attached directly to the Imperial Military will receive Imperial rank and Quarian enlistment into the Imperial military will be permitted." They rode the turbolift toward the bridge tower, uncomfortably close to all of each other.

Shala'Raan had remained very silent through the entire monologue. She had not wanted to interrupt it, to interfere with the translation, or to, indeed, avoid any subtlety in the responses of the crew. "The transition will be... difficult, but it must be borne for the sake of the Fleet."

 _Have I become a warlord?_ Tanda heaved a sigh. She could not turn back. Oh no, after a public declaration that was always impossible. "We've been preparing the upper cargo chambers as the clean facility so that you'll have access to a regular living space under hypersterile conditions to maintain your health. The Imperial Military has some familiarity with the needs of individuals perpetually confined to suits, you see."

...Commander Gristholm blanched white at the mere mention of individuals perpetually confined to suits. They exited the turbolift—distinctly scared, the humans save Tanda, and Tanda herself feeling profoundly detached from all that she had known.

"We are unlikely to be able to manage any but individual quarters in that case, Commodore," Shala'Raan was calmly explaining. Tanda barely followed it. Even linking suits in preparation for a birth in a clean room, for instance, causes several weeks of illness to us. I do thank you for the effort, however, and it will do much for the lucky ones assigned to your ships."

"If my stock of bacta were self-replenishing, I would be more sanguine about the matter. Unfortuantely we are on the strictest terms of recycling to prolong it. It is an extremely sophisticated equivalent of medigel-I can at least offer it as a guaranteed curative to otherwise completely resistant infections. As it is, your precautions make perfect and eminent sense."

Shala'Raan gave a small nod. "I hope it does not cause foolishness amongst the young to begin treating a suit breach in a cavalier fashion as a result, but the idea of it... we have dreamed of such a thing since we lost our home."

"In the longer term, the recuperation of your immune systems is an objective which our collective wealth may see more results with," Tanda replied, stepping out onto the flagbridge-which was now going to see a fair amount of use-and enter an admiralty conference room, in which a black-wreath rimmed picture of the Emperor was the only adornment. Tanda bowed before it, and began quoting sections of the law. Then she used an override that she shouldn't have known about, but her connections had put her in good stead.

"I hereby record my rank as Acting Imperial Moff of the Provisional Sigurd Sector, being the ranking Imperial officer of the Sector so organized and holding that position until a replacement Moff for the Sigurd Sector is despatched from Imperial Centre or else a reorganization of the territories in the Sector is conducted." She concluded with finality, and the computer droned on the counterrecognition. With the witnesses of her command staff, she turned back to the Quarians.

"Admiral Shala'Raan vas Thunderflare." And that was how Tanda then entered into the computer.

"Commander Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare."

The four marines had their names given as well - their... not really matching environmental suits making them stick out. There were now Quarians on an Imperial ship. Tanda turned back and extended her hand to Shala'Raan.

"As you, me, Admiral."

"Are congratulations in order, Moff Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare?" The tone in her voice was almost mild.

"I thank you for them. But I would rather say we are committed: There is no turning back. I have yoked my fate to Quarian-kind and you to the Empire. We are in it now, all for each other."

"I am tired of watching friends die, Moff Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare," Shala'Raan replied. "The Conclave narrowly approved this measure, in the hope, that we would find a dream and a dance and a song for our people again. A land for our own. The fate of our race and the spirits of our ancestors watch."

"You may judge for yourself the results." Tanda flashed a waning smile and turned to business. "If you need _Thunderflare_ to crack the palladium asteroids down to manageable pieces for the fleet to haul, I should take care of that immediately and then assume overwatch. The celebrations should come when I have let your people claim the land of two beautiful worlds-one of sand and one of water."

"If it would assist our general situation, by all means do," Shala'Raan replied, "but if there are to be worlds to mine... we need to more quickly set up regular supply channels and furnaces - the fleet is... not much longer a sustainable concern." Committed, it was time for the Quarians to admit just how close to utter ruin they had become.

Tanda nodded simply, having privately suspected as much. "Large-scale construction and integration with our technology must begin at once, for all of us to prosper. The Palladium is simply a resource to be claimed on the spur of the moment, because we are here, have some claim to it, and have the means to remove it all. I would rather not guard this system in sustained mining operations, you see. It has already come under attack by unknown forces once, as you must be aware."

"Then you may fire, Moff-the Civilian Fleet will load what they can."

"Commander Gristholm?"

"Moff Pryl!" He came to attention as she turned back to her own officers.

There was no question, then. They'd follow her... She saw in their eyes...

...Until she faltered. Then she'd die like any warlord. "Commander, crack the asteroids, issue collection instructions to the Quarian fleet, and then assume overwatch. You are in command until further notice."

"Aye, M'lady."

Tanda grimaced at the address, she couldn't hide it. She didn't want to become a stranger to these men, but it was fast becoming so, regardless of her desires. Then she'd show the Quarians to their segmented quarters personally. They were furnished and literally completely sterilized. The Quarians could watch and wait, but atmospheric germ count just wouldn't be there. The filters they were running were damned good... Lord Vader had made sure that they were. The Admiral stepped into her quarters without a word-Tali'Zorah, on the other hand, paused.

"Moff... thank you. I didn't think I'd meet someone else like Shepard who would look past our reputation."

"I only care about results, Tali'Zorah," she answered her formally. "Perhaps others might see it differently, but... Well, the Asari said you were good engineers, and I needed good engineers. The Matriarchs didn't seem to be lying about that, since it didn't strengthen their case about caution in engaging with you." She smiled thinly.

"And I was staring into the abyss of our technology disappearing. I couldn't allow that to happen."

"Sharing it seemed not merely the better bet but the only bet for me to make, you see," Tanda concluded, self-effacing in the way her class afforded, reasserting her calm with the moment of decision having passed.

"Even Han'Gerrel will be too busy to start any wars with the geth... those were our only choices, you know. War to reclaim Rannoch, or finding a new place to settle. You made the second into something we could really, truly, and safely achieve!" Tali'Zorah's voice grew hopeful, eager, even. In Tanda'Pryl, it seemed her hope that Commander Shepard had given her had found a new light, a new life.

It was an attitude so intense and enthusiastic that Tanda couldn't quite help but respond to it cheerfully, again. And from that, offer a warning. "Tali'Zorah, you will, I warn, encounter some bigotry from my crew. But... In fairness to them, back home in our native galaxy that unkindness is directed toward all aliens, so it is something Asari deal with too when among us. Inform me if it becomes problematic. If it does, I will personally deal with it."

"As long as they don't fool with our suits, we're... used to it. The rest of the galaxy hates quarians anyhow."

"I don't understand how." The idea of enslaving Tali'Zorah _personally_ was harder and harder to stomach the longer she talked to her, particularly after the ship tour, but even moreso now. That had never been the plan, not with what she had discovered about the woman, but as long as the image in Tanda's mind was firmly fixed on her as a representative of her species, the objectives in this agreement of the extremist faction of her crew seemed especially absurd. There would be no 'domestication'. For the Quarians it was quite unneeded. And in part, Tanda even felt cheery enough—the future seemed obtainable—to give voice to some of it. "You are impossible to hate, Tali'Zorah. Perhaps that is only personally, but, nonetheless. "

Tali laughed. "Well, think of it, Moff Pryl. Fifty thousand ships which have no resources of their own. People think we're a swarm of locusts - that we swoop down and strip-mine a system bare... and while we might, they... Well, we didn't have any choice if we were going to survive. They think we're all vagrants and thieves, and that we deserve all our ills for the geth..." She sighed.

"... Back when I first came to the Citadel... Shepard was the second person - that is, the second non-Quarian to ever show me _any_ kindness at all. I remember, once, on our first shore leave, I... bumped into this Turian. He was in my visor in a moment, declaring I'd stolen his credit chit. C-Sec showed up, and they... they were about to _arrest_ me... Shepard... I'd never seen her so angry, as she tore into her fellow human for being so ready to believe ill of me, and even _after_ finding out I hadn't done anything, threatening to run me in, for disturbing the peace. As if it was my fault the turian got angry!" She sounded so angry about it... but she was young and aggrieved at the injustice of the idea.

Tanda found it absurdly cute as she had started out trying to be even-handed and then fallen into anger at her treatment. It seemed justified, even. "That is no longer the case. I certainly don't think you'd go around stealing credit chits. Though our money is treated as a joke outside of the Sigurd Sector at the moment, that will change. And respect for Quarians will change, too. It'll change at our blaster-point, but you'll have earned it by establishing the technological base to let us keep manufacturing blasters."

"And earning that respect will feel very good. I know. I earned my command the hard way."

"Every Captain has to. Or so it seems. Auntie Raan, she asked for me when they picked her as the liason... I hope I can live up to it." ...The Quarian paused, and continued in an almost apoplectically embarrassed voice. "That is to say, Admiral Shala'Raan!" It seemed to reinforce a fear that she wasn't really worth her position.

Tanda laughed gently. "I had that help too, Commander. A rich and powerful family-I still had to earn it, because High Human Culture does not consider woman's place in the military. The two balanced each other out and left me mostly to my own devices. I could counter the bigotry against women with my connections, but not exploit them for more advantage."

"... Worse for me, though, Moff Pryl. My father's on the Admiralty Board too." She half-moaned it. "Nobody will ever take me seriously in the Fleet."

"Looks like you'll just have to win a few battles, then." Tanda offered a laid-back smile to reassure her. "If another threat from the Reapers does materialise, we'll certainly have plenty of them."

"I've already done that, it doesn't seem to matter... and now I'll have to start all over again with your crew."

"Not with me. I saw those data-files, and the men who I share them will understand some respect for you. I promise you that."

"We'll see, but I certainly hope so." Tali seemed urgently focused on finding something else to talk about. "Oh... how are rations going to work, Moff Pryl? I think I figured out everything on the tour but that."

"Oh, heh. We have a technology called the food processor, or synthesizer if you prefer, which can construct edible organic matter to all requirements out of basic sugars and carbohydrates, so it will synthesize protein you can digest."

"As long as you don't like eating your food alive, it can functionally provide you with even quite exotic food, assuming you can programme it for the specific dish. We did the protein conversion programming already for diplomatic purposes, however." She paused in front of the quarters, unable to go through the lock without de-sterilizing them, of course. "This system lets us store six years of rations for fifty thousand people onboard, you know. Hyper-compressed sugar-carbohydrate blocks."

"... We eat pastes through the suit, and I think I've had meat based product four times in my life, Moff Pryl." She sounded bemused by that.

"Well, you'll now be able to experiment a bit with designing your own food, I suppose—and producing more synthesizers will go up the priority list if that's the case. They just need synthetic sugar and carbohydrates to work, or properly purified natural ones that don't contain any more sophisticated contaminants."

"I think we will be living off the liveships for some time yet... I've already done a tour there, and I know just what it involves, the processing and purifying... but you should see what happens when we reach a system that has proper dextro products. It's like... humans and alcohol."

"Well, we can obtain sugar products from levo-worlds that should be pure enough to process into your food through a food processor. Of course, don't get me started in talking about our foreign exchange problems. The fleet will help a lot..." She stiffened a bit, and allowed a small smile. "I had best return to the bridge, Commander. I hope you enjoy being able to take your suit off."

"... I think it might take me a few days - or even weeks! - to get used to the idea of even being able to consider it... maybe now I can even find parts to put together an air conditioning unit for it."

Tanda laughed gently. "Enjoy the freedom, Tali'Zorah." ...Shepherding this massive fleet chained to the relays back home to Sigurd with the Thunderflare was going to be a pain in the ass-and possibly dangerous. They would, after all, pass through Omega, and someone really might not like the prospect of _Thunderflare_ in some kind of alliance with the Quarians. Including among her own men.

She had just made herself a Moff, and now _everything_ was political.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Slowly the fleet travelled through space. Shepherding the vast caravan was a hectic job. Fifty thousand ships, moving through the relay network the whole while. With them only _Thunderflare_. The Quarians had countless warships, of course, but most were hideously encumbered by shipping containers and bolted on hab modules. Meanwhile the news came in of the mining company demanding a Citadel investigation, claiming the Migrant Fleet had destroyed their flotilla - a distress call about an "alien attack" had been picked up and everyone knew what that meant.

Tanda, of course, sent the documentation, including the interview with Guiterrez identifying the Collector ship, and observing that she had taken measures to stabilize the situation and was escorting the Refugee Fleet out of Alliance-activity space in the interests of intergalactic peace. Caleston first, then straight through to Omega... Not much else to be done for it, as any other route was too close to the Perseus Veil or had too many inhabited systems patrolled by other governments, and Tanda was still trying to avoid the scrutiny of organised militaries for her ships that could reveal just how powerful they were. The fleet... well, it just took so damned long to get anywhere—nobody on the outside knew the destination, and that helped, but... stragglers had to be escorted as best as possible by the Patrol fleet, their frigates swooping in to cover civilian ships that fell out of the formation, for one reason or another, and the saga carried on unending.

Perhaps thankfully, the Quarians were used to this, moving about - their heavy ships holding position near the centre of the mass, making jump after jump, slowly moving towards... where they were to go. And so they would sweep down into Omega. The great fleet massing there began to move toward _Thunderflare_.

And then it halted. The relay had spun up, and the Quarian fleet was arriving. "Broadcasting homogenous IFFs?" Tanda glanced neutrally to her new Chief of Staff.

"Yes, Moff Pryl," Tali'Zorah answered. She seemed to glint a bit at Omega, and who wouldn't, for the scale of the eezo it held.

Tanda realised what it was, then. The pirates and smugglers of Omega didn't know the true power of an Imperial Star Destroyer. But they did know that the Quarians, despite all the contempt others held for them, held the largest, and in fact most powerful fleet in the known galaxy. They might think that they could take _Thunderflare_ alone, but even the pirates had no possible illusions about taking her in combination with the squadron after squadron of Quarian cruisers arriving in the system at the same time and broadcasting the same IFFs, clearly indicating some kind of joint allegiance.

Kessingon stepped up to her side. "Moff Pryl, our opportunity to deal with Aria T'Loak is at hand. Order the Quarian squadrons forward. We can provide distant cover against the artillery emplaced on the Omega station."

But Shala'Raan was there too. "Moff Tanda'Pryl, our ships are in poor repair and casualties would be heavy from the proposed course of action."

 _I think Kessingon is quite well aware of that,_ Tanda thought to herself. "Perhaps we can obtain the same result for less effort." She stepped down into the comms pit. "Hail Omega!"

"Communications going through, Your Ladyship."  
A very familiar purple-blue face resolved itself after a moment. Aria T'Loak was a profoundly unhappy woman. Furious, in fact. Her authority was clearly being challenged from both within and, from her perspective, also from without, by the presence of the Migrant Fleet in combination with _Thunderflare_.

Tanda smiled. It bore no real emotion, except to perhaps allow her bemusement. "Governor T'Loak, you have my gratitude for arranging these contacts with the Migrant Fleet. Please inform me if you need any assistance in maintaining control over Omega or any kind of recompense. I prefer reliable people to unreliable ones. Your assistance in replenishing the Migrant Fleet as we continue to travel to the Sigurd Sector will earn you gratitude from me, and that gratitude will be invaluable when considering the contributions of Omega to the Empire compared with the contributions of others also seeking my gratitude."

"Gave yourself a promotion, did you? I'll tell you want I want," Aria abruptly snarled. "Don't come back! We'll provide supplies to the fleet and the pirate gangs will disperse. Leave Omega alone, _Moff_ Pryl."

Tanda stiffened at the obvious slight. She was sensitive to her own action and its implications for herself, for the respect of her men. What she didn't need was the 'Governor' of Omega reminding to her what she'd done.

"If that is what you want for my gratitude."

"All your 'gratitude' does is force me to kill more people, Pryl."

"So be it. We'll begin transiting out of Omega in twenty-five standard Council hours." She'd created a power. The Quarian fleet conferred that much on her.

Aria glared back. But the supplies came in, and Tanda departed on time. She expected that she had upset everyone at that point. Aria, Kessingon, both the people of Omega and her own men who wanted decisive action against the pirate station. But Shala'Raan seemed happy, and Tanda presumed, with her the Quarian admiralty.

It took another three weeks for the fleet to reach Mil. And when they did, there was something waiting for her. This time, she could not make Kessingon ignore it. It was a request from Cerberus to send a ship to her to allow direct communications with the Illusive Man, who was 'concerned' at her recent activities.

 _Very well. Send the ship and I will parley through it_ , would be her answer. It was an answer she wrote with the ISB looking over her shoulder. Tanda settled back.

"You're allowing aliens to become the dominant influence in our government here, Moff Pryl," he said, simply. "No wonder the Illusive Man is so concerned."

"The Illusive Man is a jumped up neobarb who doesn't understand what's required to govern a galactic civilisation!" Tanda replied, grabbing the table and leaping to her feet. Her anger was hot and heady and made her feel so very, very powerful.

"Commandant, or shall I say General now, let's be clear about this. I know you want me to deal decisively with the alien problem, but the fact of the matter is that we need them all. I even need Governor T'Loak. As long as Omega is intact, the Council can convince themselves we're not a threat. Look, we're just not going home, not for decades anyway, and we're going to be leaning on the Quarians until then."

"The Quarians, the engineers, fine, Moff Pryl. But what about the Asari?"

"They were here first. We didn't put all the Duros into reservation. We still won. Humanity will come out on top naturally. There are still a few million Asari, a few million Quarians, only. There are, what, twenty billion humans in this galaxy? Something like that. We have nothing to be worried about." Breathing hard, Tanda sank back into her chair.

"But the Quarians and Asari will now monopolize Imperial governance."

"Not when we give all the Admirals and Generals in the Systems Alliance equivalent rank." She reached for the brandy, this time, not coffee. Blue eyes looked across at green.

"Then we need the Systems Alliance."

"No, rather, we _will_. Look, give me enough time to get the Quarian fleet refitted for combat, their civilians safely off, those cargo pods jettisoned. Then... Then we will have a strong enough force to do battle against the Council. If the Illusive Man will prepare the way for me to bloodlessly occupy Earth, at that point in time, and only at that point, I will consent to it."

"And when the ship comes?"

"I don't intend to communicate. I'm going to take it to his headquarters and speak with him face to face, General. That will settle things out, and let me judge him in person. It also shows to _you_ that I, at least, believe we have nothing to fear from Cerberus, and still intend to cooperate with them according to the precepts of the New Order." She looked at him, hard.

Kessingon nodded his head. "I am confident there will be no risk to you. Who will you take with you?"

"Some of the aliens, so that they understand that, firstly, their cooperation is a guarantee of their safety, and secondly, they cannot prevent us from collaborating with the representatives of our own race."

"Very good, then. Thank you, Moff Pryl." He didn't bother to let his gaze linger, as she dropped her eyes down toward her boots.

-

It was bemusing to see the Quarians with Imperial rank squares on their suits, though Tanda knew that some people were not actually at all bemused. Commander Tali'Zorah was prone to staying up far too late, but managing to very aptly demonstrate that she and all the Quarians worked... fast. They were profoundly talented at what they did, and with the Migrant Fleet settling down around Mils, processing minerals and making preparations for their first journey to their new homeworld.

Over the course of two weeks, the plan they were formulating now had started to come together. Tanda, sitting with Gristholm across from Tali'Zorah and Shala'Raan, engineering schematics done up in holograms before them. "Of course, we'll have to completely re-program the drive control computers in every possible way," Tali remarked.

Tanda nodded. "Yes, but once the constants about shape and mass are changed..."

"The energy scales are roughly the same, yes. Well! That's two LiveShips."

"Move two in orbit of our new home, and keep one here for insurance and to provide food to the rest of the fleet," Shala'Raan clarified.

"Ultimately they would be permanently in orbit," Tanda responded. She wasn't drinking any coffee, in that usual human way of finding it a bit off-putting when your companions at a table couldn't join in. "We'll need to use them for multiple trips to ferry the civilians and knock-down kits for hab modules in orbit."

"Close enough. I like the plan. It makes sense without relays, of course, but it is impressive to me that two hyperdrive motivators are aboard each of your capital ships, Moff Tanda'Pryl."

"Well, now there will only be one," Gristholm muttered softly. "But it's so. We've got the capability to spare. In the short term with the reliability of our systems we can make more out of spare parts, even, but that will require that we have a reliable future supply of spare parts."

"We will meet your requirements, Commander," Tali'Zorah replied. "Our factory ships already no longer have to plan for keeping the fleet sustainable indefinitely. That makes us possess reserve capacity from the start."

"So it does!" Tanda pushed herself to her feet. "Well, then, I believe this discussion is at a conclusion. Thank you, Admiral, Commanders—Commander Zorah, if you could stay, I would much appreciate it."

"Of course, Moff Pryl."

The two remained together as Admiral Shala'Raan and Commander Gristholm left. Tanda went for water, in the end.

"Commander, how have things been going?"

"Well, sometimes your men are patronizing. They doubt that a Quarian can really do what we can! They also don't like aliens, but you warned us about _that_."

"It's true. Well, if anything interferes with you, let me know."

"You're just like Shepard."

"I'll take the compliments where I can get them..." The comm trilled, and Tanda sighed and cued it on. "Moff Pryl."

"Your Ladyship, a Cerberus cruiser has arrived in the system and is requesting communications with you."

"A Cerberus _cruiser_?"

"It has the correct power signature, Your Ladyship."

Tanda stared at Tali. They both started for the bridge deck together. And it was, indeed, an actual Cerberus _liveried_ cruiser, broadly similar to the human designs but different in certain ways. Now Tanda stared at the display.

"...Are they idiots?" She asked the question out loud, even. "This is supposed to be a secret organisation devoted to the rise of humanity and they just schmaltz around with openly marked cruisers?" This created a profound problem for Tanda Pryl's tenuous race relations, and she was acutely aware of it. So, so acutely aware of it, with Tali'Zorah staring at her right then and there.

The cruiser hung in the outer system, at least, and sent an un-marked shuttle while the Asari rumour mill on the ship went into overdrive.

"Summon Admiral Shala'Raan, L'tenant Avera." She started back toward the conference room. "This way, please, Tali."

Tanda rubbed her eyes as she watched her small party assemble with her. And then pulled a small metal cylinder from her desk, shoving it into her boot, and looked at her Asari flag lieutenant and then at the two Quarian women. There were none of her native crew present to watch the gesture.

"Admiral. You're in command while I'm gone," she said to Shala'Raan. "I... Please understand the relevance of this gesture."

"Understood, Moff Pryl." The woman replied in her accented voice, glowing eyes nearly inscrutable behind the visor.

Kesea, in turn, was hiding the odd look she wanted to give her superior officer very well. Cerberus... had quite the reputation.

"Commander, L'tenant. We're going about that cruiser. Don't expect to be home for a while."

"...Understood." Tali spoke, with... audible uncertainty in her voice. "I'll need time to... get everything I'll need to stay healthy aboard a ship like that, ma'am."

Kesea said nothing, but... a flicker of uncertainty went across her face.

"Don't worry. They don't understand the powers they are consorting with, and I intend to educate them."

"If you say so, ma'am." She would say in response to that-Tali... did have quite a bit to gather together-food supplies, for one. Filters, scrubbers, toolkits, everything else a Quarian alone would need to bring with them, rather like she were embarking on pilgrimage again.

In the meanwhile, Tanda had the shuttle brought aboard and the crew brought to her. There was no reason not to... Since they weren't aware of this plan yet, anyway; not like they would ever be aware of the _real_ plan. The crew that was presented to her consisted of two pilots, a liaison in a suit-it wasn't a very big shuttle, able to hold maybe ten on two benches—built to the human standard, as they might have seen during voyages to Systems Alliance affiliated planets. The crew and the shuttle, at least, were not visibly Cerberus.

"There's been a minor change in plans," Tanda addressed them. "I will be accompanying your ship back to meet with the Illusive Man in person, bringing with me only two aides. I have decided that simple live communication is not sufficient for the level of coordination we need to obtain."

... The man in the suit stiffened. "That was not the plan. I will have to get clearance from command, Moff Pryl."

Tanda shrugged. "I am one woman. If we can't coordinate, misunderstanding is inevitable. Get your permission."

"... You can come aboard the _Anesidora_ , Moff Pryl." He would reply after some communication.

"There are some troublesome aliens in my staff. I am bringing them to arrange an accident where the witnesses will be-reliable," she would add more softly.

He gave a glance, and his eyes flickered. "Of course, Moff Pryl." He did... relax a hair after that. Cerberus had wanted to get their hands on aliens... well, unspeakable experiments were their forte, as the Asari rumours went.

So it was that they would file into the shuttle to head for the cruiser, then... One Quarian and one Asari who apparently were supposed to have horrible things happen to them where they were going, by the request of their own commander. Tanda's lips curled into a faint smile and she felt the lightsabre reassuring in her boot. Jedi had done this kind of thing all the time. She had seen it growing up in the holovids of the Clone Wars, and with her emotional connection to the force she could match it. And she went right on telling herself that, as they swung back to the cruiser, moving into dock-the size of a Dreadnought, but with a crew of only eighty... locking into place at the docking collar, there was a side party of troopers to present arms when she arrived.

Tanda snapped a very crisp salute. "Permission to come aboard?" Some human traditions were for whatever reason, universal, bred into the race.

"Granted, Moff Pryl!" The officer, a young fresh-faced woman, stepped back before her squad, who snapped up their rifles in salute as her boot touched the deck.

The ship was metallic, sterile - just like an Imperial ship, though a bit brighter. They loved the same combination of white and black in armor that the Empire did, though they carried it to uniforms as well.

Tanda retained her distance from them in the way of a senior officer, seeing where she was being taken, and calming herself to be confident in her chosen course of action. No biotic could even dream of the power she had found.

They travelled up to the bridge, to meet the captain where a scarred, grey-haired man, who'd offer her a quick salute, would welcome her. "Moff Pryl, welcome aboard."

"Captain. If you can... Arrange quarters for the personnel I have brought along. We may speak in private, then."

He gave a look. "Of course. There's a conference room on Deck Three." He nodded to the aide who had welcomed them to the ship, and she moved to take the two members of her staff away. Tali was getting twitchy, and Kesea was restraining herself. This still looked like they were getting sold out as far as they were concerned; the abrupt and public arrival of Cerberus had meant that there was no time to actually explain to them what would happen.

Then he went for the conference room. Inside was a respectable table for a dozen or so, and viewports showing the stars outside -a guard before the hatch, and an aide ready to take notes or run to the ship's kitchen if needed, and a small stocked bar to one side as well.

 _Tali'Zorah, this is not a betrayal._ The voice would seem to whisper into her mind as their courses then diverged. The Quarian girl stiffened, enough to get glances... but she forced herself to keep walking, thinking to herself. _I certainly hope so... my shotgun's in my luggage._

Meanwhile, Tanda had started talking to the _Anesidora_ 's Captain. "So, our simple objective is to bring humanity under the New Order. This will allow the ultimate domination of the galaxy by humans. Nothing else is acceptable or of Imperial interests."

Tanda looked levelly at the Captain. "There is a problem of course."

"I needed personnel immediately, and I did not wish to simply show up in Terran orbit and... Order the Alliance to surrender."

"Of course... would you like a drink, Moff? We'll be getting underway shortly. It's true, you know. Nothing unifies humanity like a clear external threat. We love our freedom... but as we know, you can't have it without strict obedience to order. The concepts have always existed in tension for us."

"Certainly, Captain." She focused through the force, though, trying to determine the motivations of those around her. _A poisoned drink would be such a silly end of me_. "Something neat - we have Corellian Whiskey and Corellian Brandy back home as the most famous, as the humans of Corellia make by far the best liquors... I've started to see the evidence of Terra being our homeworld as somewhat conclusive. Modern Homo sapiens existed thirty thousand years ago or so there, after all, but the origins of humans on Coruscant are an utter mystery."

"If the Protheans hadn't already vanished, you might have had an answer, but..." He shrugged. "I've an excellent Scots whiskey, if you'd like to try it." He'd direct his aide to pour her a finger to try. "We'll find out when we have the leisure to study the matter."

"That will be a nice era." She savoured the whiskey for what it was, not bad at all, or rather appreciably good.

"It would. To humanity, Moff Pryl." He offered a toast.

She took the toast. "To humanity," she echoed, and sighed. "I want all of you working for the Empire, Captain. I want you building ships with Imperial technology instead of wasting your time with these, however lovingly engineered they are. Continuing your current activities is a waste of time when the blueprint for an entire technology base presently exists in my territory that is an order of magnitude better in most respects. The only critical thing is to avoid a juncture of public opinion regarding Cerberus and the Empire as one and the same. And that is the reason I reached out to the Quarians."

"We'd love to be... well, sometimes you have to use aliens, Moff Pryl." He swirled his around, sipping it. "We have. Your ships, they're proof that even those snooty blue bitches aren't the be-all and end-all of the galaxy, as much as they like to lord their 'superiority' over us and hold us back from what we deserve."

"There was a race famous for its starship design aptitude," Tanda remarked, looking down into her drink. "We enslaved them." She allowed herself a light laugh, then. "That is I think the one problem I've been having with humans here. You disassociate from aliens."

"Back home, we conquer, dominate, and direct the fate of alien species according to human interests. So people see the Empire making deals with aliens and think we are not acting in human interest. But of course as a reality, I am co-opting the greatest threats with the intent to reduce them to irrelevance. Seventeen million Quarians are giving me the industrial base to conquer the Alliance - and then eighty billion humans will render them worse than slaves; a literal statistical insignificance."

"Quarians, sure, but asari?" His face curled. "Parasites on the rest of the galaxy, tempt and corrupt and don't give anything back, too good to even breed with themselves. I mean, look at 'em."

"That was a case of bare survival, Captain, when we first arrived. They're one colony world." She allowed a look of distaste. "They are... Well, not the worst rivals humanity has ever faced. Imagine six meter long slugs with armoured carapace heads and opposable thumbs. Possibly the biggest brains in existence in a sapient—and that's the one thing going for them."

"They actually managed to stalemate us... For the first couple thousand years. Now they're reduced to a criminal underworld. Against the kind of deviousness the 'Hutts' can get themselves into, I am not too worried about Asari."

"That said I do rather badly want them outnumbered. Which is why I need Cerberus; I need to be able to crew the new ships I am building with humans-thus in the end why I decided to speak to the Illusive Man in person. If we're not directly collaborating, the fortune of my arrival here could be wasted." Her face stretched to a taut grin. "I need to swamp the Asari I let in as an exigency of circumstance before they can do anything about it."

"Well, we're going to meet with him, you've been cleared for that, Moff Pryl. Cronos Station..." He was also grinning. "We... are much more than the Alliance dares think."

"Good. So is the Empire." Tanda Pryl looked back levelly across at the Captain. "Understand Sir that this is a bit of a game of poker—isn't that what you call it? See: Cerberus can negotiate evenly with me... But If I am followed as I expect to inevitably be the case... You may only obey."

"Case in point: _Thunderflare_ is hull number fourteen thousand and sixty-five... Of f her class. She is but a destroyer for a reason. I will not negotiate on the grounds of that, even so, I will treat with Cerberus as an equal-but bear in mind that is my consideration for my fellow humans."

"Oh, we haven't... nobody who's heard what we have about you could dare think otherwise. Still, Moff Pryl... for this galaxy, we're a lot more than you think."

Her lips curled into a malicious grin. "We should bring Tali'Zorah to the wardroom at some point, though. Whatever else you say about Quarians, they're hilarious when they're drunk."

And yet somewhere inside, she actually thought: _Sorry, Tali._

"Hah, my officers might well want to see that!"

As Tanda left to go to her own quarters, she now had a very clear idea of what she was doing: She was saving her own skin. The ISB wasn't going to coup her if she was still reliable enough to meet the Illusive Man without guards: It meant she had nothing to fear from human interests, and was still supportive of the human cause. But at the same time... She was not going to let some trumped up businessman order about the Empire. She was going to assert her _own_ leadership over Cerberus.

The ship's officers were... polite, professional sorts of people. A lot of veterans, but a lot... joined up to stand for what was right, which they didn't see the Alliance as doing. Under her command, they would be excellent personnel. Joining her aides' quarters, Tanda forced herself to talk about logistics. Then she started to write, on paper no less, and quickly found herself with a problem.

 _This is me. I have a plan. Be ready._ She was assuming they were being constantly monitored, at any rate.

But Kesea... did not look well, and mumbled; "... My biotics aren't working." Then, trembling, she wrote: _I can barely even lift a stylus._

 _I will try to investigate that._

 _I'll be as ready as I can, Moff... but I'm not sure what good I'll be._

Inside, Tanda cursed herself. She'd thought it was the perfect plan. With biotics backup, easy enough for someone with a lightsabre to kill the Illusive Man. But now she had no biotics support, and... Her words had set her aides up to be murdered by her guests. With her honour on the line, she had gone from a quick improvised plan to end the threat of the ISB to her, in the space of a few heartbeats, to facing a pivot between bringing that threat to fruition and letting women she had commissioned herself into the Navy be killed before her eyes. So much for being better than a Jedi... _Could I take the Illusive Man by myself?_ The whispers seemed to say yes, but she was trapped in indecision.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Cronos Station was truly huge. Tanda thought it larger than anything else she could quickly recall, bigger than an _Executor_ , larger than most orbital transfer stations... Still dwarfed by a Death Star, of course. Dozens, hundreds of ships could dock at it, and there seemed to be a steady traffic near it, as they moved in to dock beside another cruiser. In the meanwhile, the Cerberus crew found her officers... amusing. One was suppressing regular bouts of rage, and the other, on edge and depressed. Tanda still had no way forward.

 _I have no-one else to trust,_ Tanda tried to explain, using Tali's omnitool as a sort of private communication between the two of them. _I could not use my own officers for this mission, and you, Tali'Zorah, served under the famous Shepard._

 _I had a shotgun then,_ she came back, sounding perhaps justifiably peevish.

 _You'll get my blaster pistol. I won't need it._

 _Not my shotgun._

 _Your particle shielding won't stop it. Hrmf._ Tali brought out a certain playfulness in her she couldn't deny, even in the dreadful circumstances they were in. She wasn't wearing her uniform that day, either, contributing to a sense of disassociation from her usual discipline. The heavy black jumpsuit combined with gloves and cape to look rather terrifying, at least, to Tanda, used to the canonical dress of Lords of the Sith. And of course it was, in fact, heavy enough to not be... Spray-on like the Asari equivalent would have been. This time, the - strange functionalist cylinder - was clipped to her belt freely. Kesea knew what it was, but in her state of depression at the bizarre failure of her biotics, she was morose and silent.

 _I already rigged up a ray shielding unit for my suit, do you think I'm stupid? I just hope they haven't._

Tanda's eyes widened at the swiftness of action being described, but then she calmed. It was too late for more conversation, or for anything at all. Her trio was met by more Cerberus troopers, and a middle-aged man, who gave a small bow. "Moff Pryl. The Illusive Man is expecting you. Please."

"Thank you. Lead the way. I assume there will be somewhere comfortable for my officers to wait until we are finished." Discussing how to eliminate them, among other things, might be one implication. Tanda was mustering her ominousness. She had seen Lord Vader do this, after all...

"Of course." A quartet of guards fell in behind, as he nodded to the side, an officer coming to lead them away, as he and two other troopers led her deep into the base. To the Illusive Man's inner sanctum they would march... With its incredible view of the system Cronos station was in, the sanctuary overlooking with a splendid view the system's red dwarf, a set of monitors behind the Illusive Man himself, showing the same, and he... Was waiting for her, smoking some sort of tabacc as he sat there and then rose to meet her, and offered a hand. "Moff Tanda Pryl. So good of you to come."

She felt him through the force and relaxed into her role. _What am I do to? I can feel all of life..._ She pulled off one glove and shook his hand. "There were too many misperceptions about my intentions to resolve in another manner except face to face, human to human."

He was... cagy and calm. Driven., ruthless, thinking he was doing best... No, _knowing_ he was doing the best for humanity. "Please. Bourbon?" He gestured to a seat - which was a rare concession.

Tanda slipped into the seat and smiled. "Certainly, it will be a pleasure. I've been slowly getting entertained into the varieties of human liquor from Earth and hope to repay the favour from home for as long as the stockpiles last, in time. And perhaps someday..." She paused, folding her hands. "Well, I expected to be followed at some point, but as the technology was entirely experimental and the circumstances improvised, it is an open guess on my end as to when: But when you've made something and used it once, it's only human nature to try again."

"Agreed." The bottle, from Earth, and two glasses, on the rocks, one handed over. "It would be best to present a successful, united front when they do."

"It will be beneficial." She sipped, enjoying the liquor more - modestly, this time, as compared with her usual habit. It would be a long conversation. "I will face an accounting before the Emperor when that takes place. Consider your own place carefully: You might find yourself a Grand Moff in charge of this entire galaxy as an Oversector, if our collaboration is judged in Imperial interests. If it isn't, I will take the better part of the blame. But of course, the problem is that we must properly have control over humanity in this galaxy to be considered successful by any measure."

"That is correct. Being able to guide the destiny of humanity has been my objective all along. There is some hope that the Terra Firma party on Earth might be something of a... vehicle, but they have thus far proven a... disappointment."

"Too much isolationism," Tanda answered simply. "What human wants to be stuffed into their homeworlds when there's a galaxy to explore and conquer?"

"Isolationist, and prone to scandals reflecting poorly upon them... Cerberus is poised to gain a measure of public sympathy unheard of in the next few months, if certain... projects come to fruition."

"I see. You will have to explain these projects to me, I submit. We cannot possibly tolerate working at cross-purposes when the future of humanity is the objective."

"There are a series of projects-and some of them concern you, others, not quite yet." He was arrogant, and he didn't care, as he took another drag from the cigarette. "Weapons, armour, ships, technology, all of these are simple, and you up-end them all... but it is not our most important project at present, not at all. That has to do with replacing an outlier our models have deemed... critical to fighting the Reapers."

He smiled. "Oh, they are a real threat. It is in fighting and using them that humanity can achieve... what it deserves."

"Using them?" Tanda's look froze, set in granite across her face. The word had tremendous implications.

He waved it off lightly. "One of the minor projects we're working on. Your alliance with us renders it much less important. Until you arrived, they were known to be more advanced than any race in galactic history."

"I've taken the threat seriously," Tanda shot back. "I won't delve into details, though the fact they're some kind of droid-race is hideously concerning to the mores and ethics of Imperial civilisation."

"The geth are of course an even more blatant problem in that regard, but less of a threat," she added a moment later.

"I have people looking into both. Your imposing order on the Terminus Systems is increasing tension on the Citadel-despite the denials from Earth..." He tapped off some ash. "Well. It is easy to convince aliens to see ill in human actions, and so you are seen as an agent of thee Systems Alliance by many. Just a deniable one."

"If the Reapers are coming soon it would be better to let the Citadel races be ruined fighting them and pick up the pieces rather than have a confrontation beforehand. Perhaps stating the obvious, but the objective - creates an interesting problem." _And you have no name I can address._ She was tense, waiting for the moment when it would all come undone, trying to use the liquor and her confidence in the force to project absolute calm. "I need personnel I can't easily get as long as Earth isn't under my control."

"That's so. The plan has only one fault - the woman who could convince them to fight and make it all work... is dead. We're working on that. Cerberus can provide people, reliable people. 'Exigencies of circumstance' to fill the rest..." He seemed bemused at Pryl's term for the aliens. "There will be time to fill their places later."

The reference to Shepard caught Tanda's attention at once. "You put a lot of faith onto a single dead woman. How are you planning on bringing her back, exactly? I don't have any cloning cylinders on hand..."

"I call it the Lazarus Project, after a mythical return from the dead in one of Earth's major religions. I don't need a clone. Clones are simple, easy - we need her, what she was. What she could be."

Tanda held her tongue at all the... Problems... That seemed to lead to, starting with the fact that it seemed insane. But a sudden insight seemed to spring from her. "You're trying to revive Commander Shepard."

"Not trying. Succeeding. It's slow, expensive going, but it's working. Several months, my operatives tell me."

 _How is this man DOING THIS_? She wondered how it could even be through the force. She composed herself. There was no need to share anything with the man, particularly when she was ready to strike. It was also an incredibly fortunate out from one problem. "I'll have to change some plans then. The Quarian I brought with me has been one of her subordinates in the past, elevating her from expendable to immensely valuable in securing Shepard's loyalty, I suspect."

"You refer to Tali'Zorah. Yes, we had been intending to attempt to recruit her for Shepard's crew, when the time came. Word that we, or one of our allies had eliminated her would be... problematic. I hesitate to use a control chip on Shepard - we might change something of what makes her so valuable in the process."

"Well then. We will continue to be one big happy fleet." She wanted to collapse in relief. Instead she remained calm. Now, there would no confrontation. But without Kesea for support, she had also lost her chance to reliably kill the Illusive Man and escape. "Perhaps some of my Internal Security Bureau officers and members of COMPNOR, the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order, could effectually revitalize your political representation on Earth."

"I'm willing to take them - once they're up to speed with current human culture, we can infiltrate them into place with proper documentation."

"And I in return need those military personnel."

"Of course. It will be a small number at first, I warn. Cerberus is a small organization still, but we can provide a pipeline to ideologically inclined souls who seek to make a difference."

"You have enough personnel to crew ships."

"In cells, Moff Pryl. The organizations central structure is small. It is not easy to marshal strength without attracting... unwanted attention."

"Fair enough. I would go after human colonies, but this would likely bring a breach with the Alliance." She folded her hands. The conversation was reaching natural limits. "We appear to have a rough course of action in our collaboration. I will be looking forward to the success of your Lazarus project with some amazement."

"Actually, you could integrate human colonies- if you did it well." He murmured in reply. "There is an unknown force attacking human colonies and ships - this is the threat Shepard will be unleashed on, when she awakes. A few raids by your forces could vanish into the background static. Seize the population and relocate them."

Tanda frowned. Forced relocation of human settlers was not particularly her forte, it was one thing when they were aliens... "If I could stop them, I could also simply obtain voluntary relocations. Harder to get people to volunteer as soldiers whom you have kidnapped. Do you have any additional information on this force? I don't need to defeat all of them, just stop them once - to create a justification to encourage people to resettle on worlds I can make safe."

"Suspicions, nothing more than that. I can't tell you where they're coming from, or who they work for... but you have encountered the aftermath of one of their cruisers, I believe."

"That's correct. I would have pursued if I could have possibly traced where they'd jumped to. Any idea at all, even in the slightest." A tired sigh. "Ah, well. I will get them eventually. "

"Of course, Moff Pryl." He ignored her discomfit, perhaps even patronized her. "You have been exerting yourself heavily... do you have any preferences on what to be done with the asari? The Omega-Enkaphalin will have worked by now."

"If I am going to continue to groom Tali'Zorah until the return of your Shepard, she would be quite suspicious if the Asari disappeared at the same time." _Oh, Kesea..! So you were poisoned...! And my fault_. "So they really ought unfortunately both return."

"If you think they can be sufficiently confused by misdirection, very well, Moff Pryl."

"I am capable of certain feats of misdirection which it would be inappropriate to discuss here, as it is with some of your projects still in gestation. I am not concerned. I had not been expecting the opportunity, after all." She smiled.

"Very well. I believe our business is at a conclusion. Un-marked freighters will be arriving with your recruits, I hope within three months."

"Thank you. May I have a small ship to depart personally on? I don't wish to distract one of your cruisers again."

"It will have to be a freighter. Nothing else would need less than twenty and be able to return you to your space. If acceptable, that is easy enough."

"That's fine. Give me a small tranche of volunteers if you can spare them, and I'll take her back myself."

"Of course. I'll have a list for you by tomorrow."

"Thank you again." Tanda's night would be quite unsettled. She wouldn't speak to Tali'Zorah or Kesea until they were ready to depart, either, to keep the charade going as long as possible...

A half-dozen Cerberus people, in the organizations' loose fatigues, would be awaiting aboard the freighter _Qingdao_ the next day, a very normal, Kowloon type modular freighter. As they went to board, Tali seemed profoundly put out, and Kesea looked downright ill and miserable in her uniform when they were brought to meet her in a departure lounge, their ship, such as she was, hung out before them on the docking arms.

Tanda would inspect the Cerberus volunteers and the ship, set watches, and then made sure to assign Tali and Kesea to share a cabin with a wall directly next to her own. She set them out from Cronos and ordered the first jump to be made. And then she swept the rooms for bugs and, once that job was done, sliced a hole in the wall to get the cabin of the two aliens with her lightsabre in a state of utter privacy.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tali had pulled a shotgun. Kesea's effort to rally her biotics... flickered and flared weakly.

"Tali'Zorah, we've got plenty of problems that aren't me with a lightsabre." She let the blade close and moved to immediately-well, give Kesea a hug. The woman had been at her side for months now, and Tanda Pryl was feeling particularly guilty. She had set one of her subordinates up, and all for nothing. "I am incredibly sorry, L'tenant. But they were indeed poisoning you. Sit down somewhere, and we'll try to start to do something about it."

A look of black incomprehension settled across the asari's face, as she... half collapsed into the other woman, while the Quarian... grudgingly put her shotgun away.

"Cerberus have developed a drug which suppresses biotic powers," Tanda quickly tried to explain. "They're also cloning Commander Shepard-so the intelligence functions of this mission were not a waste."

"... A drug...?" That seemed to put Kesea for a loop, as Tali... Well, it was impossible to tell, but Tanda got the impression she was scowling.

"Shepard, cloned by them? That won't help _anything_ ," she muttered.

"Yes, it's called Omega-Enkaphalin. And yes, the Illusive Man claims he is actually reviving the original Shepard, which to me sounds insane, but regardless, he's creating one. Though he also explicitly said he won't be implanting as a control chip as that would 'ruin what made her unique'."

"You'd have to ask Liara about that one..." Tali mumbled. "... It's sort of true. She has this... magnetism, I've never seen anything like it. You had to see her to believe it, I know you think I'm crazy, but it's true. You wouldn't just follow her into hell - you'd be disappointed she didn't bring you with her on the trip."

"I believe you... Tali." She helped get Kesea settled in. "I am really sorry, L'tenant. I did not realise they were going to do this to you. I brought the two of you along because I was going to kill the Illusive Man. But I quickly realised I did not yet have the position to do that. So I settled with making arrangements to keep the ISB off my back." And then she took a breath, and added dryly, "As you both may have figured out by now... We have our own human supremacist ideology."

Tali nodded, as Kesea looked down at her hands, and asked in a somewhat trembling voice; "Will they come back...?"

"I don't know... I should get a blood sample so we can develop a vaccine, regardless. Kesea... I... All I can really offer is that you are valued in the Empire without your powers and you will be treated as one hundred percent disabled for your benefits, despite still being on the active rolls." She sighed. "That sounds mildly pathetic because I know how devastated I would be if I were severed from the Force." It was the first time which Tali got to hear that word, and Tanda couldn't help but look significantly to her. But Kesea's moroseness was overwhelming.

"... I won't even be able to have children if this is permanent..." That made it worse, as Tali looked... like she wanted to be anywhere else.

"Well, I am going to crush them, then," Her anger flicked and waxed strong and Tanda felt electrified by the whispers inside of herself. _Use your passion, heal her, smash them, make Cerberus for your own... Your way was the coward's way._ She continued to speak. "They're doing dangerous things. The Illusive Man revealed something very interesting to me. He wants to control the Reapers-and from what you've said, Tali, this is setting up a collision course with sanity."

"... It is insane!" Tali shouted. "Artifacts can let them take control of you, much less... ah, that's insane! I do not like the thought of this person having control over Shepard."

Tanda sank down to the floor. "I don't intend to let him."

"... Good luck with that..." Kesea... shivered, and tried again - getting the same flickering blue glow.

"Stop trying, Kesea. You may just be hurting yourself. Just... Rest. Let someone more professional than I look over you."

Tanda ended up personally taking the blood samples and storing them, with advice from one of the medical care programs that Tali'Zorah had stored on her suit comp. The trip would be long, too-a Kowloon was like a bulk freighter in how relatively slow it was... She was left hoping Shala'Raan was in effective control back home and that all would simply manage to go well.

But she wasn't content, either. She badly wanted to get some feel of the galaxy absent of the imposing will of her star destroyer. Making observations of systems when _Thunderflare_ was not about was a valuable thing: She might as well spy as long as she were here, and keep track of the systems she were passing through and anything of interest in them, including the opportunity to obtain more recruits.

Tali'Zorah observed and assisted. She could tell this was... The woman was very intellectual, a data-cruncher at heart, in that sense somewhat like Tali herself. A trained engineer just as she was. But also as driven as Shepard, who as a combat grunt—she was quite different in other ways, refined and ever so clearly upper class. And with a hole between their quarters, could hear the occasional mutters like, "Really, why not just a sonic shower?"

In Alliance Space, things were quiet and calm. It might as well be the core, Tanda would give them that. Regular data-buoy updates of the extranet. From the Horsehead, she had a choice -Council space, or a long run through Earth Space and then through the somewhat unsettled Traverse. What it essentially boiled down to was human space for new recruits, or Council space to get Kesea a doctor? Well, that isn't a decision at all. She went through Council space.

... One main jump later she would be at the Serpent Nebula, with the Citadel in it... for all the faults the Mass Relay system had, the near instantaneous 'shooting' of a ship meant it was only the times between them that a ship slowed, depending on what she fielded. Now to find a place that wasn't the Citadel in her hunt for an Asari specialist doctor. She didn't want to attract too much attention...

Asari civilian colony... Tali'Zorah was quick to raise the suggestion, if nervously: Ilium. Two jumps on in the Crescent Nebula. Tanda didn't think twice about setting the course.

Ilium looked like it was on course to someday be something sort of like a Core World. Big, busy, bustling, massive glittering towers, one of the hubs of the "Ilium Economic Zone" as some called the Crescent Nebula. Set into the border of the Terminus Systems and scarcely more regulated: Here, anything was legal, from slavery to drugs to mercenaries... They settled down into orbit through the usual codes and clearances of civilian traffic.

Tali would murmur to her on final approach, "Don't sign anything if you can help it. I had been intending to go here on my Pilgrimage originally. We'll find a doctor for Kesea, Captain, but that's... Well, they can enforce anything with a contract."

"Thank you, Tali. I'll remember that." She brought the freighter in to the established docking positions... And then prepared to meet whatever in the way of customs there were. A hard thing for an Imperial officer who was used to ignoring them at will.

There was a docking officer there. Of course, she was an Asari in a dress, with an omni-tool, and who looked somewhat bored. Ilium did have laws, though. It was still an Asari colony, and an Asari shadowport was still a lot different from most people's definitions of one. "Freighter _Qingdao_ , out of Euler... looks like your registration is up to date, and corporate has covered your docking fees. First time here, it looks like." She finally glanced up from the omni-tool. "You're paid up for a week. You don't have permits for any of the more esoteric items, so don't even try loading them."

"But of course. Thank you - by the way, how would you recommend going about finding the sort of doctor who here who works on actual medical problems? I have someone in my crew I don't want to cast off who needs a doctor who specializes in biotics problems."

She blinked, and looked a bit suspicious for a moment, before it faded. "There's a hospital near the spaceport, you can take a taxi. Just tell the VI you want the Armali hospital."

"Thank you. You are more than kind." Tanda moved to step away to arrange things.

The human crew were certainly suspicious, and Tanda saw that Tali was a bit twitchy, and carrying all of her weapons. That was allowed under the law, though being so uncouth as to use them... one should have a very good reason. Kesea still wasn't looking well, but managed to hold her head high. Their uniforms, if they had them, would get... odd looks, as much as Tali did, so Tanda would make sure they were all in civilian dress before departing, herself in the same black she'd gone to her meeting with the Illusive Man in.

Tanda would just shrug laconically as she departed. "Sick Asari, what do I know about these things? But this is an Asari world so she'll be fine," in explaining it to the human Cerberus recruits. Then they were gone, and she felt like she could finally breathe easily again for the first time in weeks.

The hospital was prototypical for Ilium. Everything cost money and was private, but the condition was admittedly immaculate. No bacta, no medical droids, but instead Asari bustling around with appearances vaguely suggesting competence at their job. And comments fluttered about the two of them in the waiting room -it took a few minutes, and then Kesea was being whisked back to be seen, with a nurse asking Tanda; "Do you want to be with her?" ... Yes, there had been assumptions made.

"Yes, certainly." _I know what's actually going on, after all_ -though she still had to resist the flush.

Once they could actually speak with a doctor who had some idea of biotics problems, Tanda even had the blood sample from when the drug was stronger, though she'd prefer not handing it over.

"Right this way, please..." She'd be brought back to a smaller waiting room which Kesea was in, with more than a few couples there, lone Asari, some children - they were quickly called back to a doctor in her office, looking out over the cityscape through one-way glass. She would talk gently to Kesea, inquiring as to the problem, when it had started - she drew blood, did a lot of scanning... and a frown flickered across her face after it, before she gave a smile that rang a little hollow and looked to her computer. "This is not very common, please, give me a few moments to compare... do... yes, we have your list of previous destinations... odd... this has been seen sometimes in travellers from Earth, but... you haven't been there recently."

"Doctor, may I have your confidence?" Tanda spoke at that point.

The Asari's eyes flicked up. "You're included under something similar to the old human concept of doctor-patient privilege, if that's what you inquire about."

"That isn't our valid destination list and we've been in contact with agents of the anti-alien group Cerberus. I obtained information from one of them that Kesea may have been deliberately poisoned with a drug that suppresses biotic function-which may also be the cause of the similar cases of this on Earth, I might add." She paused. "With luck this knowledge will be very useful against Cerberus in the future, but we are liable to be assassinated if this leaks right now, and I am taking a great leap of faith for Kesea's sake in even including you in this information."

"And if you need to be you can compensated for it; however, right now, I'd really just like her to get better."

"It... huh." She frowned, tapped. "Well - you see... ma'ams, it's scarred the nerves around the eezo nodules in her nervous system. I think... if it's some sort of suppressive drug, then somebody used far too much of it." She brought up a few displays. "Medigel won't work, it's already scarred over. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure there's much I can do - I can prescribe a nanite course, that might fix enough of it to allow her basic function, but the damage is wide-spread and major. I don't think, Mrs. Avera, you're likely to ever completely recover, not even to a level allowing you military service. I won't put that in your file, but I thought you should know. "

Kesea let out a strangled noise - to an asari, biotics were... as natural as breathing.

"Scarring the nerves around the eezo nodules. Thank you - I think, Kesea, that we can do something about that. You're going to be here a long time, if the treatment takes a couple of years that's surely acceptable?" She looked to the doctor. "Go ahead with your treatment first, it won't interfere with what I'm planning." She smiled tightly.

"It should take a day or so to get them programmed and packed, I know spacers can't stay long." She shook her head, and frowned. "A drug, huh... never thought I'd see it..."

"Well, with luck, when we're done, Kesea will be the only case you encounter..."

"Of course it'd be humans to come up with it... no offense."

"It's quite all right. We're very good at killing and causing mayhem." She smiled wryly.

"Quite... well, I'll have the lab start putting together the nanite cocktail, and it should be ready for pickup tomorrow morning..."

"Thank you."

"Not a problem... When will I be able to publish this?"

"I'll send you a personal message as soon as I've dealt with the matter. And I assure you it won't come out anywhere else first."

"Of course."

When they left, Kesea looked just as morose as before, even if it was implied there was some kind of hope. "... They poisoned me. Permanently!" She hissed barely under her breath.

Tanda looked terrible, and didn't know a damned thing to say. _One of my officers, thank you very much, Cerberus._ Of course, it had been her fault, and she wanted to think even less about that. She'd wait until they got back on their ship, though...

The Asari was... bubbling with anger, and then behind her, Tali—who had been patiently waiting in the outer part of the hospital trying to ignore suspicious looks the entire time-gave a soft warning; "We're being tracked - sensor pings from some sort of drone. Started when we left the ship... I wouldn't have remarked, but it's the same signature now."

"Thank you. Can you localize? I should like to deal with it." She stretched out in the force around them...

"Not easy..." She tapped, and tried... well, there was a drone, but the Force always had trouble with that. No malign intent, however, seemed to linger in the air "... It's... there!" As soon as she localized, it flitted away. "That little bosh'tet..."

"Can you track it? It may be returning to its owner..."

"Trying... I'll need to chase it, it's moving out of range!"

"Alright. Kesea, are you feeling up to the chase?"

"... Officers don't get to say no, do they?" She gave a brave smile.

Tanda grinned and went on Tali's heels... Very quickly, the Quarian was running with something of a whoop, Tali chasing, ducking, dodging, as they got odd looks and startled looks from those around them, Tali leading the way, until she came up short, panting, and pointing at a skycar that was lifting off from atop a building she'd led them to.

Tanda looked around for a cab or rental car service sharply, letting the image fall into her mind's eye... _Blue, generic skycar._ Then she spied the automated taxi stand.

"Come on!" It was slightly ridiculous, but off they went... Tanda trying to seize on the occupants of the skycar through the force to follow them more reliably than she otherwise could. _Show me the way._ There was only a single presence in the car, and Tanda took after it like she was driving a training speeder, that is to say, more like a fighter jock than the way anyone had a right to handle a rental speeder.

Kesea would manage to grit out through the g's from the back seat; "Be... careful, the spoiled playgirls don't like violence..." ... and then the Force was, in fact, leading her on. A strong willed presence, too.

"I don't think I'll need violence!" She would try to gain on the person, now that she could reliably pursue her. "I hope I won't need violence. And if I do I'll make it subtle."

"At least you drive better than Shepard!" Tali would shout.

Then, a moment later, as they were... slammed into their restraints by another abrupt acceleration, she quickly amended it. "Eh, maybe not!"

Plunging down and back up, Tanda couldn't help but grin. She was holding the distance and keeping on her quarry, too, until abruptly the other speeder dived out of the regular travel lanes on manual—Tanda snapping after it instantly—and continued almost straight down, plunging into a skycar garage, with them following, and figure leaping from the thing and making a run for it.

Tanda handed control of the skycar off to Tali and opened the door. There was only a surprised squawk from the Quarian woman before with a flying jump out of the still moving skycar, the Imperial landed on her feet perfectly and at once took off running-Somehow. _Somehow_. She was using the force for real, not just for training or research, for the first time in her life. Plunging after the figure, a superhuman power coursed through her as she rushed down and in pursuit.

A glance behind—she had blue skin, not that was really surprising... And then she leapt right off the side of the garage floor, down something like seven stories.

Biotics flared for the landing, but...  
Tanda had followed her, her cape flaring in the air. The expression of shock on the woman's face at the human following her was etched indelibly into her memory as she followed her down with a keening feeling like a hawk diving on prey.

Behind her, the two officers she had left looked over the side of the building and blanched, before rushing for the stairs, but... oh, that woman was running... darting around a corner, and as she did, there was a flare of danger through the Force.

What followed for Tanda came natural. She darted around the corner... Igniting her lightsabre as she did. It seemed like the moment of accounting had come.

And it had. For her. It suddenly felt like gravity had just reversed itself, drawing her towards a point... Rushing up in the air, powerless to resist, pinning her about twenty feet off the ground, with a pistol aimed at her as her feet lifted off the ground.

Tanda thought she had a way out. She focused on the point like it was the ground and the gravity in it was her normal gravity, and kicked from it like a jump, remembering to avoid the time-freeze trap, as her blade swung of its own accord against the incoming fire...

But her feet sort of flailed in the air, and there weren't any shots aimed at her. ... Thankfully, for she would have been a dead woman. "Don't follow me."

Tanda looked wide eyed at the woman. "Why were you following me?" She deactivated the blade, mindful of the warning against violence, and feeling sheepish.

"I was paid to keep track of you." The pistol stayed levelled. Asari, young, and wearing armor.

Suddenly the voice within her was reminding her she was far from helpless. Tanda's lips curled into a ruthless sneer. _I won't be humiliated like this_. She prepared to have to land, and... Started choking the Asari, as her lightsabre snapped back on.

The woman's eyes widened, her breath coming desperate and ragged, and the end of concentration from her brought Tanda crashing back to the ground as gravity re-asserted itself, the young asari before her now frantically grabbing at her throat with a look of confusion and some terror.

She flipped up and landed on her feet and then advanced on the woman, lightsabre in one hand and the other gloved hand steadily clenching further. "I will have the name of your employer. You will have your life. I know this means I cannot leave you here to be killed by him, and I will be good to my word. Or you can die without a mark on you to alert the authorities..."

The young Asari, haplessly making choking noises, finally managed to spasmodically nod. Tanda released her, now standing over her with the blade humming.

"... Somebody hired me through Eclipse, I... don't know who..." She rubbed her neck, looking up with both fear and a bit of... pique. "Was human, can tell you that, but they used a lot of cutouts."

Tanda wondered if her companions would ever catch up... "That doesn't surprise me. You're a catspaw in a game of someone who doesn't believe me. "

... They did finally burst onto the scene, Tali leading with her shotgun.

Tanda grinned nastily. "There we go. So what's your name?"

"... Heyla Prassa..." She squinted her eyes. "You're that new Terminus Warlord, aren't you?"

"And you were getting paid by Cerberus to track me."

"The same people who took my companion and flag l'tenant here-" she jerked a hand back to Kesea. "And wrecked her biotic powers with a poison when I went to go treat with them. So much for that idea, though I got useful intelligence out of it, an Asari paid the price. Perhaps they'll do the same for you if you're no longer useful to them."

"... I told you everything I know!" They did have a reputation of being mad terrorists.

"I'm sure you did." Tanda deactivated her lightsabre. "Come with us, young miss. It's really the smarter thing to do at this point."

"... What are you going to do to me...?" She rubbed at her neck again, which had bruises starting to bloom on it. "I can resign from Eclipse, it's right, but... never known a human to have control over biotics like that..."

"The Moff is a unique woman, Heyla." Kesea would finally speak up from the back of the group. "She... won't do you wrong." She was being loyal, but Tanda, in a flush of power now, could feel her being still bitter about what the dalliance with Cerberus had cost.

Tanda smiled faintly. "I need good people, and you very nearly had me."

"... Been doing this for a while..." She would grudgingly admit, as the other Asari reached down to haul her to her feet. "We should be going, Moff. Before anyone else figures out who you are. Illium is full of information brokers. The one advantage over the Terminus Systems is that things tend to be quiet, if bureaucratic."

"We're fixing that." Tanda offered a hand.

The mercenary took it... cautiously.

"Ma'am, please..." Kesea was glancing about, looking a bit nervous. "We've certainly caused enough attention, and we don't want you in the vids."

"Yes, let's go." She'd let Heyla walk on her own, trying to trust her. _We are so far from home, how can we afford to ever make enemies?_ She knew that her men were warming to Asari far more than the officers would like.

Tali, glancing about warily, finally put the shotgun away once the ship was in sight. The woman didn't make a break for it, but... Tanda realized how impossibly difficult this was going to be to explain when they got back, depending on how the rumour mill went into action among the Cerberus recruits.

Tanda had realized it too, perhaps felt it from Tali... And what came next, well, she felt bad about this for some reason... "Tali, can you pretend Heyla's your girlfriend you haven't seen in a year?"

"... You mean pretend she's Liara, or that...?" The quarian sounded a bit quizzical. "I mean, it's not going to keep for long. You know how rumours on shipboard go."

Tanda blinked. "Doctor Liara T'Soni is your girlfriend?"

"... What, no! She was Shepard's!" She sounded flustered and protested... a bit strongly. "Shepard, maybe, but Liara?!"

"I see. Can you fake that for a while, Heyla? Just being her girlfriend, that is. She is very cute, so it will be easy."

... The Asari shrugged, as Tali sputtered in indignation. "Sure, done it before... come 'ere..." Tali let out a noise of protest as she got pulled into the Asari. "I have a shotgun!"

"Yes, dear, and that's cute." Heyla murmured back-Tali gave such a glare to Tanda, but, of course, the mask ruined the effect splendidly.

...And yet nobody would be surprised for the rest of the journey back, as Kesea at least partially healed from what had been done to her...

A Quarian shooting dagger-glares at Tanda all the while, and the Moff burning with rage toward the Illusive Man. There was, of course, nothing to be done.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

For Tanda, returning to Mil and _Thunderflare_ was not a celebration, but a dangerous affair. It was time to reassert authority and make sure her Quarian Admiral Shala'Raan had been obeyed, and somehow avoid further tension in the race relations of her little pocket Empire over the fact she had come back with Cerberus cooperation, while still using it to quash the concerns of the ISB...

From the moment she reached her desk, Admiral Shala'Raan was waiting for her. There had been a few incidents involving insubordination that had her admiral seething -nothing rising to the level of a danger, but insubordination-to a level where if she hadn't lumped the Stormtroopers in as just as dangerous to her authority, she might have had some of Tanda's officers arrested.

Tanda listened to that and fiddled with her gloved fingers. "Thank you for your judiciousness. I can understand your fury at the situation. One's race should not be a factor in such a matter, and it enrages me just as much that the regulations were disregarded on this ground. The dignity and discipline of the Imperial Services mandates _obedience_ , regardless to whom it is directed."

"Your crews, what-ever you might have to say, Moff Tanda'Pryl, have behaved atrociously. This would never stand in the Flotilla, but what are we ever to expect?" Shala'Raan was ever so clearly not happy.

"A fight to be accepted is all that I may promise you, on the behest of my officers." Tanda slumped into her chair, then, looking painfully tired. "They are, you know, bitter that you were placed above them."

"And what were to happen if we had to fight in your absence?" The woman stalked about the room, in the black and very dark grey the senior officers wore that served to mostly fit in with the fleet. "Have your subordinates commanded a fleet in battle?" She knew that they hadn't, and the comment cut Tanda.

Tanda folded her hands against her face. "Do you have any recommendations when you factor in the prospect of my assassination? Because there are people who would plot this if I punished my men."

The visor... helped mask what she was thinking. "That depends. I have grown use to accepting insult, but I shall have to rethink declaring this ship _vas_ to me if this continues."

Tanda pursed her lips. "Please, Admiral..." _How do I placate her...?_ " _Thunderflare_ 's my life. Let's be honest: According to the ideologues of the New Order, women don't belong here either. I had to claw every millimetre to get where I am. That you found _Thunderflare_ under command of a member of your own sex is proof enough that she is worthy of your name."

Then she took another breath. _It's time for some honesty._ "The Empire was disintegrating into civil war over the death of the Emperor when we left. The idea that someone is coming to get us... Is shadow."

"I see that we are not the only people cast out of a home. She is your life-you are her captain. That is, in a way, all that matters. You have, with your technology, offered us a... chance. A new life. We will be loyal to you. Do not expect the same consideration to those of yours who do not return the consideration."

"Admiral, it is very plain to see from my perspective that such individuals are our mutual enemy in political intrigue and that I must maneouvre against them as you must."

"Yes, we have our own blind sorts..." Her accented voice came through the speaker. "It will take some time. One would have thought the number of asari they seem to have fallen in with would have changed attitudes, but it seems not." She sighed. "Or our number of ships, even as the older are rotated out of the fleet, but... the arrogance of them is astounding."

"The officers are quite capable of hypocrisy with alien women. I think the deck... They are going to be likely to follow us no matter what, Admiral. I am growing more confident of it. Those men want to settle down and live."

"It is worth trying. It will take time for our population to begin to grow once again."

"Yes. I mostly regret the lack of contact with the home galaxy strictly for the want of infinite supplies of bacta to help you. What happened to Tali'Zorah's mother should not again happen to Quarian women."

Shala'Raan seemed to welcome the divergence as much as Tanda did. "It is... a great pity we will be unable to replicate it. From a plant, they said it comes."

"Yes, a plant. One carefully grown on a few worlds of the Empire as the ultimate universal medical commodity. I... If we could somehow extract the genetic material from our existing samples and start growing even a poor imitation genespliced into another plant - this would be worth more than we could properly value to your people, and this galaxy. "

"We can try, but biology is... not a specialty of ours. Certainly, yes... ah, it would be somewhat beyond price. Not just for we, yes." She shook her head lightly. "Beyond our present concerns, Moff Tanda'Pryl. Commander Tali'Zorah did well, I hope."

"In every respect. She even handled well my foisting a fake relationship with an Asari off on her to explain the woman's presence... Well, handled it as well as a young lady asked to fake having a girlfriend can deal with." Pryl folded her gloved hands and smiled wryly. "Speaking of which, I feel I should offer Commander Tali'Zorah a little reward for having done that, as it is above and beyond the usual call of duty. Do you have any recommendations?"

"I'm not certain... she's always been somewhat private, especially after her Pilgrimage. To a quarian, personal possessions are not things of high value - there is no room for them in the fleet, so everything is looked at for utility, but for the few decorations our living quarters posess."

"Hrrm. Well, she loves her technology. I'll show her something extremely interesting, then." She smiled. "Thank you, Admiral, for holding everything together so well."

-

"So." Tanda had lured Tali'Zorah out of her sterile quarters to the Moff's own with some cajoling. Once the Quarians had gotten used to the idea that their private quarters were sincerely safe—though there was just enough space and HVAC equipment for six of them even on an ISD with that capability, outside of medical—they had, of course, taken to enjoying them quite a lot.

To help, Tanda, who had gradually figured out that Tali'Zorah had been quite sociable with her comrades in Shepard's crew, had dutifully made to supply bottles of alcohol. It was a shocking informality; but, of course, Tali'Zorah didn't know that, and nor did she know the real reason for Tanda Pryl warming to her. "I have some tri-vids here to watch, but first, I confess that the real reason for inviting you here is that... I thought you might want to see how a lightsabre is put together and the basic elements of its function."

"You know I don't usually get drunk, right...?" She asked while looking at the bottles, with some... skepticism. "For good reason... but, a lightsabre? That... blade you have?"

"And yes. The blade."

"... I admit, I wanted to see how it worked the moment I saw it... it's nothing like mine, not at all."

"I taught myself how to build it..." Tanda would settle into explaining, producing and partially disassembling the lightsabre. She showed to Tali the internals, and explained the continuous blast-bolt mechanism that basically underpinned the design.

It seemed the Quarian grasped the principles quickly, using her omnitool to scan and record, and not surprised by how willing Tanda was to share such privileged information. She was far too interested in the lightsabre itself, instead. "We would have trouble with the power cell... the crystal... I think I could make something like it, we have considerable ability at inducing crystal growth, but I'm not sure if I could align it. You have given me a challenge, Moff Tanda'Pryl."

Tanda smiled, and an observer very good at human body language might have noticed it was somewhat mischievous. "You might well be able to. Some incredibly talented machinists and engineers can. The process is, alas, lost in mysticism and I haven't a clue of how to systematize this, but you see, I came across it into my research into the force and the nature of force users—I've been looking for more people sensitive to the force in this galaxy, you know."

"Well, one thinks they'd exist, but you don't know how to find them, do you...?" She ... well, she was certainly intending to build a lightsabre, force sensitive or not!

"You can feel someone who has exercised a little of the talent, even inadvertently."

"I hope it isn't only humans who have it... I wonder if Shepard had anything like that? I mean, I always thought that biotics were so cool, but I'm just a machinist, not some biotic."

"...Perhaps she did. She seemed inordinately lucky, and luck is most assuredly a manifestation of the talent. Also one of my students is a Twi'lek; don't worry, there are plenty of non-human force sensitives. You may have met her, though she's usually posted on the ground."

"I think so... I recall she comes by for... well, probably training. I'm lucky too, well sort of, but that doesn't seem to mean very much. I'm not supposed to talk about any of this, am I?"

"But of course not, Tali."

"All of this secret agent stuff that started when I met Shepard. Quarians like to share. Very well, My Captain," she offered, noting the informality that Tanda had used.

Her Captain was busy pouring another snifter of brandy. "You're so cute when you talk like that," she muttered.

"... Cute? Why does everyone think I'm cute? All you see is the suit!"

"Everyone else may only see the suit, but Imperial security scanners don't have a privacy setting."

"But... you... hey! That is so much less dramatic than Fleet and Flotilla..." Tali was both not sure if Tanda was joking or not and didn't really want to know if she was.

Tanda had a crookedly chipper grin, though. "You lose your sense of modesty quickly as a woman in the Imperial Starfleet."

"I can't take my suit off, I can only put on my sexiest belts."

Tanda laughed, and then shook her head and stared at Tali for a bit. "What is it like? How can you even survive spending all of life constricted to that space? I couldn't imagine it, myself."

"It's just part of life, part of being a Quarian. We live in them for our entire lives, and it doesn't seem strange to _us_. All custom-made too, so one would... hope that... I mean, it's complicated, but who would ever leave a suit for anything else but having a child? Your filtered rooms are really just an opportunity for us to be free from the fear of a suit breach. And you seem to have plenty of other things to be concerned about, Captain."

Tanda looked away. "Sometimes love can be meaningful even without children... Or so I'd like to hope, anyway."

"Well, of course! Look at Fleet and Flotilla! Shalei and Bellicus on that balcony... so much dedication, the actress had an infection for three weeks after filming that scene!"

"Heh. Your favourite tri-vid, I take it? But I suppose that's just my point: I doubt hybrid Turian-Quarian children are possible..."

"No, only asari manage that feat..." She sighed. "Doesn't happen like that in real life, though I'd like to dream. The first turian I met, on the Citadel, called me a suit-rat while I was bleeding from being shot. Polonium rounds, I had a fever in minutes. And yes, it's my favourite holo-drama, and we must watch it some time!"

"Well you're not a suit rat. You're a crack engineer and a fine fighting woman, and you're part of the Imperial Starfleet-and surely you could go the artificial insemination route if you married someone you couldn't reproduce normally with."

"Probably... it would be weird, though. I mean, we Quarians have always been an emotional people, and that seems so distant, and clinical. Ugh, and all the clean room time involved!"

"It is rather clinical. I apologise for being that way myself, but it is part of the culture and reserve of the Imperial upper class, to be quite frank. It is the poor people who are superstitious and modest. We discuss things bluntly and detach ourselves from emotions."

"I think I'd prefer to avoid that... I mean, I don't want to be that way. Life inside the suits is clinical enough."

"I wouldn't want you to be that way. It's not a precondition for success here, or at least, I won't allow it to be one. I like you just the way you are. That freighter journey would have been miserable without your company, with Aesea damn near summoning demons for having been made sterile. Which fortunately wasn't the case, though she'll still be an unhappy Asari for months."

"Well, it isn't silly... it's just... complicated. Those bosh'tets in Cerberus, you should see what they did to humans."

"The fact that they experiment upon their own race is revolting."

"It's not hard to be revolted by Cerberus." She hrmphed. "I could get used to this life in the Imperial Fleet, I admit. Too much bare metal for a proper cabin, though."

"Really? I thought things would be even more severe in the Refugee Fleet."

"Quilts. We put them up everywhere, all these wonderfully worked and embroidered quilts. They help deaden the sound and make what used to be a cargo bay that's holding sixty families feel... cosier."

"I must actually go on inspection tours at some point," Tanda answered, musing. "I just didn't want to interrupt your own customs."

"Well, I brought mine... my father gave me some more, because there was so much room to cover... I think my room is ready for inspection! ...or do you mean on the migrant fleet? We'd have to fit you for a suit then."

"I could wear a spacesuit."

She shook her head. "A lot of those have places where contaminants can hide. The last time the Flotilla let humans into it, we made them wear suits."

Tanda laughed. "You just want me in one so you can criticize my fashion sense in belts."

"... I would never . You'd just put a uniform one on and that one's horrible enough already-see, I can criticize your fashion sense in belts without one! Captain." One imagined she was blushing for going to far.

Tanda smiled brightly. "Well, yes... On to the holovids?"

"Certainly."

At the end of the night, Tanda and Tali agreed to keep meeting informally. It gave Tali a friend. And it gave Tanda an in with the first force sensitive she'd met in this galaxy, on an... Emotional level.

-

When two months later Tali brought a sealed and encrypted box to movie night, her superior couldn't do anything but keep staring at it. It was a sufficiently out of context problem for Tali's usual accruements and behaviour on movie night that she was suspicious.

Then Tali upended her suspicions. "I thought we'd watch one of yours tonight... oh, the box. Well, let me show you!" She sounded so damned eager about it, too.

"Certainly." Tanda moved to her table, pulling out a chair for the Quarian. "Let's see what's worthy of the encryption."

... Tali'Zorah took a very interesting looking cylinder machined out of a lot of salvaged starship parts from it.

Tanda saw it, and had a very very very impressively shut up look on her face. Shut up was really the only way to describe it, as she could not think of words for several minutes, and when she did, they were profoundly inadequate. "You..."

"Did you think I wasn't going to, after you said only the most skilled engineers could make one?" She sounded a bit put out.

"I suppose that was a challenge and I hadn't quite realised that I'd put it to you like that." She appraised the weapon with impressed wonder. "I apologise. It is a true masterpiece, as unique as one should be."

"I had to... scrounge a few parts, and finding a proper grip material that could be easily sterilized was hard... the crystal I had to fabricate, and the power pack is from a junked droid..."

"And... maybe the first few might have... exploded..."

"Wait, it _works_!?"

"..." She gave something of a glare, picked it up, brought her omnitool up, an answering orange glow forming around her hand holding the hilt... and then with a snap-hiss a coruscating purple and blue blade flared to life.

Tanda sucked in her breath and watched it in pure astonishment. "It's so utterly beautiful, too. I've never seen the like, before. You have done the incredible. You aren't just an excellent engineer, you're maybe the best ever, to reproduce a lightsabre, and one so unique no less."

"I'm good, I'm not that good. I had... sort of an unexpected disassembly event while working on a TIE drive motivator last week. But this just seemed to come together, and I had yours as a model. As far as I can tell, the colour shifting is because the frequency modulator can't quite keep up, so the output shifts as it orbits the equilibrium point."

"Hrrrm. It is very pretty, though. And aesthetics are a component of lightsabre design, since they were designed for... Intimidation, you might say, by the old Jedi Order."

"Well, I wasn't intending to intimidate anyone with it! It cuts so easily, and without any weight, it'd be far too easy to overcompensate. I can't see how you'd ever use one."

"That is why only users of the force are able to properly wield lightsabres. The Force allows you to compensate and anticipate the blade intuitively, so that it becomes as a living extension of your body. I still confess I find it hard to believe that you made that already... Come, sit with me on the couch. We have things to discuss." She rose and stepped over to it, gesturing for the Quarian to follow her.

Tali gave an odd look, switching the thing off and replacing it in the box, before moving to sit, shifting into the slightly odd posture Quarians assumed when they 'curled up'

Tanda sucked in her breath, and then gently pressed her forehead against Tali's faceplate. "I am not sure by how much, but there is a little tinge of something deeper in you-and you are the first I have found with it."

"I... don't even know what that means...? ... And you're fogging my mask."

"It means you are in connection with the Force." She pulled back. "The energy created by all life, binding and connecting us. Exactly as I thought, people in tenuous circumstances tend to develop this latent ability all the more quickly..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Captain..."

"Well of course not. You're not from my galaxy, Tali. But as I have said before, I am talking about the Force. You saw me jump off that building."

"... Yes... I admit, I hadn't... well, you know. I can't do that. I'll use a ladder, thank you."

"Perhaps I could train you to do that someday.. That is what I mean to say. You have the innate ability to learn it."

"Hah. Me? I doubt it... buuut you want to try, don't you..."

"Of course I do. You, too, can know some of what I feel... The power, the temptation, the strength and the farsight. I think, in fact, with your power you can go very far. It is more than just a tinge."

"Well... All right. If you think I can, I... I'll learn from you, then."

"I... Thank you, Tali." She trembled a bit. "There was nothing quite so terrifying, I'll confess, as watching the Empire fall to pieces at Endor. All the grown men, acting like confused cadets, when the Emperor died... Compared to that, I saw this exile as an opportunity. You know, I need you, I need to create here, a bulwark of people in tune with the power of the Force, to defend what we are creating. You will be the first from this galaxy. You will learn the ways and the power of the Force as my apprentice."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

Tanda saw two converging problems: The ISB-Cerberus axis of humanocentric views, and the group they had discerned was generally called the Collectors—the origin of the mysterious ship they had failed to pursue, that had destroyed the E-A fleet. Of the two, she desperately wanted to deal with the second first. Civil war was not her preference, and they were continuing to raid human colonies, against which the Empire seemed only able to try and pressure and cajole other colonies into relocating, within the bounds of space in Sigurd they could patrol, for no attacks were taking place there. _They know who we are and where we are. And every time we show up outside of Sigurd, we miss them._

On the first problem, however, the Quarians were still bristling. They were now the plurality population of the Empire, for the rest of the colonies in Sigurd were very lightly peopled, and Turians, Humans, and Asari were still all collectively smaller groups. Even the small numbers of Batarian recusants... This multiethnic composition was something she was used to, but the relative weakness of the human position was not. And the Quarians had by far the greater part of the fleet. Indeed, Tanda was certain the Quarians could defeat her squadron if they had become enemies: In short, they were the better part of her strength. She would have to act to keep them in her nascent state.

Tanda plotted out response times based on her current hyper lane maps for the galaxy to see if there was any interior position in the Sigurd from which she could respond to a Collector attack in the usual time one took (they were sending assistance parties to survivors when there were some, taking them to Imperial space and recording their stories... if any). There was a certain level of simple mathematics and probability to stopping a raider...

But somehow, it had all been for naught. The problem, as far as they could tell... was that the attacks happened too quickly for them to possibly answer, with incredible rapidity and no warning through the relay network. Computers were wiped, and people were either dead, or vanished. ... Survivors were disturbingly absent. Distress calls, very rare.

Conversely, more Cerberus recruits were trickling in, as was money and resources, even at the same time she was plotting against them. A victory over the Collectors, even stopping a colony raid, would be a great fillip to morale and make it possible for her to act more decisively against the ISB. Whether or not that was an accurate assessment of the moods of her lower deck or she was just deceiving herself, she agonized about endlessly. Sleep was for others.

The hunt for the Collectors at least kept her officers busy enough to avoid much open plotting and dissension. They were split into the camp of snubfighter patrols or no snubfighter patrols, more or less, based on the relative belief of how powerful they thought the Collectors were. She was, though, starting to put together a core Quarian force capable of patrols and operations in conjunction with the starfighters, at which point she would implement patrols. They were so good at upgrading their ships and manufacturing Imperial systems that Tanda remained endlessly impressed. They could give those damned skeletal beasts from the Negs a run for their money, whatever they were.

 _Yevethans._ The word came to her bleary mind, reminding her of just how far gone she was. Today it was tea instead of coffee, as black as coal and turned perfect with a supply of milk. Which was white instead of blue; she was still getting used to that. _Punjana_ , the Mess orderly had called it. From Assam and Ireland at once—she wasn't quite sure how that worked, other than to assume it was a blend. But without regular Kaff, alternating between coffee and tea would do.

Within the limits of the sleep she was getting. For some reason the experiences of this life seemed less and less vivid. She badly wanted more. She wanted to find her opponents—crush them. She wanted _Terra_ , the shining homeworld of humanity. Once clinically sterile walls were now filled with holoprojectors flipping through slideshows of Earth scenery.

But despite those feelings, Sigurd was blossoming around her. The addition of resources had given the Quarians an explosion of creativity which was paying fortuitous dividends, even if the idea of 'highly stressed and delicate' did not come naturally to them. And now it was the time for her to be true to her promise. Tali may have somewhat manipulated her into it, but they did make an admiral's suit for her, and it the Quarians on the whole would not have expected the effort. It was time for her inspection tour.

...Tanda, putting it on for the first time... Well, she was a spacer, and knew about spacesuits. She had no doubt that Tali had done a good job. But from the internal head-cleaning sprayers and recuperators, the ports for food and water, the complicated, walking-powered pumps that drove recycling of waste, the absorption pads and the self-repair mechanisms, this profoundly intrusive suit was clearly never meant to be removed.

Ever. Though Dea knew what the Quarian would think as Tanda finished putting it on. As Tanda slowly ceased to be an Imperial officer, and became a Quarian officer.

"Okay, that's set. Good! The omnitool says everything's green, now you've just got to put the mask on. This might feel a little strange. Everything fit okay? It's rather boring, but you wanted uniform..."

"I wanted to look like a Quarian admiral," Tanda corrected gently. Or so she thought, anyway. Then she went ahead to fit the mask in place... And suddenly, well. She wasn't quite the human commander of Thunderflare anymore.

"Look, the scarf from Quintaran I picked up fits well with it at least..." Tali tightened it into place with some satisfaction.

She tried to keep her spirits. Even the most primitive and intrusive of spacesuits weren't quite so bad. "Okay. The internals seem to read correctly. Do you confirm that I'm sealed?"

There wasn't the glowing, and there was the odd feeling of the throat microphone, the various feeding and drinking tubes, the tongue switch, the HUD, the low hiss of air movement, and the sound of speakers near her ears... it gave a somewhat isolating feeling, and her field of view was a bit narrower... and Tali stared. "Keelah, you look good... I mean, ah!" She brought up her omnitool. "... Suit reads green, all systems in normal range."

"Good. I suppose I should stay in it all of tonight in private to get used to it."

"Acclimation _would_ be important, yes, if anything went wrong. You cannot risk a breach on a Quarian ship. That would be catastrophic." _For us,_ Tali didn't add.

"So I am going to spend the next thirty hours in this suit before we leave." Tanda announced. "Then I should be used enough to it to actually carry myself properly."

Tali muttered something her microphone didn't quite catch.

"At least we have properly designed belts for displaying our rank squares and code cylinders in the right place, finally," Tanda tried to be bemused and cheerful. Nobody could see how humiliating it was, after all! "Signing off on that uniform regulation was a pleasant undertaking."

She moved to sit, slowly settling down and getting comfortable. Tanda was a spacer, and not squeamish, though the longer it went on the more trapped and her confining her reality was. "Dancing? Or Holovids?" Tanda was upper class enough to know how to dance, but had never previously attempted it in a spacesuit.

"... Oh, you are so on. Quarians love to dance..." Tali giggled, and, really, her hips didn't lie at all when they started to sway to a beat held only in her head. She'd get to definitely set the pace—even using the force to assist, Tanda could only barely keep up with a Quarian dance, particularly one with this kind of techno-clubbing beat.

It would have been quite the workout in the suit, which would exhaust her long before it exhausted Tali. In the end, she sagged down onto the couch in her quarters. "How do you keep going in one of these?" Asking, haplessly, long after anyone not cheating with the gratuituous use of force powers would have given up in her place. At least the sweat disappeared as soon as it appeared... But in certain respects that made it worse. Creepy.

Tali... Well, quite honestly she laughed at her, as she led her back to the couch. "You get used to it. I'm sickly, not out of shape."

"I'm not even sure you're sickly, by Quarian standards. Strapping young lass."

"Really, you like the new one? I hoped you'd notice it!"

Tanda snorted. "I'm not hopeless. Except maybe when I am."

She giggled. "So, holovids, because I'm not sure you can get up... you figured out the water, right?"

"Yes. I'm not going to die in here."

"Hey, I have to check! So. What tonight?" She... curled up, next to her Captain.

"The Charge at Feather Nebula? Episodes of the Voyages of the VSD Protector?"

"Do you have anything... I don't know... older? Maybe with less brass and stoic heroes."

"Scrivner's Revenge? It was made like twenty-five years ago by a very famous actress who subsequently didn't make any holos for two decades. She plays a pirate queen."

"You're on. Sometimes movie pirates can be sexy. Not real ones."

Tanda was laughing like she had sneaking around with the other girls in her private school growing up. It took her mind off the constriction of the suit. "Such a daughter of the fleet, you are. If we're not tired when the first couple episodes are over, we can always watch Xim at Vontor, for something that's so classic the censors don't mess with it."

"Fair. This should be better than some of the other ones."

"Your honesty is always... Appreciated." After three episodes and the movie, they'd end up asleep on the coach. Well, the first night in the suit had given her absolutely no improvement in sleep quality. But now there was a supply of drugs to modulate her health on demand.

"Breakfast?" Tali was asking as she came to.

"Sure. Have you tried synthetic fruit smoothies yet? I think the processor should be putting together pretty passable flavours with reverse chirality right now. I'm going to have to remember not to accidentally pick up your food containers... Clearly you should have given my suit a square emergency induction port." She teased, a bit.

"You'll... regret that. Hrmph. You can use the normal ones! I made sure to mark yours, the ones I had made... I don't think I have. Fruit... smoothie?"

Tanda, rather than trying to explain, had the food processor generate one of the appropriate chirality for Tali. "Here. Muja and Kavasa fruit."

"Muja and Kavasa." This was something of an involved process to hook it up, after doing all the proper scans and purifications. "Oh! This is good... we usually just make paste of one kind of fruit at a time, for more variety in our menu."

"Well, I hope you'll see from this that mixing them together creates essentially a whole new flavour. And now you have all the galactic ones to explore. And I suppose non-Quarian or Turian ones as well from this galaxy, once we've programmed the flavours—which we continue to work on."

"It's wonderful. Completely artificial, but so is a lot we end up consuming and dealing with."

Tanda had to choke away laughter at the abrupt reversion between the two comments. "Oh, the same thing. We should probably go the forward shuttle bay for the inspection tour, now."

Tali looked away for a moment, or perhaps just distant. "Yes, we should."

-

As they arrived at the Migrant fleet, for their tour of the first ships, it immediately leapt out how crammed the ships were, even being one of the cruisers making it less bad. There were families living in the control windows overseeing the bay, in the side cargo bays... the ships officers were ready to receive her, led by the captain. Her suit computer chirped; Kel'Geru van Inushka. Cruiser, one of the few remaining from the initial exodus.

"She's a vintage ship of the old fleet, Captain?" Tanda was still getting used to where to settle her hands to feel in that comfortable repose of authority that came so naturally in a Moff's uniform.

She now well understood why Tali's hands seemed to always be working at something or each other when she spoke. "... Yes, Moff Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare!" His posture swelled with pride, and his answer enthusiastic enough to make her feel like she was really on an Imperial ship. "She's old, but we know all her quirks by now. Freshly refitted, thanks to you."

"Not that old of a ship," Tanda answered mildly, and gestured for them to start off. "The Corporate Sector back home bought a large quantity of old ships from the reserve depots, _Invincible_ class heavy cruisers, two klicks long - and three thousand years old. When I was a fresh-faced young lieutenant my first independent command was taking a navigation detail aboard one in the reserve depot, the _Shannador's Revenge_ , to transport her to the Corporate Sector for the handover ceremony. By that standard our _Inushka_ here is an excellently new ship that will give fine service with her refit. A cruiser's bones aren't brittle in just a few centuries, and it'll be a load off her systems when we can settle the civilians."

"Thank you, Moff-her bones, perhaps, are good with your maintenance, but the eezo core..." He trailed off significantly, but still led her through the ship. ...Quilts and Quarians, everywhere. A full up trading and bazaar deck was included, and this was on a military ship, thus she had many fewer civilians than was the norm. Added modules littered her spine, going into the forward odd ring like structure that made her resemble in certain ways the old Hammerhead cruisers. The crew was much less spit and polish, and the ship, more than a little jury-rigged, but they had the confidence of long-service spacers who had seen fights.

"You've got quite the charge in the accelerator ring for a ship of this size." Quarians were the only people who used energy weapons, and though the entire ship was taken up by one, it was still equal to only a single turbolaser—but it was a respectably sized one for a ship this small. She was frequently glancing at her suit interior instead of what she wanted to see and had to deal with that, getting used to the limited field of vision. "Well, she's fit to fight, though it remains my first priority to see the selected military service forces first to bid goodbye to having civilians aboard. It's not the risk that anyone needs to take. Not now."

"Agreed, Moff Tanda'Pryl. The frigates are just a smaller version - no dreadnoughts, not after the war. Nothing like your ships, not yet. Just our three big pocket battleships, lengthened prototypes of a new cruiser design. Admiral Han'Gerrel's heavy force, those." The bridge, captain's chair in the center, surrounded by operators... patch cables everywhere.

"Well, we'll be more likely to design something much older than that as our first Imperial built ship in this galaxy. Fortunately we throw nothing away, including the plans-I'm thinking of a few that you might find aesthetically acceptable and that I have-marvelous technology integrated with the suit, you've at least eliminated shifting through flimsies all day long, which is more than I can say about anything I've used."

There were some looks between the officers at that. Her attempts to socialize with the plight of the Quarians necessarily came off a bit weak. She could take the suit off, after all. "Through necessity, Moff... there's the tactical display, as you can see, with the rest of our squadron behind. Is there anything else you wish to see?" Tali was following her-and trying not to blush at Tanda's relative ineptness with some of the comments to her people.

"I'm satisfied that you've a first rate fighting crew. Is there anything in particular you want me to see? This is as much a political survey of long-term needs as anything else." Tanda was aware she had, apparently, done something equivalent to make a joke about lekku contributing to dancing ability. _But I was able to recall the design of a hammerhead instantly through the interface_!  
"Moving the civilians off ship is the greatest priority-you've seen how cramped our ships are. Basic supplies and resources are what we need the most, then to refit our warships, on the side of the Fleet."

"The fitting of hyperdrive to the LiveShips will make the planetary settlement possible, so that's our present engineering objective toward the completion of the mission. Thank you." And so it would go. On, and on, and on. Considering the huge number of ships, they had couple of days scheduled for this... even only inspecting a fraction.

Quarian, batarian, turian, a few human... they had a massive collection of the galaxy's cast-offs here, and Tanda was able to sample them all, all of them packed with seventeen million Quarians, while the civilian ships had everyone from teenagers on up staring at her as she picked her way through... it was not an easy life. Privacy was a foreign thing, as was personal space... but she'd given them enough hope, and so was welcomed in.

Tanda would try to project an air of professionalism and competence. And also adapt enough not to do anything offensive or irreverent for the sake of the Quarians. She, in some way, somehow, meant well, or thought that she did; these people clearly deserved to prosper, finally. Feeling like someone running for the Senate, she greeted endless Quarian civilians, who were used to having a government of the Conclave, and now had a government of one: Her. "At our best, this sort of thing was what the Empire was supposed to prevent," she'd remark to Tali on the shuttle.

She wasn't. They were paranoid about children and clean rooms, even inside her suit... "What, abandoned people fleeing on rag-tag flotillas from AIs?"

"Mostly that you don't have an opportunity for settled life under law and order. The rest of the galaxy sees you as criminals because you act from the necessity of survival. It makes me angry, but I suppose from someone who can take this suit off in a few days, that's a small thing."

"They'll forget about it, it just might take another two centuries..." She audibly sighed. "You're trying, but you've seen the fleet. We have discipline and order. They just see exiles, young ones on their pilgrimage, and the Migrant Fleet."

"I have seen, it is true. You are not criminals. That much is very clear. I just - feel hampered in succeeding in obtaining the dispersion of the fleet. It is for the best, lest one day you are all in one place, and..." She trailed off.

"Is that not always the terror?"

"... Yes. Especially after Cerberus attacked the Flotilla."

"Nobody told me about this."

"Things were... going to start building towards a crisis over it, if you hadn't intervened."

"How did you trust me?" Her voice nearly broke. "Agreeing to be ruled by a human after that..."

"I... don't know. I hoped you were like Shepard, somehow. So I presented the offer. Your ships... what choice did we really have? We could have said no, and then we would have faced the idea of war over Rannoch."

Tanda looked away. "Am I like Shepard?"

"... Sort of. You dance better, for one, but you have that same sort of drive... You're a lot harder edged than she was."

"The Empire raises you that way. I'm getting very angry at the ISB right now, though. Furious at Cerberus. You hid from me that Cerberus had attacked the fleet—but that was a just tactical decision, in the circumstances, wasn't it? No wonder you were so miserable on our entire trip there."

"They were hunting for some defectors, I think. My father didn't tell me everything. But... I don't think you would do wrong by my people. That's the important part."

"I'd like to speak to your father about this. And other matters with the Admiralty board-you were clearly very advanced in your preparations against Rannoch. But there's another matter we need to consider, too-which is make sure our future together is safe from machinations and plots among my own people." _I've gone native and I don't give a damn about it._

"That... isn't going to be easy, as far as I can tell."

"Securing us against my own people?"

"Well, yes. You have to know the right people to secure against... I think? This is not something I'm used to, my last efforts with being discreet ended painfully."

"..Was that the time you got shot by polonium bullets?"

"... Yes."

-

She would go ahead with her meeting with the Admiralty the next day. Tali'Zorah's father... Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, Daro'Xen vas Moreh, Han'Gerrel vas Neema, Rael'Zorah vas Alarei, and Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib.

"Admirals." She would move to sit, with Tali as her aid standing behind her. "It is my deep pleasure to sit with you for our first joint planning meeting, with several proposals which I think will be of interest. To spare the pleasantries, I'll get started immediately."

"I have the plans here for Thranta class heavy corvette of the Great Galactic War, about three thousand, seven hundred years ago - Some of the earliest ship designs for which we have reliable data. Three hundred and ten meters long with a fairly large hangar. I was thinking the first ship fabrication project could be an attempt to produce one, albeit with a relatively modest hyperdrive, perhaps. I speak to the fact the design is not only well documented and simpler than the latest of Imperial starship designs, but also perhaps as close to Quarian design aesthetics as the great Galactic shipbuilding tradition reached."

They looked over them, and there was some soft discussion; Xaro'Den looked up, and said with real confidence; "We can do it. Give me six months."

"That is very ambitious. If we are producing working hyperdrive prototypes in six months, I shall be a very happy woman... You are confident, Admiral?"

"Reasonably so, Moff Pryl. It may not work well. But we will have something." Xaro'Den, for her part, used the human style. Tanda wondered why.

"Well. We have a plan going forward. Slowly our manufaturies will begin to catch up with our ability to design. Progress to date is admirable. The only risk, as Admiral Raan has explained, I suspect, is the threat from political factions in my own personnel."

"She has. We have made what preparations we can." That was from Tali's father.

"I would rather be proactive with you. My enlisted personnel support my policies."

"There is a limit what we can do." Raan murmured. "Your officers, the majority of them, are at the least ill at ease with the idea of being equal to Quarians."

"There is perhaps one component of how the Galactic Empire was run that you have not fully determined yet. I can win against the ISB by cowing almost all of my officers into absolute obedience with it. Tali...?"  
At that directive the woman was to... Show off her lightsabre to the Admirals.

Tali took it out, and lit it, holding it carefully before her - it... didn't have the symbolism it would in the Empire. They were impressed - omnitools came up to scan it. "An energy blade... how did you make that, Commander Tali'Zorah?" Daro'Xen was the most intrigued.

"After observing the internal mechanisms of mine," Tanda interjected. Which shot up into her hand before igniting somewhat more casually at the table. "The Emperor and the Emperor's Executor were from a long line of users of the force, practitioners of meditation upon the natural universal energy field, as we would say. Rare are those able to use force powers, Commander Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare is the first person from this galaxy I have encountered with even the slightest ability." She deactivated the blade very delicately.

"To my crew these are universally the weapons of the hated Jedi Order. And of the Emperor and his personal right hand. It is in that guise that force ability is the true determinator of legitimate government over the Empire. I kept mine secret, as I had no desire to become an Inquisitor, which was the requirement for force-using Imperial loyalists within the Empire proper. But now, it is a symbol of the legitimacy of my rule that would make even the most humanocentric ISB officers think twice before challenging me."

"Frankly if you were from my home galaxy, you would be outright terrified right now. But you're not, so this is something of a casual conversation piece." She chuckled dryly.

From the relatively blank looks through faceplates indicated that, yes, this did... not quite translate well. At all. They didn't really grasp it, but... "If you say so." Gerrel said with a bit of a... dismissive air to it. " _This, this_ is what the security of our people is to be trusted to?"

And then Han'Gerrel found himself having trouble breathing. His hand brushed at his suit throat, while... bringing up diagnostics to attempt to figure out what was going wrong. Then it got worse.

"Admiral Gerrel, do you think your technology will explain to you the significance of the power of the force?"

"Enough!" Rael'Zorah finally managed to say, the Quarians now suddenly consternated and stunned. "Han, you should know better than to taunt things you don't understand!"

Tanda made a slight gesture and let him collapse onto the table to regain his breath. It really was more than just being choked, from the way he collapsed like a limp puppet and would need a while to regain his strength.

"I had no intention of killing Admiral Gerrel, but there was no other adequate way in the circumstances to explain that the force is something more than a slick application of biotics. Biotics are unknown in my home galaxy and you have been given access to classified data which indicates as much. If I had not demonstrated this power, you would have thought me a madwoman or an idiot and had no confidence in my ability to deal with my officers. Now you understand that is not the case. The Force is omnipresent. And Tali'Zorah is uniquely honoured to be the first Quarian I am teaching in its ways. You will therefore be able to have the assurance that one of your own people is an adept of the force. I consider this all of the gesture to you that I could possibly need to provide."

Gerrel gave her something of a glare, rubbing at the neck of his suit, the rest, giving her odd looks. "It is... not something easy to understand, my fellow admirals - but Tali'Zorah is... blessed with this talent. It will speak well to have her at the Moff's side."

"What I am trying to explain is that it is impossible for the ISB to actually succeed in removing me from power now that I have a coterie of force adepts," Tanda added. "So while their attitudes are concerning to you, you in fact need only be concerned about my attitude-and the fact that I have inducted Commander Tali'Zorah into my order is proof enough that I am absolutely committed to my words when it comes to your people. I refuse to allow the prejudices of others to impinge upon the reconstruction of the Empire in this galaxy."

"We will see, Moff Pryl." Admiral Zorah said with a wary air. "We placed much hope in your success."

"You have placed the future of your entire race with me, but I do not rule it. We only progress and proceed by our cooperation."

"I would have simply given you the histories of the force in the galaxy instead of such a painful demonstration... But they were actively destroyed by the late Emperor." She rose.

They watched her, and Tali stood behind her.

The Quarian admirals weren't... rejecting her, or what she offered. "...Then we explore it together." came from Xen.

"Yes, we do. And together we face these challenges."

"We have thrown in together until there is victory, and no other option remains."

Tanda bowed her head. "I am proud of the link. Commander Tali'Zorah is a worthy representative of your race."

She blushed under the faceplate at her father's look and Tanda's praise - she'd... been accepted as some sort of a superior, as at least they weren't bickering about her plans.

"You will hear more communication from me on preempting the distasteful matter of disobedience to lawful superiors and scheming on the part of humanocentric elements in the Empire."

"Our progress is satisfactory."

-

"... Tan-Moff Pryl!" Tali hurriedly corrected herself, whirling around as she sensed a presence behind her.

"I don't suppose you have any ideas of how to trap the Collectors?" She trailed the woman into her office. Kesea would be back on her feet soon, though Tanda was musing on seeing if her healing powers would help the woman finish recuperating truly fully. The problem with them was that they were distinctly experimental.

"That... depends what they're looking for. if they're just looking for ill-defended humans... though I'm not sure how we'd present that, and I don't know if 'bait' is very safe for whomever we'd use." Having an office was new, for the Quarians. "I think we need more intelligence, as dumb as that sounds."

"I don't disagree with you, Tali. I am however at a loss of how to get it, short of sending out the probe droids I have left, which seems like sticking a hand into a hornet's nest considering the Reapers."

"Very. Or even the geth, either would love to get their hands on them. I don't know. Why is it only humans, that's what strikes me as odd."

"It bothers me as well, though I admit to being, ah, somewhat more biased on the subject."

"Understandably! If somebody was hunting Quarians like that..." She shuddered. "Well, I don't know. What do you think they are looking for? You know, think like a genocidal machine race or something."

"I'm not sure." She looked very distasteful. "There were similar raids on a few outer system colonies near the Elrood Sector by an unknown alien species back home. The Rebels apparently dealt with them after the disaster at Endor. Something about sucking the life energy from living beings for more power. Perhaps using force connections."

"They'd hook them up to their control systems... Perhaps for more processing power. I'm not sure; it was all half rumour and utterly disgusting. I hope the rebels exterminated them, but they probably didn't." Tanda sat down, folding her hands. The tea was waiting, at least.

"Keelah, that's horrible. I don't know what... oh no. Sovereign, it said each one of us is a nation unto itself. That _may_ just mean each one is a vast collection of VIs operating in parallel."

"Or it means each one is powered by the souls of an entire nation." Tanda had a particularly dark looking expression, at that. "Thank you for the insight."

"... If... that were the case, I'd wonder what made humans so special."

"Yes, the supposition, while attractive in its-disgusting nature... Doesn't precisely answer why they go after exclusively humans."

"That I don't know. Shepard, you, you're both special, but... I don't know. Does it mean... that some of your officers are right, that humans are special and destined for great things?"

The sound in Tali's voice made Tanda want to give her a hug. "Do you really believe that?"

She flushed behind the faceplate. "I... don't know." Her fingers started to twist around each other. "Humans... look at how much of the galaxy they control already, and in so little time, compared with all the other races. And humans dominate your home."

"And yet someone transported us between two galaxies against our will when we were yet a primitive collection of barbarians."

"That would sort of imply you were special, if someone bothered..."

"Well, am I supposed to say something to that?" Tanda looked - a bit trapped.

"I... don't know. Maybe I don't want you to. Maybe I don't want to think of the implications. Maybe I feel sick to my stomach thinking those people might be right."

"I don't know the answer to what you're looking for, Tali. What I do know is that alien jedi were much more common on average than human ones as a ratio to population, as far as I can tell, before the end of the republic. The force does not discriminate, if anything seems to favour aliens."

"As for whether humans are smarter or more capable of succeeding civilisationally - I was taught that the answer is yes."

"You aren't smarter than I am. Hrmph. I'm... I don't know. I'm a machinist, not a... philsopher."

"I know I'm not smarter than you! But I don't know what kind of answer I can give."

Tali seemed very flustered. "Well, we can... I don't know, try a bit of training? You said it works better when you're able to channel emotions... I... oh, ancestors, just ignore what I'm saying. I guess I just wonder, sometimes."

"We could go train. Unless you've changed your mind." She smiled wryly. "Tali'Zorah, I don't - I don't think I see you as any less than I."

"I haven't! And I added a routine to Chatika vas Paus to be a sparring drone - I've been practicing."

"That is an excellent development." She pushed herself up, stepped to Tali's side, relieved that the topic of the conversation had shifted. "All right then..." _I wish I had some better way of reassuring her._

"Well, I didn't want to, you know, chop important things, like limbs, off."

"I think you are well beyond the stage of having to worry about that."

"You really think so? Are there training sabres, or do you... I suppose I shouldn't worry about having to fight anyone else with one of these, should I?"

"There's me. It's time for us to start duelling."

"... Why should I be worrying about fighting you, though... keelah, I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

"It's the absolute best way of training you for lightsabre combat if it becomes necessary."

"I guess a part of me wonders why it would?"

"I don't know any other way to improve your general skill." Tanda flushed.

"Fair... well... okay. I don't think I know very much yet, so... we'll... see if this works?"

She... had improved, but had mostly been practicing at stopping shots - not duelling. That was... new, for a Quarian. "This is dangerous, isn't it?"

"Yes, though I'm competent enough that I can do it with confidence. Just remember, trust the force in your movements..." She would settle into her fighting clothes in her little gym before coming out with her lightsabre.

Tali brought out her own, and took a breath to try and settle herself down. She knew she was supposed to be emotional, but it seemed safer when she was calm. No problem, just sparring with instant-death swords!

She would then have her first taste of just how completely incredible lightsabre to lightsabre combat could be, though... It was the slow combat of the days of the Empire, not the insane tricks of the Jedi of old. Even this, it had taken Tanda great effort to reconstruct.

Tali had a graceful, quick, precise movement to her, but it was clear that she had no experience with the idea of a duel, just an attempt to murder someone as quickly as possible with a knife. It was a fact that gave her something of the advantage at several points, until Tanda managed to disarm her with a cunning parry, most of the time. "You have a very aggressive style. It's good, it keeps me off balance. But you have to watch what you're doing, because you frequently leave yourself open to counter-moves..."

"I never learned how to block anything... never seemed a very good idea, that's all." She was breathing a bit harder, taking a step back and sighing. "I could write a program to track moves, but that's not using the Force."

"I think it would be a dangerous reliance, yes. You must trust your abilities, and learn to focus them on this, Tali. You are clearly competent at it to a certain measure, so do not despair."

"We'll see... again?" Trying harder, once she got the defensive side of it, she was going to be terrifying, and... difficult. She didn't move like a human, and her face being masked made certain 'tells' very hard to see before she struck.

"Yes, we shall. To your guard..." Tanda would keep at it for a bit longer, before considering the evening settled with a good result for their training in a first session, at least. Even if the questions which Tali'Zorah had raised were not ones she could find answers to, it seemed. Not answers she wanted. The idea of telling Tali that she was inferior to humans broke her heart to think about, but she didn't know what else to say..! She was acutely aware of the fact that she seemed to be going native, but it increasingly didn't seem to matter.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

Several weeks into the sparring sessions was when things began to change. To a certain extent, Tanda's abilities were not really being pushed to the limit by Tali'Zorah until that point. Though, charitably mediocre at lightsabre combat—Tanda was relying entirely on the intuition of the force and her own experience with duelling with regular sabres—she still had a considerable advantage over someone who had never fought with a long bladed weapon before at all.

And then in the middle of sparring, Tali threw a surprise into her face. The room turned brilliant white as a screaming clarion warning in the force tore through her body. Tanda had been on the verge of disarming Tali again when abruptly the light flashed through her eyes, halfway through her soul, and sent her rolling back, bringing her lightsabre up with a flash of anger in a defensive stance that radiated both frustration and outright confusion.

Tali barely knew what she was doing, but Force blinding was... unexpected. She froze after doing it, having done it as a near-reflex defensively and unaware that she even could.

Finally confusion won out over more dangerous emotions. "Uh... Tali, how did you do that? I've never heard of that skill before? I certainly didn't teach it to you." She thought she could have recovered from it by using the force to launch a counterattack without sight, but risked seriously injuring Tali if she did, especially since she was unready.

The Quarian sounded incredibly apologetic. "I... I'm not sure. I was trying to... defend, I sort of flinched and... what did I do? I saw a flash, my eyes are a little dazzled, but my faceplate didn't blank."

Tanda tried to compose herself. "It was a really, really bright flash to a human. Or I suppose a Quarian. You created light with the force that your visor could not recognize." _This skill is dangerous to you..._ She tried to shake the voice in her head, too.

"I... wanted to protect myself but didn't want to hurt you and I guess I tapped into that. It was like I grabbed... something? Sort of like what you taught me about how to pick things up, but... not quite."

"Grabbed light itself, you mean. That's so interesting." Tanda deactivated her lightsabre and dropped to her knees on the training mats. She concentrated, and tried to imitate it, but just gave herself something of a headache, while Tali calmed herself. "Hrmm. I can't think of how to do it, myself."

"I'm not sure how. You know more about the Force than I do! But then again, I have trouble with what you've been trying to teach me sometimes."

"I assumed that was a lack of skill, to be honest. Now I'm left with the idea you might be able to access things in the force that I cannot." Tanda looked suitably humbled, even as suspiciousness curdled in her heart. She pushed it down. "You should, therefore, not rule out - finding your own path to things, Tali. Perhaps the flavour of the force is a bit different for Quarians, or in this galaxy. I'd have a hard time describing it otherwise."

"Well, I find it hard to channel my emotions, like you said. I seem to do better when I'm feeling calmer instead, or happy."

"But emotional power seems so fundamental to the force... Hnnf." Tanda looked more confused, now, as she moved to the bench and plopped down, squinting at the ground and thinking. _She better not be better than me._ But that gave her a flash of guilt at the sharpness and intensity and vivid pleasure of the jealousy.

"Well... let me show you. You know how when I get really angry, I can barely make one of those glass pebbles move?"

"Yes. It was a bit cute." Tanda looked up, and smiled wanly.

Tali carefully folded her legs underneath herself, and let out a low sigh, the sound of her respirator becoming the only sound she made for quite a while. ... and then, very slowly, she rose a few centimetres off the ground.

"You've come very far... If you improve only a bit on that you'll be as good as me. "

She fell to the ground with a but of a thump. "It's... not easy. But like I said, when I'm calm, or happy, or even feeling heroic, it seems to come a lot easier."

Tanda bodily suppressed deep within her another abrupt flash of fear and paranoia. _Give her the best advice that you can_. "If that is what motivates you... Then ignore my advice on how to reach the force, and reach it through your own abilities. I developed mine through inference. I don't have any sources to go on. I would prefer to see results from you, and that path seems to give you results."

"Do you think there might be some race, somewhere, that had a tradition like this...? In our galaxy? I wonder if Liara might know anything, though she's so focused on Protheans..." She trailed off and her respirator indicated she was taking a deep breath. "I guess, also, a part of me... as I've been learning, Tanda, I've also noticed that... You feel... odd?"

"I feel odd? You mean you can sense that I'm force sensitive, right?"

"No... you feel odd. Off. I've felt a few of your other students, I think. But you feel odd."

"I'm sorry. I don't understand how that could be the case."

"I don't know either! I just feel... uneasy when you're doing things? I'm not sure how to phrase it."

"Well, do you feel threatened by me, like you did when we were sparring?"

"No... Not actively. I'm starting to notice what you said, those feelings of danger, I don't feel that from you." She frowned. This was difficult to determine and harder to explain.

"So... I make you uneasy, but you don't know why."

"It's not all the time either, it's only when you're using the Force-or at least I think so. It's new, I didn't notice this before, but I can't tell if that's me learning, or you, or..."

"...Or?"

"I don' t know. It... I started noticing it when you got busier a while ago."

"Perhaps I have just been neglecting you." Tanda sighed. "Is that what is amiss? No late movie nights recently? General stress?"

"It's possible... I mean, I'd never say that you were, or accuse you of that! I don't think that's what it is..."

"Well, maybe you should... I've been confronted with the problem of trying to face your questions about the Quarian people and yourself vis-a-vis humanity, I confess."

"I don't... know if there's an answer to that." Her posture shifted, becoming a bit more guarded. "I thought about it. I don't think anything will prove it. Xen's building that cruiser to prove... that we can copy very well, but... ah, Keelah, I'm doing it again."

"Well, you seem to know more about the force than I do."

"Or I'm somehow gifted with more of a skill at it. I wonder how many other Quarians might have a talent? There are seventeen million of us."

"I could start checking everyone, but I think I am ... Inadequate to the task of training that many at once."

"Everyone is! I'm not planning to teach anyone. It's... well, we're not going anywhere, not thanks to you. We have a planet again."

"Perhaps you should focus on the future of Quarians, then. Humans are secure no matter what happens _here._ "

"No! I like you, Tanda. I'll try to get the bottom of this and keep studying."

"I like you too, Tali."

-

One thing that nothing at all could change was the problem pinning down the location of the Collectors. It was slowly driving the fleet to distraction. Tanda was in the middle of another meeting over it, with Captain Rhae in attendance from _Stalker_ , arguing in favour of a complicated algorithm for analyzing the Collector operations for patterns.

When the staff briefing ended, Tanda signalled for Tali and Shala'Raan to linger with her.

Tanda stirred her coffee fitfully. This one was from somewhere called Viet-Nam, a different cultivar or subspecies of the bean. She had grown slightly guilty over the Quarians, eating and drinking nothing as the usual snacks and tea and coffee were passed around at staff meetings. "We clearly need more data before this is going to have any chance of working. Do either of you have any ideas?"

"You are correct in your analysis, Moff Tanda'Pryl, but I cannot offer a solution."

Tanda imagined Shala'Raan was frowning. "I could try to get the data from the alliance. Perhaps with the way they constantly underestimate us, they would think it less consequential to share it with us than they otherwise would."

"Possible..." Tali fidgeted. "Unless they picked up word of your ties with Cerberus, in which case you'll get nothing out of them. I'm not sure. This would be easier if I had any connections, but I've ... not got many. Adams, Ashley, a few others, nobody senior."

"They might be worth asking anyway. The fact remains that humans are dying and the Alliance should care about stopping them. But I know that governments don't precisely obey such rules."

"I'll... see what I can do. I might actually have to go there, though. Most of them are military - we don't need that getting picked up by the censors."

"...Ah, yes. If it is to be an informal contact, that would be the way we'd have to do it."

"I know... and for that, I'd need a ship. And credits. And... a lot of other things. Already have the shotgun. I assume you'll want me to check in with 'Uncle' Wrex, too."

"So we have just come to agree to send you off on your own into Alliance space? And then to visit Tuchanka?" Tanda gulped the coffee. She didn't feel particularly good about risking Tali like that. _Why are you getting so attached to her anyway? You need the information and she's volunteering._

"You want the information, and the alternative is to send some of your crew. I mean, it is an option, but you'd need Cerberus to help you in that case."

"And I don't want to trust Cerberus with this information. In fact, I think Cerberus might just feed me false information."

"Then let me go! New suit, ship, credits, I shouldn't need much more than that I don't already have from Pilgrimage.

"Well, tell me what ship you want, and I'll get it for you... Tali."

Shala'Raan remained impassive, though thoughtful, in the face of the extreme informality between her foster daughter and her commander.

Tali did the little thing with her hips that indicated she wasn't... certain. But at the same time she was so excited at having her own ship. "It should be a small ship, nothing that will attract too much attention, something believably Quarian, I think... and I should probably have someone else with me."

"So, some two seat craft with robust security?"

"Imperial make or not? Or does it matter?" Tali queried. "It depends on how formal you want this to be."

"It doesn't matter, I can always make some modifications to pass scrutiny—so we'll conceal its origins. But I want you to have a hyperdrive. As long as you're not actively shooting at anyone, a lot of patrols act pretty blind. I had been leaning toward a blastboat, but perhaps something more inconspicious."

"That depends how much you expect I'll have to make explode... inconspicuous would be good-I mean, I won't need more than the lightsabre to make points in person."

"Do you want a small vessel from the Quarian fleet, then?"

"I'm not sure we have anything that small with an FTL drive..." Tali glanced to Shala'Raan, who shook her head slightly. "Just gunboats, you'd need a crew of ten or so for one of those."

"The problem is choosing a design which isn't well known yet." Tanda brought up a data readout and checked _Thunderflare_ 's support craft inventory.

"Yes... do you have any scout craft that have not been used yet, Moff Tanda'Pryl?" The Quarian admiral was musing, and tapping through holoscreens.

"No... But we've only been using our Gamma class assault shuttles to train Quarian marines for spacetrooper duties, so they haven't been seen outside of the fleet. They've got a hyperdrive, though it's only good for three jumps in the computer, but we can send an Astromech along with them, and the consumables are much in excess of that required for a small party. And the shields and triple hull plating make them the toughest of our small craft, for surviving to spacetrooper deployment."

Raan tapped, bringing it up. "It will be a bit of a workload for a crew of only two..."

Tali spoke up, quickly; "I can handle it. It'll work fine, we'll just slap some blow-off panels on to make it look more like some old hauler, cover up the guns."

"Excellent, then." Her voice grew hushed even though Shala'Raan was aware of them. "I will second one of my best adepts to you. Ensign Khajara Aleesha. The shuttle's presently fitted with four heavy blasters, a dual ion cannon, two tractor beams, and a fifteen round magazine for concussion missiles. Do you want anyone else with you? Security personnel? Fleet troopers?"

"I... don't think I'll need anyone else. We'll have to stop by Ilium, to pick up a false ID for anyone who will be leaving the ship, but I'll defer to your judgement on this, you know the class of ship better. This is supposed to be an information gathering trip, not a... anything like a shore party from the Normandy."

"Just so." Tanda tapped her stylus. "There's a small Ubiqtorate detachment onboard who I trust much more than my ISB personnel. They've already been manufacturing Alliance false IDs."

"Then in that case, assign who you think I might need, and anyone you want to get experience with moving around inside Council space. Keelah, their brains will explode to see a Quarian with her own ship... or think I'm an exile, but either one works."

"You'll be arrested for starship theft, for being a Quarian," Tanda muttered darkly.

"I'd like to see them try! If you make me a Captain..." She quivered with... yes, that was rage. The Quarians had sort of a complex about a Captain's authority being questioned that Tanda had discovered early on, and exploited to her advantage. "I am a Commander of the Imperial Navy and a Daughter of the Migrant Fleet!"

Tanda couldn't resist smiling fondly. "Still, take precautions. I will draw up all the documents, however for the registration being as lawful as we can make it... And a few fake ones if it's required. I'll send one officer from the Ubiqtorate contingent along to record anything useful so you can focus on your more congenial contacts."

"It's a big shuttle, so, really... I'm honoured you'd think I'm worthy of a command like this."

"You're my Tali. And it seems our courses were for separate ways, today." Even in front of Shala... Tanda could not obscure her sentimentalism and concern about the mission.

"That might be - but I'll be coming back, Tanda..." She reached over, to take the other woman's gloved hands on hers and squeeze. "I won't let you down, my Captain." The reference to the song from _Fleet and Flotilla_ that she loved so much affected her, badly.

"I will keep faith in that, Tali. Well, I should train you harder until you are ready to leave. I believe this meeting is settled, then."

"Oh joy..." She sounded... sarcastically happy, as Raan gave her a cautious look. This was something like a second Pilgrimage, in a way.

-

When it was time to depart, there was a dark-skinned human woman in an Imperial uniform and a slightly bronzen companion with almondine eyes in an Ubiqtorate service uniform at her side. Tanda introduced them both, leaving Tali surprised that they were both women. There were very few on the ship, and there was probably something going on that she was not completely aware of.

The naval officer had been promoted to lieutenant since the mission planning had begun, too. But Tanda mentioned nothing of that. "Khajara Aleesha, L'tenant, Imperial Navy, and Tlotatmé Sigardine, Officer of the Ubiqtorate."

"I have explained their assignment to you. They will work under your command to obtain information on Collector operations from the Alliance, Commander Zorah."

"Ah... It's good to meet you, Lieutenant Aleesha, Officer Sigardine." She gave a momentary glance to Tanda, before squinting closely at the two of them through the frosted visor glass, trying to... figure out how to tell them apart when they weren't in uniform. _I hope this won't go as badly as it often did with Shepard._

Sigardine was a Nabooyard, from her background-their personnel files were given to Tali now, available on her Omnitool. Naboo, the Emperor's homeworld: People from it generally had very high reliability ratings in the Imperial service. Tanda shook hands with each of them in turn, and then the two women with nondescript duffles followed Tali to the modified assault shuttle XRJ-1101.

"... You need a name..." Tali murmured to herself, carrying much less than her officers did, walking around the ship-here and there she popped the plates off to be able to see better, going over the shuttle with a fine-toothed omnitool before she'd sign for it.

"The Imperial Starfleet has too many shuttles to name them. We barely even name our frigates, ma'am, and never the corvettes," Aleesha would offer. Sigardine quietly just got herself settled down, stowing her gear and checking through the partially stripped spacetrooper seating that had been replaced to allow for bunks and such for long distance operations as part of the conversion.

Once Tali finished her checks, she'd hop down, nodding in some satisfaction at the modification work. "Well, we Quarians expect one... do either of you have any objections to Iravahnz?" She'd get settled-a part of her marveling at all the panels around the command station-trying to link up her omnitool and ensure all the controls could be operated by her three fingers.

"Don't know what it means," the Khajara offered with a flashed grin as she checked out the copilot's station.

Officer Sigardine stepped up and nodded. "Seconded to that. I suppose that's what you were checking for, though, that it wasn't Basic for some horrible digestive disease?" The fact that the Ubiqtorate officer could crack a joke with an alien was a positive sign. She'd already quietly changed into civilian clothes, loose fitting robes of a comfortable homespun from her world over a jumpsuit.

"Yes. That is... something I've learned about some of our ship names. We'll have to go to the Citadel first... it'll be a lot simpler if Anderson is willing to help me, but I'm not sure of that. If not, this will be a bit harder."

"Anderson?" Sigardine settled into the forward gunner's position. Their R3 droid tweeted readiness as it found a place to secure itself.

"Best to give us a full briefing. For whatever reason Her Ladyship did not," Sigardine added. She used the title a bit significantly - by this point in her scheming, Tanda had brought the Ubiqtorate in on her side. And Sigardine's superior officer had decided his best interest was in treating Tanda _exactly_ like a Sith lord.

"Well. You know the basic background of the galaxy, and governance by this point. Anderson, he used to be an Admiral, and now he's the human representative on the Citadel Council. I met him with Shepard... a few times, actually. He should know who I am, and if he hears that we're trying to help stop the attacks on human colonies, he might be willing to give us the information we need. If that does not work, the other surviving senior members of the old Normandy crew are all options, though he's our best chance because of his seniority."

"Then to the Citadel it is. It is a useful enough location to finally visit, anyway. The Centrepoint Station of this galaxy." Sigardine smiled lightly.

"I heard about that! A sun inside a station... it would be wonderful to see something like that! I wonder how they did it... Alright, all checks good. Time for us to go." She keyed up the comms channel. "This is Assault Shuttle XRJ-1101 "Iravahnz", requesting departure clearance."

"Shuttle Iravahnz," came a droll male voice. "This is Thunderflare Control. Permission granted, departure clearance given on level Alpha Prime. Independent thrust from the forward bay cleared."

"Thank you, Thunderflare Control, Iravahnz out." She'd carefully bring up the repulsorlifts and then bring them out on thrusters, resisting the urge to whoop in triumph as they did. Her own ship... and a big enough one to be a ship by Quarian standards.

"You seem cheerful, Sir. Confident about the mission?" Lieutenant Aleesha dared.

"I think most of it is... to Quarians, being captain of a ship is... both a crushing responsibility and a giddy dream." She was certainly more informal than most Imperial officers. "A shuttle she might be, but to the Fleet, she would be a gunboat in her own right."

"She has the shields of one," Aleesha answered. "Among other things, Gamma Assault Shuttles are very very expensive since they normally transport Spacetroopers. Normally a Star Destroyer just has a single one aboard... But due to the mission at the research station we ended up with seven."

"I am not going to complain! I happen to like shields. And not having hull breaches." She tapped lightly at the controls, ensuring they were clear of Thundeflare and starting to burn for the hyper limit. One jump to take them somewhere convenient on the Relay network, and then work their way in. "I should ask-what do the two of you know about your commanding officer, and Quarians in general-if anything happens, I don't want any misunderstandings."

"The Ubiqtorate supports Lady Pryl now that the Emperor has died valiantly over Endor." Sigardine looked to Tali'Zorah. "I am from a planet with both humans and a native sapient species... You are a decent enough sort, I was raised to have to deal with Gungans, by comparison your people are civilised... I have no difficulty seeing Quarians as integral to the Imperial power structure here."

Aleesha swallowed, speaking with a hint of an accent. "I'm one of the Moff's trainees, and I certainly don't have a problem with yeh, Commander."

"Keelah, I meant me, not the Lady Moff!" Tali sputtered sheepishly. She felt both slightly put out that they still thought of Tanda as their commanding officer and a bit concerned that worries over loyalty were so utterly rife. She decided to play it politely. "Well, thank you both, I think. You'll... probably see very quickly that most of the rest of the galaxy doesn't share that opinion about Quarians."

"Forgive me. The Empire is very top down. I just know that you are the chosen Quarian Right Hand of the Lady Moff," Sigardine responded. "And that you have taken over for Lieutenant Kesea in her convalesence. Essentially the Moff's chief of staff, but with a legacy of black work."

"Oh, I understand that... Keelah, I understand that... hm." She was still pretty damned geeky, Commander or not. "What are your specialties?"

"I am an Ubiqtorate Officer," Sigardine answered simply, "As you know. And that means... Well. Threats to the Empire must be located before they can be eliminated."

"Lady Tanda dragged me out of the line to train me in the force. I'm her second best, but don't have a lightsabre yet," Aleesha elaborated for her part.

"So you see, an Inquisitrex in training and an agent of the Ubiqtorate," Sigardine would add. She seemed to like emphasizing that Aleesha was going to be an Inquisitrex.

"I hope we're adequate for this," Tali sighed.

"With luck it will just involve convincing this Anderson that helping the Empire is in the best interests of humanity," Aleesha spoke. "If we can make any contact which would give us enough data to pin down the set, that would be sufficient. Her Ladyship does not think there are many of these Collector ships. But even if there are, taking one would give us the intelligence to go after the rest."

"It's true. Hopefully they'll actually let me past the front desk this time."

"That's been a problem in the past?"

"The first time I was on the Citadel, trying to get in to see some council functionary on the information I'd acquired about a rogue Spectre, I'd just been shot by a polonium round. The Turian receptionist called me a "suit rat" and told me to get lost before he called C-Sec to have me arrested for bleeding on the floor. Shepard had to browbeat the guards into letting me in the next time - all the other times in the Council Tower, I was with her. Which includes fighting the possessed body of said rogue Spectre."

"I see." Aleesha stared at the windows. Neither of them had anything good to say to the story. "Clear for the jump to hyperspace, Commander."

"The Empire - and you Imperials - you've seen what Quarians are actually like... the rest of the galaxy? ... Well... you'll see. There's more than one reason I asked for a team."

"Understood." Sigardine seemed much more comfortable with the circumstances. Unlike Lieutenant Aleesha, she'd done this sort of thing before.

-

Great and looming, like some Escherian vision of a hab module done up in arms and brackets and segments, the Citadel was the very heart of Council Space. It was an impressive space station, certainly, but looked rather painfully primitive to the women from the Empire. And it did not match Centrepoint. It was still, as civilisation went around here, about the most happening place in the galaxy possible.

"The Citadel... the first time I'm actually here with enough credits to do anything." She sounded a little sheepish, as she commed through their clearances for a dock-one of the public ones, far out on the docking arms from anything important... _of course. Not that I need much, with the suit and how Shepard was lavish with my omnitool and weapons._

The two glanced at each other, and probably wondered if that signalled whatever a drinking, whoring, gambling and entertainment binge looked like from a Quarian, but on second thought it had already become clear over the course of the trip that Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare was not that sort of person.

And then the two of them would see the first sign of anti-Quarian sentiment as they were going through customs. It was one thing to be humanocentric. But most aliens had a certain degree of solidarity back home, unless abusing each other for purposes of crime. The Turians here, though... Acted like Imperial officers toward the worst, most disreputable of alien races when they encountered Tali'Zorah.

They got waved through. Tali got held up for scans, talkings-to, distrustful glances following her everywhere... As the two Imperial women waited uncomfortably on the other side of the barrier, the C-Sec officers were near to threatening Tali the entire time. She had not been kidding about the reaction to her people, as she was finally allowed to pass after an hour of questioning and open berating, and called for a public transit car for the trip to the Presidium. "Now we hope C-Sec will actually let me onto the Presidium."

"That looked about like what I'd expect Customs to do if you were trying to get to Empress Teta with a seat on a first class liner for a Twi'lek," Aleesha muttered.

Tlotatmé pursed her lips, deciding silence was the best response from her own perspective.

" Ever since the Council stripped my people of their embassy on the Citadel, we haven't been welcomed on the Citadel. C-Sec... prefers us to not be here."

"That is one way to put it," Aleesha smiled wryly. "Well, you got through, and that's what's important."

"Quite. And if that's normal for Quarians, we should probably act like we had expected it... Do lead on, Tali'Zorah," Sigardine offered mildly. Now it was time to get in the habit of using her new first name on her passport: Fatema el-Afreem. The Ubiqtorate officer had blended seamlessly into being undercover.

"Thanks..." It wouldn't take long to arrive at the Presidium, that open, green space on the station, the diplomatic heart of the galaxy. Climbing out of the car, Tali gritted her teeth - the C-Sec officer there was already starting to walk up to them.

"What's going on here...?" the Turian would ask, with a note of disdain in his voice.

"We're here to speak with Councilor Anderson," Sigardine abruptly inserted herself. "This Quarian has important information to human interests and we have a right to convey it. If you cannot give us access, then you should at least allow me to send a message." Fatema seemed to know exactly what to do.

The Turian laconically offered no expression at all, except the dour one he already had. "... All right, but we'll be watching her. Human embassy is over that way, second floor."

Tali muttered something the speaker barely put out after they'd walked away... especially because, yes, a plainclothes C-Sec agent was following them now. "This, this is why a small part of me did not mind going back to the Fleet."

."We can deal with the agent," Sigardine murmured reassuringly. Though she was not completely used to it herself-Imperial agents rarely had to deal with hostile governments.

"Let's not end up doing anything we might regret." She still sighed, leading them through the Presidium. "Even the Krogan got to keep their statue." She sounded a bit... grumbly. "The only people our mistakes hurt were ourselves."

"The strong do as they please to the weak," Sigardine answered. Lieutenant Aleesha stared at her for a moment, then shrugged.

Tali frowned in the privacy of her suit. Imperials were terrible people, sometimes. "Not always." _Shepard didn't._

"As the great powers go, you should never expect anything else," Sigardine was walking comfortably, but her eyes betrayed her tension at being followed as she spoke, and her voice was very soft. She'd rather not be having the conversation at all. "So, do you think the fact you worked with this Shepard will get us... An audience-quickly?"

"If the message gets to Anderson, I think so. But we have to convince the bureaucratic gatekeeper first. Unfortunately it's not a VI, I could hack that."

She trailed off, as they reached the receptionist's deck. "Excuse me..." The human man at the desk looked up, closing a security window when she saw it was a Quarian so a piece of class would be between her and Tali; "Yes, may I help you? Avina can handle any general inquiries."

"Actually, I'm looking for an appointment with Ad-Councilor Anderson. My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya-I served with Commander Shepard on the SR-1 Normandy."

The secretary's eyes... narrowed, and he gestured a bit contemptuously, though the window had already shown plenty of contempt. "The Councilor is a very busy man, Miss."

Khajara Aleesha knew what her job was. She concentrated just a bit through the force to let Tali'Zorah have her chance by ... Making the secretary more susceptible to her requests.

"Please, sir, I have some important information... we've met before."

His face flickered. "I'll put you in his appointment queue, it should be a few days of course. Can you leave your comm-code?"

"Certainly!" She sounded so sweet as she did it, too - the smile might be impossible to see, but... oh, she was overjoyed.

Though, of course, she was not going to let it out until they were safely away, with a fist pump and a "Yes! Quarian one, prejudice, zero!"

Lieutenant Aleesha totally didn't have the heart to let her know she'd been using the force on the man after that. It would have been impossibly mean.

The event left the Commander happily humming to herself as they rode the elevator down. "Looks like... three days. Well, we're supposed to look like a ship crew on shore leave. What do humans do during leave?"

"Things that would be hard for Quarians to do... Drinking, going to bars, engaging in entertainment activities," Aleesha answered wryly. "Do you have any old friends here you could meet with, as an alternative?"

"Friends... I never had many outside the flotilla, let me check..." She'd settle on a railing, looking up above the Wards, towards the centre spire and the traffic stream. Her shoulders seemed to slump after a few minutes of that. "Doesn't look like it. Garrus seems to have resigned from C-Sec and vanished. Everyone else is Alliance-and while I could hack into the personnel database, I think it's too risky. The ones that have answered are all ship-board or back towards Sol. Well, the two of you have fun while taking care of yourselves, at least."

"I would be remiss in leaving you alone," Sigardine answered.

"Come on, this thing is virtually a planet," Aleesha added. "We ought be able to find something to do."

"Well, there's plenty to do... I mean, it's a station devoted to galactic governance and removing credits from people... or so I've been told."

"All space stations are devoted to remove credits from people," Sigardine was laughing. "The galactic governance part is rather odder, at that. Who would put the government on a space station?"

"I've never been sure of that... it's at the heart of the Mass Relay network. Apparently it's happened... a lot before. Putting the government here, I mean. Cycle after cycle... it's a wonderful, gigantic... trap."

The two exchanged uncomfortable glances, not really understanding what she meant by that, and in the end let the Quarian woman decide how to spend their days waiting. Tali didn't have a very good idea of how to do that, so it became a matter of shopping, hunting through omnitools, shawls, and food pastes. Heading through the wards, avoiding the Presidium... She kept them busy for a while, exploring the wares of Earth and alien species alike.

On the second day, cutting through a shortcut in the Wards, her steps slowed, and her omnitool came out, scanning at herself. "Something's wrong... did a seal crack or...?" She started checking her own suit as danger flared in her mind.

Aleesha quietly went for her holdout. She had felt it and come to a different conclusion. _Tali'Zorah, danger is coming fast._ "Hey Fatema, watch sharp... These deals look pretty good."

The Quarian's hand snuck down towards her shotgun, as she turned a bit to the side to try and cover the motion. "... Down!" She'd shout, when a red dot flickered across Aleesha's chest... and her own.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

The movement brought a sharp three round burst from somewhere down the corridor, of big full-bore rifle penetrator rounds. A second before, a bullet had passed through Aleesha's hair, creasing gently against her scalp with a sharp heat as she fell. The rounds _whanged_ into the metal behind them as they went down to the deck.

Nonetheless, the two Imperials managed to drop without being shot, and Aleesha flung out her blaster pistol, a typical heavy DL-18 shipboard mode that had been strapped across her chest. She rolled to clear it after flopping prone onto the deck of the corridor.

Then she thrust her head up by her elbows, sighted through the telescopic, and snapped off a couple of brilliant red bolts in short succession with that ever so familiar sound. To her. The massive fist-sized gouges burned out of the metal of shipping containers made out of standard steel instead of Imperial durasteel and the startled shouts of surprise immediately informed them that their enemies had not been expecting blaster fire.

The action brought enough time for Sigardine to take cover and bring up her own Security S-5, slick and chromed where Aleesha's was practical and fleet issue. The lack of effective gun control on the Citadel was certainly helpful at the moment. Tali brought up her combat drone, having taken cover at Sigardine's side. The feed quickly came through, and it wasn't good. "Watch the rear! At least six up front!" - sending the little red ball bobbing forwards.

"... Cover me!" Shepard may have rubbed off on her, as she vaulted over the crate she was hiding behind—and charged. Having no choice and no time for anything except to support her, Sigardine and Aleesha both rolled out and opened fire with a flurry of blaster bolts that tore over and then around her to provide the offered cover... Being Imperials they were none too careful about it, though they tried to be very ... Precise.

The hail of blaster bolts burning red streaks across retinas and tearing gouges through cover seemed like a firestorm as Tali ran through it. They badly didn't want to hit her, it was true, but didn't take risk of not providing enough cover, either. That disciplined and vigorous covering fire kept heads down far enough that Tali got in without being hit.

As Tali went charging from cover to cover, her drone darting forward to disrupt and assist, a warning scratched through Sigardine's ear comm from her. "Watch behind!"

Yet _more_ enemies were coming against them, attackers who had worked to flank them from behind. Sigardine made a quick set of hand motions, standard Imperial battle sign, and Aleesha turned about and opened fire behind them. Sigardine rolled out and fired again and again and again to give Tali the last bit of cover she needed.

And then, mercifully, she heard the ear-tearing roar of a very high end shotgun, three shots, quick-to cover Tali went after that, a flash of her hands as she popped the heat-sink and slammed a new one in during the same motion, and popped up again. Half of them were down, and... For having a demure personality, she was murderous within thirty feet. The shotgun thundered again, and Sigardine dived for cover as fire from behind swept across the deck plating, skittering, sparking and ricocheting as she lunged.

The two Imperial glanced at each other, and went to the other side of that crate, taking cover only from the rear now and implicitly trusting Tali, so they could cover her from behind and let her do her job against the rest of their enemies in front of them. At least they seemed to have no need to worry about running out of ammunition...

A small fireteam burst out of cover and charged forward, wearing armour. Sigardine squeezed off blaster bolts as fast as she could pull the trigger. Dozens of bolts tore down-range as Aleesha darted out, sighted in her optics, and squeezed the trigger in disciplined fire.

One of the armoured men went down immediately, his armour no use against blasters that tore through it deep enough to sear through skin into his chest cavity, a poof of steam and smoke from seared metal and flesh as he toppled in a cacophony of gear clanging on metal that was itself obscured by the sound of constant fire.

But his buddy was still standing, and lobbed a smart grenade to flush the two women out of cover, as behind them, the snap-hiss of a lightsaber indicated that fight was getting a lot more violent. "Come on, you bosh'tet!"

Aleesha went back to cover as a burst from the sniper tore through the position she'd been in, just in time to see the grenade come flying in. She reached out with the force and stopped the grenade in midair-and then sent it flinging back. Aiming it at the position of the main group behind them, she popped out of cover again and fired a blaster round at it to trigger it just as it would have tumbled behind the cover from whence it first came... No lightsabre skills for her, but she had learned some trick shooting with the aid of the force. This guaranteed any safety failed and the explosion was optimized like an airburst, and it was rewarded with cries of pain and shock from behind the shipping containers.

As they sank back into cover to switch out mags, an engineer deployed a combat drone against them. Tali was instantly on it; they could hear from behind; "Go for the optics, Chiktikka, go for the optics!"

The two shared a glance, and then rolled back to face the survivors who kept pushing forward against the pair of them, meeting the heavy fire from their assault rifles with the visual flash and intimidation effect of blaster bolts, trying to slow them down as their enemies went hopping from cover to cover... good mercenaries, or military, hard to tell. They seemed too damned dedicated, at least, as they tried to push up to crush the little group. Not a simple group of well-armed hitmen.

"This is insane, it's an entire kriffing platoon!" They had them pinned down, but were blowing through so much charge doing it that the two of them snapped new magazines into their blasters almost immediately after the last ones, and started firing again, leaning to either side of the crate. Aleesha was trying to figure out through the force how many were attacking them... Trying to even as she put down suppressive fire, sort out a way for them to escape. The lack of any kind of response from the security forces was driving her crazy.

Behind them, at least, the number of attackers was easier: two... one... ... zero. A combat drone went zooming over their heads to engage its' counterpart that was trying to flank and drive them out, sending it to the ground in a sparking explosion, as Tali came sliding back into cover to a crate beside theirs, diving to safety just before a powerful round from that sniper crashed through where her faceplate had been. One force had been defeated—and _terminated_.

"Nobody's faster than Chiktikka vas Paus!" ...She sounded almost like she were having fun despite the near miss an instant before, as she at once popped up to fire off a few pistol shots, lightsabre re-clipped to her equipment harness.

...And now, Aleesha turned her attention to the last group, the people that were in front of her, and breathed in deeply and looked to Tali. "All well?" In front of them, she could feel three healthy lives. She ignored the ones so weak that they were on the verge of death. That wouldn't matter right now. But just a bit further out, there were two more: A pair in support, one that sniper with a marksman rifle, the other, an engineer. She sighed raggedly. Five against three was still bad odds.

"Threats neutralised!" Tali answered. "I can pin them down and blind them for a few moments, but I'm not sure they'll let me get into range with the shotgun again!"

"If we've got one pathway open, why don't you just cover us with the lightsabre while we fall back?" Sigardine asked, since she knew something of how force users fought... Though it was a somewhat optimistic view of Tali's abilities, and she was an Ubiqtorate officer who regarded the entire fracas as a disaster even if they won.

"... Against five of them?!" Tali stared for a moment, and then seemed to shrug. "...Okay! Stand by!" She was not quite sure if this would work, but for better or worse she was going to take up the challenge. "I'll blind them and you two go!"

"Ready? On three!"

"One... two... three!" They tensed, but were confident. Someone with a lightsabre should totally be able to do this. When the mark came, they went.

Tali lurched up, concentrating and generating the flash of pure, white, blinding light. While she did, her lightsabre came out, and she started to back down the corridor, the blade spinning and flashing about as slugs from the two men in the back lurched towards her. This was going to be... fun. The problem was that she was managing to deflect the shots, which was kind of frightening... but the plan hadn't really covered what was supposed to happen if the squad kept pushing. And that is exactly what the five men behind them did.

Scattered around them were the horrifying detritus of the hard fight. There was what was left of the previous ambush when they reached it: Flechette rounds and a lightsaber had... there were a lot of human bits on the deck, for their attackers were human, and blood and sundered and sheared body parts coated the deck.

...The two Imperials knew what to do in the moment. They picked up rifles from the dead, ignoring the wet blood and smeared bits of flesh across magazines and barrels, cleared them, and then waylaid into the pressing squad on full automatic with the greater power of the rifles as Tali fled back, yielding ground with that glowing blade.

The men attacking them ducked into cover, starting to the fire and manoeuvre drill again. Tali's combat drone was getting worn down as the attack continued—and then, a break, as one of the men finally went down, caught out of cover. Rifle fire from one of the Imperials had finally punched through his armour after repeated hits. That was enough.

The Quarian had stopped talking over the suit comms, and rushed to attack. As she moved, her lightsabre blade snapped about, and she was facing two men, an engineer, and a sniper, whose cranium-seeking habits were... well, were it not for Tali and the Force, the two human women probably should be dead by this point.

As Tali got out of cover, the sniper immediately tried to get a round through her lightsabre, again and again, and consumed her attention as the two men in close rushed her. Aleesha's eyes widened, and gritting her teeth she concentrated all of her power in the force... And sent the barrel of that sniper's rifle abruptly whiplashing toward the engineer to put a round through the man's shoulder as he operated his own drone next to him.

The round was powerful enough to blow the man's arm off, and he went down screaming. The sniper blinking, and scowling; "Biotic bitch!"—she wasn't clear if she heard it or sensed it through the force—and took aim again. Tali was in the midst of the two men now, fully concentrated on them, and their attentions at melee fighting were laughed away by a lightsabre. Both went down with hideous cuts and dropped, unmoving, silent, onto the deck.

But the sniper had recovered his composure instantly, and fired off a pair of shots at the group. One spanged off something, he took aim again, another round of fire, and then Tali was down and screaming in what sounded like naked terror.

Aleesha lunged for her desperately and without thinking... _Now, Sigardine, shooooot_! She sent it through the force as she tried to reach Tali, squeezing off a round as the rifle appeared...

Optically sighted blaster bolt, again, flickering by the course directed to it, as the Imperial lieutenant rudely lost her right leg to the sniper's shot, the force telling her when to dive, but not enough to keep the leg from literally being blown apart by the massive round as she fell.

Aleesha was promptly dragged into cover by a hyper-ventilating Tali, at least, who had her omnitool out and medigel on the wound without a word. Up this close... well, perhaps those plates she'd debated adding to her mask were a good idea, as a crazed set of spidery cracks riddled the glass in front of her face where a ricochet had nearly taken her head off. Her hands were trembling as she frantically ran her omnitool over her own head, once Aleesha was stabilized.

Sigardine went forward to finish them off, then, making no sound and not speaking to the others. She found an eye a blackened and charred crater on the sniper, before she loomed over the armless engineer, adjusting the dial on her S-7. Taking no chances, she fired on stun.

It was too late. There was a soft cracking sound, and he went limp.

"Saved me the trouble." She slipped back to the two women. Interrogating him while dodging the security services would have been almost impossible, anyway, and then she'd have had to find a way to dispose of the body. Stepping up to them, she could see how badly wounded both were—Aleesha worse than Tali, actually. "Where do I need to get you for medical treatment?" the Nabooyard asked, flatly.

"Dr. Michel... she helped me last time I was wounded, and doesn't ask too many questions... I... I think I'm fine, the visor's not breached." She went to her belt, pulling out a small vial, and tilting her head back poured it all over the glass. "I'm bleeding from the spall, but I can still see for now. We need to get Aleesha stabilized, let me send a nav-point to your omnitool."

"Right. Well, I hope we can deal with your sight, Commander. Her Ladyship will be angry if you go blind." She took the incoming and started to plot around it, getting them squared away and moving for Dr. Michael's office, as paranoid and terrified as it was, both of them would have to help Aleesha walk.

"I think I got my eyes closed in time, I really do, I just can't see very much and my HUD is all screwed up." She lent her strength to getting Aleesha into a carry between the two women. Dr. Michel did still have her clinic, mercifully, though she was starting to pack it up.

She looked to them in surprise, especially at recognising Tali. "... Ah! What's this... what's happened?!" "I'm sorry, Dr. Michel, after you helped me last time, I talked with Garrus and... Well, it's a really long story! Can you please help my friend, we've run into... I don't even know who they are, who attacked us..."

The Frenchwoman bent to the task with her omnitool. "... All right, Tali. I've talked with you enough... Miss, are you going to be using a cloned replacement or a cybernetic?" It was kind of obvious that the leg wasn't saveable.

Aleesha gritted her teeth. "My people have used cybernetics for thousands of years," she answered driftily through the pain. "And I need to be back on my feet again quickly." Sigardine winced, since it marked them as Imperials.

Dr. Michel stared for a long moment. "I think you might need more painkillers... very well, I can do the preparation, if you have the credits..."

"I do, Doctor-this time... I do." Tali murmured, as Michel nodded. "All right, then. If you two can wait here, I need to go into surgery—I need to save as much of it as I can, thankfully it's below the knee... you'll be fine when you wake up, Miss."

"Allright, thank you, Doctor." 'Fatemeh' Sigardine would settle down in the waiting room and fold herself out with a stretch. "You going to be able to hold yourself together until she's done, Commander Tali'Zorah?"

"... What else am I going to do, Fatemeh? There isn't exactly a clean room to take my visor off. I suppose this means I get to try those healing techniques I've been told about."

"Might as well occupy your time with that, Commander, while you wait for Dr. Michel to be able to help you. I wonder why she's closing up her shop..." She had, of course, already taken in the packed boxes and partially dismantled office.

"We can ask, after she's done with Aleesha... I've never had anyone under my command wounded before!" Her voice was excitable.

"You sound somewhat disturbed by it. I suppose that's natural."

"... I've barely had command before! Only a small team... just like now, I suppose." She sighed, and leaned back. "If I remember Doctor Chakwas' usual, this will be a while. I'll set up Chiktikka to provide us warning if anybody tries to follow up on that."

"Just as long as we make our meeting with Councilor Anderson."

"We will..." She closed her eyes. "Now, if you'll pardon me, Fatemeh, I think I need to figure out how not to go blind. I'm not ready for cybernetic eyes yet."

"I'll stand guard with your droid." And she would do just that, through the hours of surgery.

With Tali'Zorah actually meditating, the time passed in supreme boredom. Dr. Michel would come out after some hours, rubbing her face in tiredness - Chiktikka chirped an alert at the movement.

Fatemeh stood to, but then smiled. "Kaff- _Coffee_ , Doctor?" She'd figured out the machine while standing her watch, and the woman seemed overworked.

"Please..." She sighed, rubbing an arm across her brow. "Zhe prosthesis should be up tomorrow, I'll have to adjust the interface zhen, but she should be able to walk, if poorly, while she gets used to it. An asari model, with human synthflesh added over the skeleton. The best one can hope to find. Tali'Zorah has moved up in the world, I see—there was plenty of money in her account to pay for it."

"Quarians in general have, Doctor," Fatemeh answered as she handed the mug over with an urbane smile before turning back for her own, now portraying a sort of genteel grace. "Her eyes have been perforated with splinters, though she's running ... self-healing routines presently. It is good to hear about Khaleeja," which was what they were calling Aleesha in her ID card...

"I caught something about that, actually. Reports that the fleet had vanished..." She shook her head. "Zhat is good to hear. She seemed a good sort. To have accidentally sent her to Fist, though... damn that Barla Von! She deserves better"

"Forgive me... Barla Von? Sent her to Fist? I'm not aware of these things."

"She was talking to me about what she found about that rogue Spectre, Saren. A volus, his name, Barla Von, he overheard and said he could help, that he knew an information broker. That led to Fist –who _was_ something of a underworld figure. She fell in with Shepard, I think, during that process. She came through with Garrus, a C-Sec officer—and dealt with his thugs."

"Well, she is very respectable now, I assure you. Do you think any of these older matters could have led to the attack we suffered, Doctor? And is there anything you can do to save her eyes when she's finished her own efforts, and you've rested?"

"Not without getting her to a real hospital-I'm to be the human resident in charge when the new hospital opens on the Presidium, but it hasn't opened yet. And of course there is no Quarian hospital here."

"We can arrange that if we have to. I work for her..." Officer Sigardine tried to find the best way to put it, and her lips quirked into an amused smile. "I work for her girlfriend, and I know better than to want to explain to said individual that Miss Zorah needs cybernetic eyes. How many hospitals are there on the citadel, absent the new one?"

"That can handle Quarians... zhat is a lower number. Few know of their special requirements, but I can ask my colleagues on the extranet boards to see if one is willing... a girlfriend? I would never have figured her the type."

Sigardine cursed inside, but smiled on the outside. "I never figured the woman in question the type, either. If you can, I would appreciate it. In the meanwhile, I assume Miss Zorah has already covered the payment for Fatemeh, and I'll cover any continuing expenses. She's sleeping right now?"

"Yes, that's right-and she has." Michel shook her head. "I have the interface attached, and I've managed to save as much flesh as I could. The sedatives will have her asleep for the next few hours, at the least."

"All right, then." Sigardine sipped the kaff. Well, it wasn't exactly kaff. Had a different, richer flavour, was called coffee, but that was very hard to get used to, all things said.

"Well, enjoy the coffee," Dr. Michel said after a few minutes of checking references. "I'll take a look at Tali'Zorah when she wakes up. Your friend will be fine... and I should be getting back to my apartment. I have her monitoring gear set to page me if anything changes." Her accent recovered as she calmed from the stress and pressure of the surgery.

The Ubiqtorate agent's eyebrow twitched. "Not concerned about being killed yourself, after helping us?"

"Nobody's tried, after Fist- if I live my life under fear for helping others... that is not much of a life. My parents, they were both doctors with the Alliance. I just wanted to help people, so I came here. It should be fine."

"All right, then. Doctor, do take care."

"You as well." She departed, leaving her there in the small, two bed clinic.

Sigardine stood guard in silence through the night, browsing the extranet for stories of Earth. The first change was Tali stirring during the witching hour, with Chiktikka still doing rounds, as the Quarian yawned audibly.

"Status...?"

"We're all alive. Khaleeja will get her new leg tomorrow."

"Oh good..." She sighed, and her eyes, glowing in the dim of the night cycle, blinked. "It doesn't hurt anymore. I can still see. I think this is good."

She mumbled something, bringing up her omni-tool. "You should sleep, I'll take watch with Chiktikka."

"...What about your eyes, Commander Zorah? I thought you were quite worried about going blind, so I was trying to arrange with the doctor for you to receive specialist eye care."

"I... think I managed to fix things. I'll certainly have them looked at, but... I... am rather... looking forward to re-attaching those plates to what's left of my visor. Touching it the wrong way might lead to a catastrophic rupture."

"Is there any way that you could replace it without contaminating yourself? How about a room with the atmosphere removed where you do a quick swap?"

"... I will point out most people find the idea of taking their helmets off on vacuum to be absurd on the face of it... it could work, maybe. I'd have seconds to not pass out with the loss of air."

"With the absence of a clean room or any kind of medical treatment facilities for Quarians here, apparently, I felt necessarily to mention it as an option." Fatemeh frowned darkly. "Anyway, you are a Sith Lord in training, surely you can just overcome the impulse to faint for a while."

Tali laughed, a bit good-naturedly. "Me? A Sith Lord? Somehow, I don't think I could frighten anyone like that. I'm not sure I'd want to, anyhow, hidden face or not... and I don't know. Could I? I don't know very much about how all this works, though... Keelah, I can't believe I just stood there and didn't even have my kinetic barriers collapse until that last shot. Shepard and the Lady Moff are a bad influence that way."

"You wield a lightsabre like one. You fight like a Jedi of old fought, but you serve the Empire, so Lady Tanda must be training you to be a Sith, and follow the course of the Dark Side."

"Dark... Side? I know that Lord Vader was a Sith, but... Dark Side? Does that mean there's a Light Side?" She was absolutely riveted now. These were things that Tanda had not discussed, though it made sense that an Ubiqtorate officer knew about them. "I mean, I've been learning a lot of the practical, but not much of the theory and the background."

"Yes, the light side was this cowardly, pathetic thing that the Jedi used, letting them claim to uphold justice in the Republic while allowing corporations to buy and sell the populations of planets as slaves and ignore piracy and disorder. It was their name for the path of the force they followed. The dark side was also their name for this other path, but the Sith took to it out of spiteful pride. They found the way to the force that was stronger, and the Emperor used it to unify and bring order and peace to the galaxy-until he was slain by the treachery of a Jedi at Endor. The common people were not aware of this, as the treachery of the Jedi Order made them all hate the Force, but we Ubiqtorate officers are given a full education so that we can spot force sensitives and report them to the Inquisitorate. We had thought we had gotten all of the trained Jedi, but we failed our Emperor. One escaped and did him in."

"Oh... so... the Dark Side, as you call it, that's the path of order, and law, and justice?" It just seemed wrong, but Tali had no way to contradict it.

"Order. Only order." Sigardine folded her legs. "Law and Justice are just tools of order. That is the critical component of the New Order ideology. I am surprised you do not realise that already, Commander."

The Quarian blinked. "But without law and justice you can't have order, unless you're willing to use force and impose tyranny. So clearly the Empire is a creature of law, justice, and order. My people understand these things well."

"That is an interesting way of looking at things." The Ubiqtorate officer sounded bemused. "Well. We'll stay until the doctor returns, but we have our meeting with Councilor Anderson soon. I was thinking that if we could get access to a room without atmosphere, you could have your faceplate replaced by then, we could order another from a 3-d print shop."

"I have a spare back on the ship, I just need a clean room to change it in. I had the repair kit on me, and I've used it to patch it up. I mean, I could always swap it really quickly after a load of antibiotics and antivirals, but then I'll be sick for days... if I'm lucky. That still might be better than walking around looking like I lost an argument with a rock during the meeting, though..."

"Get back to the ship. If you want to try doing it in a no-oxygen environment you can use our droid as a backstop if anything goes wrong."

"ArThree really is helpful... I'll hurry. I don't need the Councilor asking why I look like I've gotten into a fight. I'll be back as quick as I can, Commander, to relieve you." Tali had been stupidly kind to the R3 unit, that was true.

"Be safe, Commander."

"Managed so far!" Granted, that involved going out and back in through customs... She was finally back about three hours before the 'sun' would start to rise, sporting a new, tinted faceplate. By that point Aleesha had woken up, Officer Sigurdine had filled her in, and they were just waiting for Tali's return. Hopefully the clinic would return to normal and the Doctor would be around soon to start the work on the limb. And indeed, an hour after that, Dr. Michel arrived to check on her patient and start setting up the VI that would control the leg... and then the courier would arrive to fit her with it. At least medicine here was fast, and much more personable than a medical droid... And much better. Period. Even Tlotatmé 'Fatemeh' Sigardine would admit _that_ if pressed.

Soon enough, Aleesha was back out receiving the final talk-over with Dr. Michel. "The skin tone should match, though UV exposure may differ from the natural slightly-it takes cues from the remaining tissue above the break." The woman said, as she finished up. "The nerves show good, and you've passed the coordination test. I think I can release you, if you'd like, miss?"

"I've two friends to help me. It would be best to get back on my feet. And for us to get out of your hair," the lieutenant was smiling.

"Of course... here's my comm-code, in case you have any trouble. Take care of yourself, please. You are a friend of a friend, but, still."

"Thank you very much, Doctor Michel." Tali would reply, with a little bow. "I'll try not to keep showing up on your doorstep like this."

Tali kept the pace slow, as they headed back towards the elevator, up to the Presidium, running her omnitool over the other pair of them quickly to check something.

"Sweeping for bugs?" Aleesha glanced down.

"Yes. Including in your leg, which I apologise for... okay, no, that just... keelah, that's elegant, how they fit the power cells in there... ah, anyhow, yes. We're clear, and we're also clear of any weapon residues that may or may not have existed."

"Less on us," Fatemeh remarked coolly. "Well, you're familiar with Councilor Anderson. It's your lead." Getting into the Presidium again, though, would once again be an exercise in racism.

To be precise, that was literally exactly what it was. There was a Turian and a human partner, and the first words were as blunt as they needed to be: "Sorry, no Quarians allowed up here. You two can go on ahead."

"We have an appointment as a group," Fatemeh would begin smoothly, falling into her leading role with security. "With Councilor Anderson."

"Wait here, I'll have to check..." He'd bend to his comm implant, as Tali sighed, barely audibly.

The officer, with a grunt, would finally confirm it. "The embassy confirms your appointment, but we're watching you..."

Anderson was wearing a civilian suit, sitting at his desk, his face clouded in some confusion, dark skin-stocky, a military build, the civilian suit did not suit him. "You're that Quarian Commander Shepard was travelling with."

"That is correct, Councilor Anderson. Tali'Zorah."

"Well, I certainly hope you're not here asking for help again. Still, sit. A friend of Shepard's is one of mine. God knows she needed more of them."

Tali started to talk. She was vague about the Quarian situation, and of where they were, or what they had set up, before finally saying; "We have some intelligence on the attacks on your colonies in the Traverse and Terminus Systems-I know the Council will only respond if it happens within Council Space proper. We'd like to help."

Anderson laughed. "Help. That's a word I thought I'd never hear directed at humanity... help. We don't know much. I think we might know less than you at this point—which to me is damned suspicious. Know anything about that woman whose set up out there in the Terminus? That's who Alliance intelligence is leaning towards right now as the cause of the colony raids, God knows why."

"What do you want to know about her, Councilor?" Tlotatmé finally spoke, the fact that _they_ were being blamed for the colony raids making her incredulous.

"Who she is, where she came from - we haven't been able to find out much, and the Council's wondering just how many lost giant dreadnoughts seem to be floating around out there."

 _I'll just be honest with him, then. He is a soldier._ "It is not like we have been making a state secret of our origins, Councilor. It is our massive dreadnought—well, three of them-that is operating with the Quarians to eliminate these 'Collectors'," she said with a bemused smile. "We came here at considerable risk in hopes of finding the missing link in our intelligence to anticipate an attack by them."

Anderson met her eyes, levelly, coolly, for a very long silence. "... Collectors? They're behind this? Son of a bitch, I'd never have believed it, they've never been heard to go after more than a dozen at a time... look, I hate to tell you this, but more than a million humans have disappeared so far."

"Commander Zorah here demonstrated that the Collector cruiser is the same ship that brought down Commander Shepard's _Normandy_ , " Aleesha elaborated. "They are most definitely responsible. But they have avoided our systems, so the Imperial Navy has been unable to force them to battle. We are trying to obtain the information to lay an ambush."

"So are we. Haven't found anything yet. The Collectors... that's damned peculiar. They've been seen before, some advanced race, but to detect a stealthed ship like the Normandy... hmf. I'll get you what I have, Miss Zorah. It's not much, I'm afraid. Udina won't be happy, but screw him. Maybe you can find something we missed and take down the bastards."

"They have very good intelligence," Tlotatmé looked across the desk. "They know exactly where to avoid us and our operations and have not attacked our space."

"I wish I could help you more, but my hands are tied-I can't give you open access, just give Tali'Zorah a copy of whatever she asks for. They knew who they were taking out when they took down the SR-1, that was for certain."

"Commander Zorah will decide what is most pertinent. We are her subordinates here. I can only in my capacity as a state intelligence officer such declassified information as you find useful to facilitate cooperation and trust."

"Give me the packet - we haven't heard anything directly, and some of those stories are, quite frankly, incredible."

"We are from another galaxy, Councilor Anderson. Earth is nonetheless our homeworld. Moff Pryl finds the evidence of human evolution there to be convincing. That means that somewhere before around forty thousand years ago, someone took early humans to a nearby galaxy and settled them on a few worlds. Our first recorded history is from about thirty-five thousand years ago on the planet Coruscant when the Battalions of Zhell led a great revolt against the aliens in residence on that world in those times. The details are pure myth and legend. I think really the only way to prove it is to offer blood samples so that your doctors can prove our genetic drift hasn't seen us intermarry with the humans of Earth for that long. And we are willing to do this."

"I'm not even sure that would be believed. Pieces of Sovereign certainly didn't get the other Councilors to start believing there was something there... it's not important, not for now. You'd think after finding the Prothean base on Mars, somebody would think something like this might have happened, but, whatever." He frowned, and sighed. "I'll be honest. I don't think I believe you. Tough to say, but true. If you were the vanguard of some great extragalactic force, well, you'd have overrun Earth already, and you haven't."

"An exploratory reconnaissance by a government distracted in its own internal affairs, Councilor. I will make myself available to a medical doctor on the station of your choosing if you change your mind." _This is insane!_ Her face cooled into a thin smile."Perhaps we simply have no ambition to conquer our homeworld and make war on our own people, and in a decade you'll instead be overrun by tourists."

"From what I've heard, that's not very likely. You have your own secrets, as does the Alliance." Tali's omnitool beeped. "Download complete, Councilor. I'll look through it and see if we can figure anything out."

Sigardine composed herself. "It's simply very hard for us to negotiate when you don't believe that we exist, Councilor. We are, however, very interested in stopping these attacks, and in that area where our interests can meet, we are thankful for the cooperation."

"You clearly exist, you're standing right in front of me, and you got the Quarians to work with you. That gives this Pryl the biggest fleet in the galaxy. I assure you, nobody's not believing you exist."

Tlotatmé pursed her lips. "Unfortunately, I can only offer more of the same, regardless. You'll find our story quite consistent."

"We've noticed. Was there anything else, Tali'Zorah? While I can make time for one of Shepard's companions..."

Tali glanced up. "No, Councilor, this seems to be everything, thank you. I'll have my people go over it, and let you know if we find anything." ...The Imperials quietly filed out with her. It was hard for them to deal with... Being treated like a joke. And Tali could probably tell.

She wouldn't comment until they reached one of the cafe's on the Presidium, as the Quarian sat down to page through the documents on her omnitool. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I know what it feels like to be dismissed like that."

"It is insulting most of all for the entirety of twenty-five thousand years of galactic civilisation to be dismissed as a farce by people living in such a lightly settled and lightly peopled place... It's like having some inbred hicks on Tatooine tell you that Coruscant doesn't exist!"

Tlotatmé settled down with a sigh as Aleesha sank into a chair after her rant. They were at least in the Presidium, though. "So what is the next plan, Commander?"

"Do you think we have enough information yet? This looks to be around ninety exabytes... there's a lot here, but I'm not sure if it's... ... well, that's interesting, but not in a good way. Councilor Anderson left his comm-code... and a warning that you're Cerberus, so I should be very careful."

Aleesha laughed. "I can't believe the level of obliviousness. Are these humans less evolved than we are?"

"I'm not sure it's obliviousness." She looked up. "What would make the Alliance shun any contact with you faster than a belief you were one of the divisions of Cerberus?" Then her voice took a harsher turn. "... We need to go. Now."

"Understood." Tlotatmé got up, and helped a confused Aleesha to her feet.

Tali gave a glance about, before leading them to the elevator. "Either they'll be following us, or he's calling C-Sec to have you two arrested right now to 'save' me."

Tlotatmé bit her lip. "We cannot surrender to them, you understand."

"That would be why we're leaving... I haven't been a wanted criminal before, this might be fun. Come on..." She brought up her omnitool. "One of you lead, back to the ship, I need to break a few laws..."

"What are you doing?" Aleesha squinted.

Tlotatmé just nodded and stepped into place in the lead.

"Hacking into C-Sec's comms system." She said it so nonplussed, too, following behind. "I'm not just a pretty visor and a student of Moff Pryl..."

"..I didn't mean to doubt." Aleesha flushed, but they hurried all the same.

An alarm started to sound as they came into the bay, everyone around them starting to flee for the elevator. "Okay, time to go! Quickly!"

They were running the other way from everyone else, and piling into the docking tube. So far, so good. But then Tali bit her lip, the red holo indicating 'locked' right ahead of them. "Come on come on come on you bosh'tet..." it flashed green, and the outer hatch cycled, revealing the hull of their shuttle beyond. "Go!"

Behind could be heard a distant "C-Sec! Halt!"

Tlotatmé turned and snapped off a couple rounds of blaster fire at the leader and then lunged down into the docking tube, dragging Aleesha and her not quite functional leg along with her. Return fire commenced as cries went out from the C-Sec men.

Tali didn't shoot, just hurried them along as rounds spanged off the metal. As soon as she was in, the ship lurched, as the hatch cycled behind them, and the thrusters came to life. As an assault shuttle, she was at least built for quick start up and blinding accelerations. Tali threw herself into the command chair as her interfacing through the omnitool finished the start cycle, and she immediately slammed the throttles forward, tearing out the umbilicals with a terrible rending of metal as they pulled away.

"This is perhaps not the best idea I've ever had... Arthree, give me a course somewhere not here! We can't make it to the relay through all those patrol ships!" Space ahead of them was already swarming.

Beyond the ones moving to block them from the relay, a pair of patrol ships were coming in hard, as she kicked them away from the Citadel and the orders to halt started coming in.

The droid cheeped as Aleesha and Sigardine brought the cannon on line and the shields powered up to full... "Concussion missiles ready."

"Don't fire unless I tell you!" She spun them into a sharp corkscrew, kicking away from the station at full burn, trying to get clear for the runup to lightspeed. Warning shots, now, as the computer chirped urgently, a human frigate in the patrol fleet turning towards them. As soon as they had a course, she was going to be yanking that control handle, and meanwhile was trying very hard to resist the temptation to shoot back.

At least they had really good shields-and the Imperials obeyed her order not to fire.

"If they shoot torpedoes, you can fire at those." She'd let out in a strained voice, corkscrewing onto the right vector as their shields shuddered and the shuttle buffeted. "Hurry it up, Arthree!"

"Beep beep twirp boop." The coordinates flashed to ready on the hyperdrive as they shuddered under hits on their shields. Her suit's auto-translate... helped. A lot. And then she yanked the handle, the stars elongated, and they lurched into hyper. She didn't relax, not until she saw what their destination was. As it turned out, the droid had cheerfully sent them into a more minor system of Asari space nearby to give them breathing room to sort out what to do next.

"... Good work Arthree... everyone okay?"

She slumped back into the chair... and sneezed.

A rather horrible Quarian curse followed.

"We're all okay. But you're getting sick, aren't you?"

"Yes... I had hoped that wasn't a fever." She checked her suit medical diagnostics. It was so a fever. "I... think I need to try that healing thing again..." She sniffed, and... sneezed violently again. "Ow... bosh'tet sinuses..."

"I'm well enough to keep the ship going with Arthree's help," Aleesha spoke firmly. "Go meditate and heal, Commander Zorah. We'll stay quiet when we get to our destination."

"Unless you have any other ideas, we should probably be heading ho-" she broke off into a cough. "That is to say, do we... need anything else?"

"Do you want to try to make any of your other contacts?"

"We can... try... I need to... urgh. Liara sent me a message, she's on Ilium, we can meet her there, if... that makes any sense. Going further into settled space after running from C-Sec seems a... bad idea."

"I'll set the next jump for Ilium, Commander."


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

Tali would lurch back to the cockpit... after far too long meditating. The entire trip to Ilium, in fact. They were proceeding under sublight when she arrived, toward the planet. "..Are you all right?" Aleesha would ask, Tlotatmé sleeping, herself. "I was getting worried, wondering about you."

"My nose is full of things I don't even want to speculate about, my head is pounding, and I feel like I just got through a round of Shepard's driving, but aside from that, I'm fine... urgh."

"I was hoping you'd have made yourself feel better by now... You were actually in a pretty bad way, weren't you?"

"I probably would have died if not for what the Lady's taught me." She sank heavily into the command chair, and coughed quietly. "There's a reason step one of any crisis is 'check suit integrity', Aleesha."

"Next time, try Tlotatmé's vacuum idea."

"I am strongly considering this idea. Its second after "don't get shot again", you know." She sounded bemused, tapping through the display. "I don't think the Lady Moff needs to quite know about the severity of the incident."

"...I understand your desire," the adept answered. "She will probably find out, however."

"Well, thank you for telling me. That saves me looking like an idiot."

"There is not a good way to avoid that when Tlotatmé is very much... A good subordinate, you know. An officer of the Ubiqtorate. Who probably feels terrible about letting you get sick, since you are of considerable interest to Moff Pryl. Ah, well. We are almost to Ilium."

"Wonderful place, really." She muttered. "Sign nothing. It's full of... well, it's full of asari. And bureaucracy. Almost everything is legal, but they don't tolerate public messes."

"I understand how that can work. To me, it sounds a lot like the Corporate Sector back home. Why did we end up wanted? We did nothing to cause trouble in the Citadel except get attacked." Imperials were not used to being on the other end of state power.

"Somehow I think other people have asked that question about you. They think you, and the Moff, have Cerberus links, or are part of them. So you're criminals, and as humans, you're clearly under Alliance jurisdiction, by how this galaxy thinks."

"That won't be acceptable to Moff Pryl, and you know it."

"Unless she's planning on trying to conquer several billion humans, that's how it works. She's safe out in the Terminus anyhow-not even the Alliance claims that, as insane as their effort to take the Traverse is."

"I am not sure what she will do, but ultimately she will expect to be treated like the head of government of a functional and organised state. That's just inevitable. We do have our pride."

"That's... not going to work well. Nobody did that to us, and we had seventeen million Quarians."

"I doubt we will take no as our answer forever." And then their comm trilled with the clearances for the surface.

"We can't stay long-docking fees here are... expensive. I'll talk with her and we'll lift before the day's out." She sounded cuter with her nose stuffed up, and she really had problems being taken for as deadly as she was already! "Then take the relays back home."

"Understood. Good luck, Commander. We're on final approach now."

-

"Tali'Zorah, it's good to see you again." Composed in mannerism but sometimes coming off as awkward in speech, Liara didn't seem as welcoming as her words. Nonetheless, there was a hint of warmth in them, and Tali approached.

"Liara, thank you. It's... Been a while."

"Since we were recovered after the _Normandy_ was lost." She gestured to the other chair and watched as Tali sat. "You've found powerful friends, Tali'Zorah. Friends for whom all the information says, they're telling the truth about who they are, as well."

"They _are_ , but nobody will believe us! We Quarians are being given a dream, so of course we have started to work with them."

"Respect?"

"A world. The respect, we have to fight for. But at least they let us win... sometimes. Yes, they have a new method of faster than light travel. It's not a world anyone else can ever find."

"Safe from the Reapers. Unless they have they have the same technology."

Tali might a slightly strangled noise at the prospect. "Keelah, don't talk like that, Liara. ...But we are not ignoring the Reapers, even so. Tand... Moff Pryl takes them more seriously than anyone in Council space—except for you..."

"...And Shepard." But Liara just pursed her lips, evidencing no more emotion even as she said it.

"Well, ...Speaking about Shepard." Tali managed to come off as furtive. "The Illusive Man is working a project. He says, it's to... Resurrect her. Moff Pryl thinks it's to clone her, with something like the sophisticated flash-learning technology that the Imperials use for rapidly producing clones. The Illusive Man insists that it's really... That it's really Jane."

"At... Jane, yes." Liara was looking starkly exhausted. "So that's what he wanted with her body. At least we saved it from the Collectors. I can't imagine what _they_ wanted with her body."

"...Wait. You've been working to... Move Shepard's body?"

"More like fight a little private war over it, Tali'Zorah." She folded her hands. "At least I know what's going on with Shepard, now. I should tell her mother."

"You don't plan on going to the Illusive Man yourself, do you?"

"No. I am busy here."

 _But Shepard was your girlfriend..._ Tali, in the end, decided not to say it out loud. "Thank you for saving her body from the Collectors. Do you know anything else about them, Liara? Moff Pryl is desperate for information that will let her stop the colony attacks."

"Unfortunately, my efforts to save Shepard's body from the Collectors didn't give me any useful information about how to stop their attacks."

Tali's face fell.

"However," Liara continued after a moment. "One of my graduate students, Treeya Nuwani, recently found Reaper artefacts on the planet Fehl Prime. Her communication was abruptly cut off, and I have still not ascertained why."

"Liara! That could be another colony attack."

"I fear that is indeed the case, Tali'Zorah."

Tali rose. "I must let Moff Pryl know. How long ago was your communiqué?"

"Two days ago."

Tali's heart sank. "The colony attacks are always over faster than that... But if there were survivors..."

"There are never survivors." Liara had grown much colder over the past years, that was clear.

"...I think Moff Pryl will want to investigate _anyway_."

"I am not saying that is unwise. Good luck... Tali."

"And the same to you, Liara..." _She has changed so much, and I feel like I haven't changed at all. Oh, Shepard, if only you really were alive..._ But instead, the galaxy had Tanda Pryl, and Tali was starting to believe that like Shepard before, she was the only person who cared enough to try and stop the storm descending upon them. "...I wish I could be of more assistance to you."

"Well, as a matter of fact, you might be able to," Liara looked up. "Tell me what this 'Force' can do, and we'll see."

 _Oooh I think I already regret this...!_ Then, Liara added something.

"There may be one piece of information your Moff would find as repayment for your assistance to me, Tali'Zorah. When the Collectors came to Omega to try and obtain Shepard's body... They used the Omega-4 Relay."

Inside of her suit, Tali's eyes widened. "Let's take care of your business, first, Liara."

The two officers were uncomfortable as they waited. The Imperial instinct was to put the Council in its place, by this point. It did nothing to help them fight the threats this galaxy was facing, and existed only to offend the power of their project and the authority of their Empire. Hiding while under threat of pursuit by a foreign legal authority, waiting for Tali to conduct her business lurking in a spaceport, this was not common nor expected to them. Even the Ubiqtorate was ultimately a counterintelligence organisation.

Tali came back quickly, at least; four hours later. She was glancing about with some tension in her posture though she was not visibly followed, as she used her omnitool to chime her team back from the dingy dockside bar they'd be nursing drinks in.

Sigardine glanced up innocently as they headed back aboard. "Did your visit with your old friend work out well?"

"Liara T'Soni... Doctor T'Soni, I suppose. Yes, she's... doing... somewhat well for herself."

When the airlock cycled, she continued the thought. "... We should probably get going, I try to keep my weekly murders to a minimum." That might have been a joke, but she sounded sick and strained.

"...Did you kill her?" Aleesha started booting the systems up. Arthree chirped a snarky question, wanting to know how many systems they'd be wanted in before they got home.

Tali'Zorah managed to come off as legitimately horrified at the mere idea. "No! Liara's my friend! ... Just... hasn't had a very good time of it, and I just helped her hide the body."

"Oh. So you go to visit her to ask questions about the Collectors and instead get wrangled into helping to hide a murder victim." Tlotatmé sounded somewhat bemused by that development. "Well, you are the Commander. As you deem appropriate."

"I just did her a favour, that's all," Tali answered a bit hotly. "Then she killed her assistant, and... yes, I helped her hide the body. I still got what she has. She pointed something out, and... Now I want to see if we can get our hands on the SR-1's black box."

"Helped her kill her assistant... A spy?" Aleesha was still confused as they cleared traffic control and headed for the relay.

"Well, she..." She took a breath, her voice still sounding horrifyingly congested. "The Shadow Broker tried to sell Commander Shepard's body to the Collectors. Liara stopped them. The Shadow Broker isn't happy. Her assistant was working for him."

"...I should ask fewer questions." When Aleesha said that, the Ubiqtorate officer barked a laugh, and then they were gone from Ilium.

-

Tali'Zorah was still somewhat ill when she returned to _Thunderflare_ , which meant that she didn't have a chance of hiding the fact she'd been terribly ill from Tanda. Still, it felt like she had done work. "Mission... complete?"

"We have gathered useful information and have some useful idea of how the galaxy regards us, even if it is not good. I will report your efforts admirable, Commander." Sigardine rose, her pack done up and ready to go.

Aleesha, now passably functional on her leg, followed. "I wonder if Moff Pryl has made the name _Iravahnz_ official..."

"We'll find out." She offered her hand to each of them. "My report about the two of you will be glowing, and I'll have to help you with that lightsabre, lieutenant."

Aleesha's eyes widened. "Thank you, Commander!"

"Not a problem, Lieutenant." She would lead them off, bag slung over her shoulder, glancing about the bay, to go through the formalities of handing the shuttle back and returning to duty... sounding like she had the flu. And feeling like she was a real Imperial officer, now.

The checkout quickly confirmed that the shuttle's name had been changed, and was followed immediately by a request for Tali to report to debriefing with Tanda herself. She took the turbolift up to the bridge tower... And Tanda pulled her into a briefing room and impulsively hugged her. "Never get yourself sick again! You're my best student and I couldn't bear to lose you. Now, tell me in detail what's happened, and why you managed to get sick, Tali..."

"... That had to do with the people trying to kill us." She blushed—and was relieved that it wouldn't show-and tapped her omnitool into life. "Councilor Anderson gave me what he said was all the Alliance data on the attacks, and I got some more from Doctor T'Soni... I... I'm sorry, but Lieutenant Aleesha was rather badly wounded... I still need to write a formal report."

"My visor got shattered by a ricochet - I had to replace it, and I had the choice of ten seconds in vacuum or risking... this. I've been meditating and trying to keep myself healthy, and I think it worked."

"I respect that. You should be proud. The outside world, it seems, is as terrible to you as the worst of what you've said..." An opinion that could only get stronger the more of the initial report she reviewed.

"I see the Council is absolutely refusing to extend any kind of recognition to my efforts, too."

"... I think Cerberus is feeding them information so they won't," Tali answered. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

"And why is Cerberus actively working to oppose my goals? I have an agreement with the Illusive Man."

"You're asking the Quarian to speculate in human politics." She sounded bemused.

Tanda groaned. "It'll take us a while to crunch the numbers, but I wanted a victory over the Collectors before I... Dealt with this." She managed to make it seem incredibly ominous when she said it that way.

"The less help you get, the less likely you are to get one before his own plans come to fruition, Tanda."

"I am aware. Are you tempting me to act faster and more decisively?"

"...It might be wise, Tanda." Then she collapsed into sniffling and a hacking cough onto the couch. "Urgh, my nose is full of something I can't even describe..."

Tanda looked haplessly on and shook her head. "We'll start vacuum exercises next week."

"...Thanks." Tali cleared her throat, sounding profoundly unenthusiastic. "So... apparently the Ubiqtorate knows more about the theory of the Force than we do... she talked about the Light and Dark Sides of the force, said that the Jedi named them and that the Sith took the Dark label and made it a badge of honour..."

"I've heard of the light and the dark side. Vaguely. It didn't seem important, to be honest. I'm not surprised the Ubiqtorate knows a great deal about the old beliefs of the Jedi and Sith from before the Empire that it doesn't share with anyone else; it's surely part of their job description to do so. But I'm not sure that it's at all important."

"I sort of wonder if that's why we seem to be talking at cross-purposes sometimes, if I stumbled into something you didn't. That's all I'm thinking of."

Tanda stiffened, staring hard at Tali, who nearly wilted under the gaze. "I would hope not, Tali.. I would hope not. The path of the power and the Sith is the path of the Empire. In far-off days there were mystical contentions between the two, certainly-I'd rather not reawaken that."

"That's what I told her... that if the Dark side is order, and justice, and law, then that's the side I want to be on. Not... light-siders sound like the Council. Not doing anything. Being _professional_ at not doing anything."

Tanda laughed. "...I sympathize with that. They are truly useless. Sorry for being worried." She rose and went to make herself some tea. "It gives us two leads, it seems. The first is that we could try to recover the Black Box of the SR-1. The far more time sensitive one, however, is the loss of contact with Fehl Prime. I think this is immediately actionable. Tali, if you'd go to the bridge. Tell L'tenant Scolus to set course for Fehl Prime."

She rose. "Captain."

"Thank you for still calling me that, Tali." Tanda smiled, and keyed her comm. It was time to get a party together to analyze the data. They were wasting time.

Tanda was with a team of her old fleet officers, and Shala'Raan, all going over the data they'd gotten from Anderson aggressively while reviewing progress on the predictor analysis, when Tali came back about an hour later after getting the patrol deployments in the Mil system squared away and then bringing _Thunderflare_ into hyperspace.

The problem which was making the meeting supremely frustrating was that there didn't seem to _be_ a pattern, or at least not one their computers could find, and the Alliance data was not helping them resolve any of the unknown variables. A lot of ships had gone missing as well, and smaller colonies and research stations alike. The Alliance seemed utterly flummoxed by what was happening, and their usual deployment pattern hopeless against the Collector attacks.

Tanda was rubbing her eye, reaching for her mug and looking to Tali. "Unfortunately the Allliance doesn't know a kriffing thing." The sentiment seemed to carry the day with the grim and frustrated Imperial men around the table.

"Well, we've done enough. Dis- _miss_." Never did quite so much of a frustrated mass stream from the room, though Tanda liked to imagine Shala'Raan was more sympathetic. She started back to her office with Tali.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"Not really, yet, no. In addition to being sick, I got another message from my father. He is concerned... With how little time I am spending around other Quarians. He thinks I will never be able to marry or consider having children of my own... Trapped on a human ship and serving as the Aide-de-Camp to a human commander."

"I am sorry. Parents can be ferociously hard like that, especially about children. Mine were virulently angry when I told them I'd never get married or have heirs, and that I was leaving a cushy life of managing Agricorp investments on Commenor that they'd laid out for me, and joining the fleet instead. But they came around, and in the end supported me through Anaxes." They slipped into Tanda's office, and Tali moved to curl up in one of the chairs.

"I... had... one." Her voice sounded thick, as she pulled her knees up to her chest. "Doctor-Engineer. It was the last time I danced with my father."

"When you received the title?" Tanda sighed. "I'm intensely sorry for it, even so. Family is important."

"N-no... my mother, she was the Doctor-Engineer... I'm just a Machinist. Not... nearly the same, she really helped people, helped _our_ people."

"...Forgive me. I misunderstood what you were saying."

"I wasn't very clear... it was at her funeral. We danced the mourning dance together. I think the last part of him that cared died with her."

"I think that your mother would be happier with you than that, prouder of you. I hope that she would be. I should like to think so. You will find the love that they found, too. Someday."

"I know." She leaned her helmet against Tanda and sighed. "He wanted me to resign, to come back to the Fleet, help him with his projects. I told him no."

"Isn't resigning a serious matter for Quarians? You had good reason to refuse."

"I think so... he's very disappointed in me for following your path of the force instead of becoming a Doctor-Engineer like mother... but I never asked for a house on the homeworld!"

"A house on the homeworld?"

"... Forget I said anything, Tanda, it... it's not important."

She swallowed, audibly, and shifted. "My father's dream. I never wanted it, but he's promised me so many times, that he'll build me a house on Rannoch. I think that's... all he dreams about anymore. You've given us a world... but it's not our walled garden."

"We could make it into that walled garden. I just don't want to bring the geth to war unless I have to. It's too much of a risk..." She sighed in frustration. "And is that really what's at the heart of what he wants?"

"Rannoch is... we had to wear our suits outdoors anyhow, Tanda. Remember, we were a trading and spacefaring race. Our world was already contaminated before the Geth Uprising... you'd just have to wear a suit, like us, if you wanted to visit-though for the opposite reason... I don't know why he dreams so hard, but... it will be the same. Han'Gerrel wants to fight them once we're strong enough to, Xen wants to control them again, my father wants to find some way to beat them... really, Zaal'Koris and Auntie Raan are about the only sane admirals we have when it comes to the Geth."

"Revenge is a powerful emotion," Tanda whispered.

"Yes... Revenge."

"It's all about it, each in their own way."

"I was raised to hate the geth, I certainly do and I most assuredly think they and machine life will never stop trying to kill us..., but..." She sighed, a hair bitterly. "They slaughtered us by the billions. But... We did try to wipe _them_ out... and they let what was left of us go."

"Does that really matter now? It's surely past debating the war," Tanda murmured.

"Not to me! Not to most of it. I suppose it does to Zaal'Korris, though." She paused. Then decided there was no secret worth keeping from Tanda at this point. "You... might call him something of a geth sympathizer. He always thought that we deserved what happened for our own hubris and stupidity, and that maybe... there could be peace. It would be nice if that were possible, but who'd go on a suicide mission to check?" She sighed, bitterly. "The Fleet is not as monolithic as we like to portray, though I think it would be both a suicide mission and not worth the trouble."

"I'm starting to process that. I'm starting to see why it's so easy for me to keep control over the lot of you." She added, dryly. "I'd be a much happier woman if I knew something about the Collector attack pattern, though. Sorry to change the subject. But I can't imagine any of the Admirals trying to disobey orders and rip part of your fleet away from the active colonisation efforts."

"You thankfully have left them too busy, and Xen is giggling like a girl still in a sterile bubble over what you gave her to play with. It's really only my father and Han'Gerrel at this point who still... focus on the geth." She fiddled endlessly with her hands, fidgeting as she thought. "As for the Collectors... I don't know. This is horribly out of character for them, from what Liara said... on the other hand... she also said that she got into a fight with the Shadow Broker's agents over Shepard's body. He was going to sell her to the Collectors. I didn't like the sound of that."

"I didn't either." She folded her hands into her face. "If they were killing the colonists, I would be able to feel it through the force at the larger colonies," she revealed. "But I cannot, so they're taking them somewhere alive."

Tali... froze for a moment. "... How stealthy can your ships get?"

"I fitted the cloaking device from the G.R.B. to _Thunderflare_ , but it's utterly useless except when making repairs-that's the reason I bothered to re-mount it-as it's a full double blind."

"I think I know where they're going. It was something Liara only told me in person, it wasn't in the data... but..."

"...Oh?" Tanda shot to her feet.

"... Yes. The Collectors are the only species who have ever been seen to use the Omega 4 relay successfully..." She tapped her omni-tool, an odd, red glowing mass relay appearing above it. "It's odd, one of the few double-relay systems. No ship that's ever gone through Omega 4 has ever returned."

"Are you suggesting we go cloaked there and wait for them? That they must be using it for more than just special missions because why else would they _ever_ need to use it? Because I can surely see that. And then, relying on the force..."

"You have another lead? Though I'm sure "Governor" T'Loak will be so happy with you."

"Wait, wouldn't that mean the Collectors have just been regularly passing by the station without attacking it?" Tanda got up, went to her desk, and activated the projection...

"Likely, but if their stealth systems are good enough, it's doubtful anybody not already right by the relay could see them passing through. Omega isn't... exactly a professionally run battle station."

"Right. Well, I committed an entire wing of fighters as the permanent garrison of the new Quarian homeworld, as well as _Rintonne's Flame_ and all the Quarian frigates those two liveships could tow into hyperspace. _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ are more than sufficient to cover Sigurd. But if we had to sit a month under cloak... We can do it."

She turned back to Tali. "Of course, that would be the perfect time to launch a coup against me."

"I cannot help you with that, Tanda."

"No, but you do inspire me." She clasped her hands. "Go get some sleep, Tali. And get better. We'll be at Fehl Prime in twelve hours."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

"Good morning, Tali. Are you feeling any better?" Tanda was drinking tea this morning, a great big teapot sitting on her desk in a rack, and milk tin next to it. A small selection of Asari fruit was being disposed of for breakfast, with bread and marmalade alongside a bowl of grits. The food they sometimes got was a strange collection of cast-off overstock from human companies in the effort to avoid drawing endlessly upon their reserve rations.

"My nose is still a solid wall, but my head doesn't hurt anymore. Thank you, Tanda."

Tanda smiled and handed over a packaged fruit smoothie. "I had something synthed for you. Otherwise I'd feel uncivilised to be eating breakfast when you're not."

"Thank you so very much, Tanda!" She tried to curtsy in the upper class fashion of the Imperial aristocrats in the officer corps. It made Tanda grin.

"Don't worry, Tali. Just be yourself around me."

"...Thank you, Tanda."

"And have a seat."

Tali did so, and looked intently at what Tanda was reviewing. "A declaration of Martial Law... Should I even be seeing that?"

"Yes. You, of all people, should be seeing that. You, of all people, Tali, I have no doubt whose side you are on."

"So... Bloodshed over politics. Why don't you just have an election?"

"I might lose." Tanda smiled tightly. "And it would undermine my authority as Moff. It is a hybrid military-political position and not subject to recall, ever."

"...The rest of the galaxy doesn't see things that way, you know."

"It's true, but my galaxy does, and that's really all that matters." She leaned back. "On the other hand, think of it this way. Enough of the men are with that I can impose equality between Quarians and humans. The end result of that will be our nice, harmonious, multi-racial society. I think you deserve that—I have come to appreciate your people a great deal. The Empire shall dictate, and under it, we shall all have peace. These democracies, after all, can't let two species live together under one electorate. Surely, in comparison to back home where the Republic rules all species under one system of law, that's proof enough that our system is better, Tali."

"...Well, yes... All us Quarians have ever gotten out of the Council races is hate and fear, it's true. It just seems odd. You're like the Admiralty Board without a Conclave."

"And that lets me get things done. This included."

Tanda glanced at her wall chrono. "Well, enough of politics." She closed out the flimsy, shoved it into her sealed drawer and re-locked it. "Time to get to the bridge. We're arriving at Fehl Prime in ten minutes."

Tali rubbed her fingers together as she rose and followed Tanda out, the woman tossing back the last of her tea and leaving it all behind to be cleaned by an orderly. She arrived on the bridge with a quick straightening of her uniform jacket. "Condition Two!"

"Set Condition Two!" Men turned and activated alarms. Particle screens were brought to full power and the shield systems energized but not activated. Sensors were brought to military power. A certain number of critical blast doors were closed and men went to combat duty reporting stations. The ship rumbled with life below their feet.

Then the timing alarm went off, astrogation pulled back the control levers, and the _Thunderflare_ shot back into realspace, deep into the Fehl Prime system. They had company.

"Condition One, Action Stations."

"Set Condition One, Action Stations!"

As the final stage in combat readiness spread through the ship, Tanda gestured to Tali'Zorah and turned back to the holoprojector. "Those are Alliance ships, aren't they?"

"A dreadnought, four cruisers, four frigates," Tali'Zorah replied after a moment. "All Alliance."

"Looks like we've been beaten to the punch. I wonder if someone survived? They haven't sent taskgroups to planets attacked by the Collectors before."

"Moff Pryl, M'ladyship, the Alliance fleet is hailing us!" Lieutenant Scolus stepped out of the comm pit. "They demand that we stand down for inspection."

Tanda turned on her heel and stepped forward. "That's a very bold order. But it makes sense if they think we're just a diversionary operation from Cerberus. Put a communication through on the holoprojector."

"Aye, M'ladyship." He turned back.

The image resolved into a woman, strapped into her chair on the bridge of an Alliance Dreadnought at stations. She was short and fought against the tendency of her endlessly curly hair to fight out of regulation. And she was angry.

"We don't need Cerberus in this system, 'Thunderflare'. There's enough dead here already. I am Captain Hannah Shepard of the _Orizaba_ , and you _will_ stand down."

Tali started back. _Shepard's mother!_

Tanda's jaw set. "Captain Shepard, I am Moff Tanda Pryl of the Galactic Empire, and your government has already been responsible for unprovoked attacks against my personnel! In fact, you can scatter my body into the fifty hells before I take orders from the Illusive Man!"

The bridge crew was very nearly shocked at the virulence. It was not particularly becoming of an Imperial officer. Hannah Shepard seemed more approving of it.

"As you say, Moff Pryl. Nonetheless, these were our people and we are not going to let you past. I have my orders."

"This system is not within Alliance Space. You have no right to keep my personnel from the surface, Captain."

"Be that as it may, Moff Pryl, I have my orders." She cut the channel.

"Launch a shuttle with an ISB investigations team to the surface. Send Eta squadron to escort them."

"As you command, M'ladyship." Gripsholm saluted and turned away.

"Moff Pryl, we can't just ... _kill Shepard's mother_." Tali looked querreously at her.

"She has her orders, and we must have the information on that colony. And I am sick of universal jurisdiction by these nation-states. They do this at Fehl Prime, why not somewhere else?" In respect for the chain of command, both had kept their voices hushed.

Shala'Raan came over to Tanda on the bridge. "Moff Pryl, orders?"

"Admiral, you will take control of the fighter operation. Make sure to pull them back carefully if they are fired upon. Do not have them try to force their way to the surface."

"Understood, Moff Tanda'Pryl."

Tanda and Tali watched tensely, though for different reasons, as the squadron escorting the shuttle pulled away and moved in toward the Alliance squadron. They continued to gain the distance toward inner orbit around the planet and the preparation to descend to the surface.

Then the Alliance Mass Drivers opened up. Tali gasped under her breath and Tanda bit at her lip. But the fire splashed down in front of the fighters, and as ordered, Shala'Raan directed them to retire. The Alliance fighters sent in pursuit, they deftly evaded. The expressions of the men in the pits stiffened.

"Tanda..."

Tanda just held up a hand to silence Tali. "Reestablish communications with the _Orizaba_."

Hannah Shepard reappeared, looking relieved. "Thank you for turning back, Moff Pryl, I see that neither of us..."

"I am afraid that by threatening an Imperial ship with live weapons fire, you have crossed a line I cannot tolerate. Your fleet has ten minutes to surrender."

Hannah Shepard's words died in a strangled sound from her throat. "Moff Pryl, you are making a terrible mistake. You have the mass, but with an untested crew..."

"You clearly know nothing about us except for the lies your superiors have told you. At heart, you know this is true. I can tell from your reactions that you are at least somewhat concerned. Stand down your ships to avoid an effusion of blood."

"I'm starting to question our intelligence, Moff Pryl. That much is true," she found a bit of dry wit in the moment. "But personally, having grown up in the shadow of Masada, I don't think that I'm constitutionally capable of surrendering. Tactical! All Hands, all Taskgroup forces, stand by to engage the enemy!" She killed the comms line again.

 _Tanda Tanda please, this is Shepard's mother, there's got to be another way...!_ Tali sent frantically through the force.

"Shields to full power."

"The enemy squadron is moving forward, spreading into an attack pattern to get the light ships into point-blank range, Your Ladyship!"

"Target the Dreadnought first." She paused, and looked to Tali for a long moment. Then folded her hands. "Ion cannon only."

"Ion cannon only, M'lady?"

"Ion cannon only."

"Confirm. Weapons free – ion cannon only. Hold all other fire."

-

"Remember, Alliance sailors and spacers! This is a battle against a force diametrically opposed to all we hold dear. Cerberus and Cerberus aligned elements mean the triumph of racism, xenophobia, and dictatorship over a humanity that has spent thousands of years struggling against these elements. With the whole world united in one Alliance, the stakes are total: If Cerberus takes over, there's nowhere for you to run! This is our first action against the secret fleet they have been building up, and you have a chance to recall the glory your comrades showed at the Citadel. To stations!"

Hannah Shepard tightened on her vacuum helmet, secured it, and checked the air feed. The strange wedge-shaped ship was looming up ahead of them, growing nearer through scanners and video feeds as they pressed in. But they hadn't started that far out. _Orizaba_ 's spinal mass driver already had the range.

She took them head-on against the _Thunderflare_. "Now, we're using Alpha-Gamma-Four. Remember that the cruisers and frigates must get in as close as possible but _keep up their vee!_ "

"Understood, Captain." Lieutenant Sanders turned back to the comms board. The rescue mission had called together disparate ships and as a result there was no Admiral on the scene.

Hannah was glad, because she was going to order the cruisers and frigates to cut and run as soon as they were close in. They'd cover her getting in close... And then she'd die to let them escape. The short conversation with Moff Pryl had left her more convinced of what she had privately thought, that in fact, the Empire really had nothing to do with Cerberus. But her orders were her orders, and she sure as _hell_ wasn't going to surrender without a fight!

"Commence fire!"

"Main mass driver... Firing!"

The deck shuddered under their seats from the recoil of the great mass driver. The first slug tore out and straight toward the _Thunderflare_. Then a second, and then another. For two minutes, the Imperial ship let them fire, and that made Hannah almost wonder if they ranged on them.

"She's rolling, presenting her dorsal surface, Captain!"

Hannah flipped up her tactical display. The gun turrets on the ship were bizarrely positioned, and very small for its size. But she saw now that they could fire directly up, which made this position perfect for... Firing all sixteen main guns at the same target. Her _Orizaba_. Notably, their fire seemed to be bouncing off the 'Star Destroyer''s particle shields so effectively it was like they shouldn't have bothered opening fire.

"Evasive manoeuvres!"

The _Thunderflare_ fired. Hannah never got a chance to see the _Thunderflare_ closing in her HUD again—she was still too far away to be visible, and in a moment, the electronics no longer mattered. Her eyes barely registered the brilliant red lances of fire that emerged from the black vastness before her, the little white speck that was such a massive super-dreadnought sending forth fire against her.

But the years of experience in combat gave her brain a moment to recognize that it was incoming fire, from energy weapons no less, and what that meant for a ship that could not shield against energy weapons, the certain death of her and her crew. _I'll see you in Sheol, 'Tara..._ The shots passed through the _Orizaba_ 's particle shields as she'd predicted and slammed into her hull, impacting in a cluster around the barrel of her mass driver. Worse still, the rate of fire was relatively rapid. Two seconds later, another precision salvo struck the dreadnought. But by then, the effects of the first were already being felt.

The impact wasn't as powerful as, say, a planetary mass driver hit on a frigate, but it still sent the _Orizaba_ recoiling backwards against her own engines with terrifying force that strained them all into their harnesses, cut off breathing for desperate seconds. Orange spots ungracefully cluttered her vision all around, and silence seemed to reign. The horrifying reports of heavy damage and casualties she was expecting, however, did not materialise.

It wasn't just in vision that the sparks were occurring, Hannah realised. The _Orizaba_ 's bridge had been plunged into darkness by the continuous pummelling of the fire, lit only by the reflected light of doomed Fehl Prime. Blue and orange sparks arced over the darkened consoles on the bridge. Sanders forcing himself to his feet as _Orizaba_ tumbled, barking orders no one was listening to. Crewmen were reporting that they couldn't get power readings. Some ripped their helmets off to breathe air that would soon go stale, as even their suit pumps had been disabled by the fire. Others remembered that the act of breathing would trigger them even with no energy. Computers, weapons, particle shields, sensors, consoles, even the twitching cybernetic arm of one of her lieutenants, all overwhelmed by the surge of energy unlike anything they could have possibly imagined.

"All stations report!" Sanders shouted again.

"Cut the chatter, Lieutenant!" Hannah shouted back. She finished unbuckling herself, and pushed to her feet. "Get your helmets back on. Remember the pressure valves!" The _Orizaba_ had rolled to starboard and pitched upwards, guided by whichever engines had been the last to fail. She was in no danger of impacting the planet, but had rolled off the point position, left far behind by her cruisers and frigates. Whatever the weapon was, it was rendering them utterly helpless, and she could only watch as more of the rest of her scratch squadron was being similarly disabled.

Cruisers and frigates, pressing ahead and taking the _Thunderflare_ under a storm of fire, just for sixty light cannon with the same kind of technology as the four big ones to be constantly pelting them in a hail of fire. And when one of those four hit a frigate, it just dropped out of line, completely disabled by a single shot where at least two minutes of sustained firing had been required to turn her dreadnought into a helpless barge.

And then Hannah began to float. "Damnit!" The artificial gravity had failed as the command bridge's backup generator had fallen prey to the charged particle field playing havoc with the ship's systems. She grabbed for a handhold and secured herself painfully, the effort of dragging herself back into her chair and securing herself taking minutes as she watching Sanders tumble end over end. The bridge crew gaped up at him from where they sat strapped into their stations. Suddenly it seemed like everything from the bolts the builders had forgotten to install was now floating freely around the bridge in every direction. Ration wrappers, crumbs, clothing, things she'd rather not identify. Despite her best efforts in keeping a clean ship, it all came to naught when they lost gravity and the hidden nooks and crannies were revealed.

She sighed, sank back into her chair. Cranked the emergency supply crank to give power to her suit radio. The static seemed to be caused by something more than just poor reception. The rest of the squadron was being wiped out. Except that they weren't being _wiped out_ , precisely. They were, like her _Orizaba_ , just being crippled. Electrically.

The myriad systems of the _Orizaba_ normally produced a constant thrum that was both a low sound and a faint vibration felt through the deck. That vibration could drive some new recruits mad, leaving them unable to sleep or think-nearly every Academy class had one or two members whose first training cruise was their last. Some ships were louder and some quieter than the rest. Hannah, who'd taken to the job like she'd been born in it, as XO on a frigate, frigate commander, Dreadnought XO, and now the _Orizaba_ , had never minded the thrum.

Dirtside, even in Galilee visiting the grandparents where she'd given birth to her 'Tara, she missed it. The stations she'd raised her daughter on, the ships, they were life and blood, and that thrum was as natural to her as the sound of the trains passing at night by the house she'd grown up in, now. Took the place of them, even, in her heart.

It was her ship's heartbeat that was now stilled, and Hannah Shepard groaned in rage at not knowing if it would ever live again. The _Orizaba_ was silent save for Sander's sputtering and the crew's useless status reports. She was dead in space — and she would remain that way, until the Imperials boarded and dragged them all away, either in chains or for Cerberus experiments, it scarcely mattered at the moment.

 _Cerberus experiments_. She grimaced. "Sanders, if you want something to do, come with me." She unstrapped her belt. "Lieutenant Simah, you have the bridge!"

"Captain?"

"We're going to engineering so we can manually release the drive core containment if they come aboard."

"Captain!?"

"That'll be an explosion big enough to get their shields. And I know what my daughter said about Cerberus. Let's _go!_ "

Trembling, he followed her as she kicked off the walls into the access conduits, swinging through handholds like someone who had spent the past thirty-five years in space, mostly because she had. It took them twenty-five minutes with Sanders very bruised—and Hannah a little—to reach Commander Rikkesgarde and the Main Engineering controls.

But when they did, there was no report of a boarding. No report of _anything_. She came up short. "Commander Rikkesgarde, how long until you have main power back?"

"They're no longer shooting at us, Captain. The drive core was badly destabilized by some kind of field capture. The energy field put out ions everywhere, interrupts circuitry in proportion to how much energy it uses, and its frequency. It's why we're not all dead – low power direct current electricity inside your body's cells is outside of the effect range. We've got some control circuits that are working manually because of that, so we were able to keep core containment stable, but the power supply itself was shot. The field's naturally dissipating, though. I was hoping to try main power recycle and restore procedures in another ten minutes."

"I'm expecting us to be boarded, and if they get aboard with the ship in this condition, we may have to set the charges, Commander."

Rikkesgarde glared at her for a moment. "Not on my ship. We'll get her back up."

"And they could just cripple us again."

"...Maybe with luck they'll have moved out of range or we'll be able to dodge. You're the Captain."

"And that's why I need to know if the escape pods will work. Look, if we can get most of the crew off, it'll be worth it to take that beast out by detonating the core when she comes alongside. Tell us where to go, Commander." _Dane, Gullah and Israeli, all united under the Alliance in the ability to do nothing but get ourselves killed!_ Hannah grinned in bitterly sardonic irony. And then she got to work like a junior engineer.

"The escape pods will work. You don't need to do anything special, we'll have plenty of time if they start to board. Get power back, as long as we're alive. Please, Captain."

"All right. One more chance into the fight, then."

The ship started to come back to life through their efforts. Systems lit back up. The drive core stabilized, and power started to flow again. She scrambled back to the engineering control boards that were the emergency backup to the bridge. They still didn't have manoeuvring thrusters, but the main drives hooked up directly to the drive core could let them steer by engines. And the power was tapped directly to the mass driver. They had done it in five minutes, not ten.

"All hands, this is the Captain speaking! We are standing by to reenter battle." She looked across, a short Chinese girl, midshipwoman, furiously working the consoles.

"Tactical?"

"The squadron is intact, Captain... Enemy dreadnought in close orbit of Fehl Prime."

"No small craft out?"

"None, Captain."

 _She really is damned interested in the Collector attacks, isn't she?_ Hannah finished the gruelling calculations by hand for the off centre burn. "Commander Rikkesgarde, burn engine No.2 for seven seconds, wait two, then burn engine No.4 for three!"

"Aye, Captain!" _Orizaba_ 's massive drives began to burn and turn her, lining her up toward the planet.

"Course confirmed, Captain!"

"Engines maximum thrust!"

"Captain, this isn't going to do any good..." Sanders muttered. "But we've got full power for the main mass drivers."

"Yes it is." Hannah gritted her teeth. The course she had put in would protect them from the main guns until they were almost at point blank, the gravity of the planet twisting their trajectory just slightly and allowing them to make most of the journey screened by its mass. The massive superdread could use its fighters to attack them, but they might, at least, be able to take those. She punched an open comm. "All crew except gunners to evacuate!" All crew except gunners to evacuate! Make your way to evacuation stations and proceed into escape pods immediately!"

"Gunners... Stand by your guns."

"When the serpent be woken, Fenrir howls..." Rikkesgarde turned to his consoles and started overcharging the drive core.

Hannah glanced to Rikkesgarde and smiled grimly. "I am afraid to say that order, of course, excludes all main engineering crew. Keep to your stations."

"Stations! Stand firm!" Sanders echoed, it seemed, perfectly composed in the midst of what they were going to do. The man did have his virtues.

"Captain?" The midshipwoman trembled. "I don't think... I never expected to die fighting other humans. It seems terrible."

"Sometimes... Meili," she glanced, "it's the humans that are the worst monsters. Speaking of which... There's no chance of us having surprise." She activated an open comm line on the same channel they'd communicated to the Imperials on before.

"Moff Pryl, I wanted to let you know that I deeply appreciate your effort to avoid an effusion of blood. However, I was ordered to defend this system and prevent Cerberus from stealing from our dead, and also, we will not surrender to you. Therefore, I wish to quote a fellow named Elazer ben Yair to you: 'Since we long ago resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than the Lord Himself, Who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice. We were the very first that revolted, and we are the last to fight against them; and I cannot be esteem it as a favour that the Lord has granted us, that it still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom.' If you survive, look it up!"

She killed the channel, and made a final line on her flimsy. "All right. In... Twenty-one seconds, we will be making a ninety-percent power burn on Engine No.3 for eight seconds. In twenty-seven seconds, we will commence a forty-percent burn of Engine No.1. That will be finished with the engines. Stand tall, my comrades, and thank you for making this journey with me."

"The last escape pod is away, Captain!" Sanders turned back. "It's just us and the gunners. No sign of fighters, yet."

"Lord be praised..."

"Captain!" Meili looked up, and in her eyes Hannah already knew everything had changed.

"Go ahead!"

"The _Thunderflare_ —she's pulling away from the planet at maximum burn! A small shuttle is pulling for her!"

Hannah Shepard leaned back into a support column as the feeling of imminent death started to drain away. _This woman could have killed me twice over... And didn't. She could have boarded us... And didn't._ She bit her lip. She still had her orders.

"Belay those last engine orders. Gunners, ready your guns. Target the shuttle. We need to deny them the intel they've gotten!"

 _Orizaba_ tore past Fehl Prime, her course twisted by the planet's gravity until she had cleared the planet's next hemisphere, and the sensors showed the massive blue-white drive tail of the _Thunderflare_ pulling away. Sanders opened fire with the spinal mass driver.

Hannah watched as the rounds disappeared into the immense particle shielding of the ship or were sent tumbling away by the sheer concentrated power of the ionized drivetails. There was no answering fire; the design had one clear weakness in the terrible aft fire arcs of its main guns at any inclination.

But then their lighter mass drivers salvoed, firing off again and again. Guns going off in the din of combat, the thrum of the _Orizaba_ living again... At least for a few more minutes. Most of the shots went wide against the wildly dodging and strange tri-foil shuttle. Then one didn't, and it was tumbling, the gunners corrected and fired again. A wave spattered through the shuttle's shields, and in a bust of sparking orange-white gas, it exploded.

Hannah waited for the massive superdreadnought to come about toward them again and commence their destruction in earnest. "Squadron status?"

"All ships have at least emergency power back, Captain."

"Tell them to get out of here. FTL, any heading—choose a star and run!"

"Aye aye, Captain."

And then Hannah's eyes widened, Meili made a strangled cry of relief.

...The superdreadnought elongated and disappeared in a flicker of pseudomotion. Hannah half collapsed in the hollow relief of suddenly realising she still had a life; that in another five minutes her ship and herself would not be dead. Moff Pryl had watched them kill a shuttle full of her own men...

And just left anyway.

"Fuck Cerberus, and fuck command! She doesn't want war, she isn't Cerberus, and she could have killed us at will the entire time! They're going to have to hand me my ass to keep me quiet about this! I swear! With 'Tara dead there's no stopping me!"

The engineering crew broke down in wordless relief as Hannah Shepard raged against her own command and orders. They would live to see another day, and indeed, got to see it relatively quickly, as they spent the next twelve hours conducting system bypasses and recovering escape pods.

Hannah sent a breezy set of furious communiqués to headquarters, and after forty-two hours awake would finally slink back to her quarters, expecting to be canned the next day. But she didn't care; she felt like she had died and been resurrected already with that kiss of death, and what else mattered in comparison to it?

Then she saw she had an extranet message from Dr. Liara T'Soni, and all of a sudden a great deal else mattered again, in fact. _I'm here getting my ass handed to me by extragalactic humans... And Cerberus is turning my daughter into a technozombie!_ She staggered to the toilet and threw up her ration packs, heaving and heaving until her empty stomach settled, hair soiled. It felt vaguely satisfying. Gut empty, so tired she could barely stand, she threw herself into the shower; body, mind, and soul roiling with a dozen conflicting and contradictory emotions.

 _What the hell is going on in my galaxy, and why does my government not give a damn about any of it at all?_


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

"We must act quickly, and by quickly I mean _very_ quickly, Tali," Tanda slung herself onto her bed, bouncing with energy, the door closed behind them. She pulled off her uniform jacket and started dragging on the very rare full dress one for a Moff to replace it. "That was a whisper in my mind that proved brilliant beyond measure. With the ISB decimated aboard this ship, they can't stand regular watches. There's just one man left. Now, heading straight back to Mils..."

"...So, we're finally going to do it."

"Yes, a Self-Coup against my own security services." She tugged the jacket down and fastened it. "Kessingon will think the worst of me leaving without getting revenge for his men, so you see, I can't even _not_ do it, now. We're committed like a bullet shot from a gun."

"How many people have to die?"

"About fifty. They will have some plants, though, so we'll have to deal with them as well. The actual number of those, I don't have any idea about." Tanda rose, and shoved her lightsabre into one of her boots. Then she made sure her blaster was affixed to her belt, and put a holdout into other other boot.

"We're going to kill that last man now, aren't we?"

"Yes. That won't be so hard; the problem is coming back." She shrugged. "Assassinating me will be the preferred solution—once they know."

Tali fell in as Tanda started out, feeling uncomfortable about this strange realm of human politics she hadn't even been aware existed until now... Political murder. It was certainly something unknown in the Fleet, and she had thought in modern humanity, though consulting through her Omnitool showed it was not really the case. And once, Quarians hadn't been in the fleet.

"Tanda... Is it really right to kill someone in cold blood?"

"It is Necessary, and Necessity is generally the mother of politics. Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare, let me be honest with you," Tanda spoke, measuredly, in the turbolift, hands out and holding the rail. It was a long trip. "The Empire... has, had flaws. Women are not considered as appropriate for the military, because they are held to be inferior to Men. I have fought against this for decades now, from within the system. But deeper than that, our treatment of alien races is sometimes inappropriate. What Kessingon desires for you is worse than I can tolerate. By my moderate course, my life is threatened. And so is the life of every Quarian in the migrant fleet. Fortunately, a cure exists, just like the cure did when the Republic was collapsing. That it had its own flaws, was unfortunate. That those flaws brought on the problems I admit the Empire was facing when we left, I won't doubt. Come what may, though, I am going to fix them, and we are going to build the Empire here."

The turbolift came to a stop. Tanda smiled tightly. "And that starts with putting a few backs to the wall." There was a group of fleet troopers waiting for her. Tali tensed.

Tanda simply nodded. "All right, lads. You know what they're going to do if we don't take care of this. Let's go."

There were nods all around, and the group fell in. Tali realised just what Tanda had meant by saying, _and after living with the Asari for so long, the deck will be with me._

Tanda reached the entrance to the nondescript set of officers deep in the guts of the Star Destroyer near the army headquarters. "L'tenant Hexinus, please answer."

The door opened. There were four men there with him, officers from the Army and Navy by their uniforms. _Friends_. Men consoling him on the loss of the rest of the unit. The ISB, particularly after almost a year away from reassignments and tight supervision, were people too.

And they died like people, too. Tanda whipped out her own pistol and opened fire. She was surrounded by a hail of blaster rifle fire from the squad she'd assembled. Gouges were torn in the chests of men, and they fell with shouts and screams. Heads were wrecked by precision energy, skin burned as men in the midst of mourning were set upon and killed. Bodies crackling and toppling back against walls as they were cut down still reaching for their blasters, and failing to get them in time.

The faces of their killers were expressionless. "Contact Officer Sigardine and have her bring down scandroids. I want all of these files pulled. Also, send a general order for all off duty and non-essential crew to assemble in the primary hangar bay immediately!"

"Y-Yes, Lady Moff!" Tali was stuttering. She had never imagined that Tanda could—could do such a thing so totally out of character of her vision of her as another Shepard. But a little part of her tingled inside. _She's doing it to save your people_. And she couldn't resist that logic. She quieted her own bile and obeyed.

Tanda strode up into the great assembly, to a small podium at one end rolled out for the event. There were twenty thousand people packed into that space, coming to attention as she walked. For this, she pulled Shala'Raan and Tali'Zorah to her side, the Quarian spacetroopers, all as a phalanx around her.

"Comrades, we have reached a point from which there is no turning back. Back at home, government internal authority was collapsing. When we see our home again we must negotiate with the new leadership of the Empire proper. A critical hindrance in this process is the continued existence of the ISB. COMPNOR is neither part of the Imperial government nor should it be. In the interests of the Committee of Officers, what we need is the professional, rational leadership of the services and the Ubiqtorate that His Majesty the Emperor intended for us.

"Accordingly, I have taken decisive measures to eliminate the ISB presence on this ship, as well as its supporters. Next, we will eliminate it through the whole of the Sigurd Cluste..."

Tali knocked her over. One of the Quarian spacetroopers lunged and opened fire. Blaster bolts ripped out of the assembly. The shots scorched the podium, and tore through the space through which Tanda and Tali had just gone.

The men reacted ferociously, going after the two who had opened fire. They were tackled, beaten down, hammered into the deck plating. There was shouting and a huge commotion spreading through the assembly, shouts of fear and consternation.

Tali rolled off, and Tanda pushed herself to her feet. "I am unhurt, thanks to our Quarian comrades! Bring those men in alive for interrogation, that's an order! They're ISB plants."

Panting, she went to the sizzled podium. "I thank you for your demonstrated loyalty! We will crush this nest of traitors together!"

They chanted her name, and she stood, throwing her fists into the air, turning it into a political rally. She had one ship on her side, and that would be enough. Dismissing them without continuing her speech, for she couldn't find a way to even start doing so, Tanda turned to Tali, and wrapped her arm around the woman. "Come on. After all that, I ... Hah. What can I say?"

"...What can anyone say? I certainly don't know. But you have chosen to stand with us."

"Together, Tali, together." She tipped a jaunty salute to Shala'Raan, and they headed for the command tower. The jaunty salute belied a trembling exhaustion. "You saved my life," she'd mutter, walking toward her cabin and sinking to her bed when got there.

"I owe you everything. You've given me my course and fate. I never imagined I'd play this game. My family was not the sort to be quite this powerful. Perhaps a Tagge or a Kuat would seek to become a self-ruler. But I've made my stand – for you. You match it with my life, Tali."

"Just promise me that you will not... Make killing like that a hobby."

"I am trying to save your people, Tali."

"... But don't lose yourself, Tanda, I like you the way you are."

-

"So, that's it." Anderson rubbed his face in his hands. "It's real, what I _feared_."

"Yeah, it's real." Hannah Shepard couldn't smile, couldn't give herself any expression at all."There's another branch of humanity out there that created those ships. And they could split Earth asunder in a heartbeat. Not literally, maybe, but we'd be so much chaff against them, David."

"The government has gotten very concerned since that shoot-out here on the Citadel. The Council still doesn't care, but that will change. It had _better_ change."

"It'll have to, or we'll all be dead. She's got the Quarians on her side. That's enough people for a real industrial base, and once their civvies are off the ships..."

Anderson closed his eyes. "We didn't fix the Quarian problem in time."

"No, we didn't. We should have settled them somewhere. Tunnels in Antarctica, hell. Something like that."

"...Are you serious, Hannah?"

"I'm a Jew! The way the Quarians have been treated has always stuck in my craw. I'm not surprised it's humbugged us."

"So we're just going to summarise to the Alliance that we're screwed."

"I don't know what to say. Your job is to write it all down and then fire me for what I said."

"Well I'm not going to do that. You're one of the best captains in the fleet, Hannah."

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that my daughter is in the process of being revived by Cerberus?" She kicked back into her chair. "There's got to be some good bars on this station..."

"Hannah. I am not sacking you, but that will happen eventually if you turn into a drunk!" Anderson planted his hands on the table. "Yes, Cerberus... In fact, based on the intel, they aren't trying. They've just succeeded."

Hannah Shepard closed her eyes. "Will she really be my daughter?"

"I don't know... I don't know if Shepard will still be the same Shepard we know or not. But she's under control of Cerberus. And that's a problem."

"Damn right it's a problem. Cerberus has my kid. But Cerberus and the Empire aren't the same thing." She closed her eyes, squeezing her hands together until it hurt. "So what are my orders?"

"Take _Orizaba_ back to Earth. I'll use the connections I have left to make sure your report gets taken seriously instead of getting you in trouble. She'll need a brief refit for her escape pods and to try and do forensic analysis of what this new Imperial weapon did to the ship systems. Hopefully we'll either be able to replicate it or shield against it."

"All right."

"Are you going to be alright yourself, Hannah?"

"A refit will do us good," she replied. "I'll go down to Galilee... And to Masada. And I'll remember ... When she was just a little baby." Her voice cracked. "We've never been close, but I just got over her being dead. And I don't know what she'll be now, that bastard Illusive Man with his hooks in her brain..."

"Just watch yourself. We need you. We _especially_ need you, now. Both the Illusive Man and Moff Pryl are factors nobody could anticipate. And we still haven't solved the Collector attacks, though the data you managed to recover from Fehl Prime is enormously useful."

"Thanks. But I'm more worried about my daughter, right now."

"Get better. Take your vacation. Don't let it consume you. I know I'm not a mother, but..."

"You're not. I will... If there's something there to save, David... I'll."

"No." He held up his hands, and smiled faintly. "Don't tell me. I know you'll go all Captain Kirk on us. But let's save the court martial for after you've succeeded in getting her back."

"...Thanks. I'll be going now, with your leave."

"Granted."

Hannah pushed herself up, and slightly hunched over, wandered aimlessly out of Anderson's office. _They've taken my daughter... What do you do after that?_

The answer came unbidden: _Fight back, of course_. But with what she had discovered, Cerberus was about to be a lot less important than preparing to fight another opponent. An opponent who had quite voluntarily saved her life and the life of everyone on her ship, even when she had killed some of the Moff's people. Try as she might, Hannah couldn't think of her as an enemy anymore. Once the shame of humiliation was damped, the truth was, they all owed Pryl their lives. But what would she do with that power?

Hannah didn't have a damned clue, and she didn't think anyone else did, either.

-

Tanda Pryl watched the fleet of the Quarians and the Empire swell around her, with a heart of swelling pride. She stretched and smiled, and watched the ships looming up in ordered ranks. _Thunderflare_ stood at quarters, but without weapons or shields charged. Then she gave the order, and prepared for the holoprojection to form.

"Commandant Kessingon."

"Moff Pryl."

"I need a replacement ISB group. Our's was lost in the Fehl Prime operation, I regret to report."

"I see." Kessingon pursed his lips. "Moff Pryl, there are some... Concerns, with this news, I must admit."

"Send up the replacement draught, and I will in the meantime come down to the surface personally to report on the details of what occurred at Fehl Prime. We were facing Alliance regulars."

"Yes, you were. Come alone, Moff Pryl. I think we need to have a conversation about the way things were going."

"I agree completely, Commandant. You will send the ISB group up?"

"I will, once you start heading down to the surface."

"I will be taking a shuttle to the surface immediately, then, Commandant." She drew herself. "We will have our conversation in person."

"I imagine we will." Commandant Kessingon's image disappeared.

"Tali, they will be coming out here to execute the ranking officers of _Thunderflare_. Be waiting with your lightsabre, and you will see why I killed men in cold blood."

"...I, yes, Lady Moff," Tali drew herself up. "I'll lead the group personally, and if I have to..."

"None of that. Keep yourself alive, Commander. That's all." She turned away. "Please." And Tanda hastened away, for the turbolift, trying to avoid the knowledge of once again putting Tali to risk, and what was going to come next.

 _Your men had to find out sometime. Now is better than any other._ Hands folded behind her back, she travelled in silence.

The planet loomed before her, swelling, consume the shuttle as it entered Mils' atmosphere. They went straight for the shuttle bay of the northern hemisphere prefabricated base. Tanda sat in the back, breathing steadily and regular-like, composing herself.

But inside, she was building her rage, boiling it at a nice roiling boil. _They are trying to destroy all that you have made. To crush your state, to wreck it, to turn you into an arm of Cerberus._

 _To kill Tali_.

The shuttle landed, and gears whirred and hydraulics hummed. The front hatch descended. At once, a squad of ISB troopers lunged up it with blasters drawn. "Captain Tanda Pryl, you are under arrest by the authority of the Imperial Security Bureau on the charge of seditious conspiracy with aliens against the New Order. Surrender or die!"

"I surrender." Tanda tossed her blaster pistol to the deck.

The men relaxed—just slightly.

Her lightsabre shot out of her right boot and ignited in her hand. A sweep of the blade intercepted the first flashing blaster bolts. Then she lunged forward and hacked away the barrels of two of the guns before they could fire again. Dropping back to deflect another blaster bolt, she raced forward and struck the lead man who had spoken clean in two. As he fell the two men with ruined guns scrambled in fright as the shuttle crew watched in stunned horror. Sizzled flesh separated both halves of the body, head twitching for a few seconds afterwards, a look frozen in absolute shock.

Then she decapitated the next man and removed the hands of the fifth. A fusillade of blaster bolts from the last three did nothing, and she pushed in against them with her eyes burning in all the intensity of the sky, and pure fury. Their bodies hadn't even hit the deck as she trailed out of the shuttle, lightsabre ignited, and started for Kessingon's ISB headquarters.

As troops came running to respond to the alarms, some of them saw the glowing red blade... And immediately dropped to their knees. They had been in Death Squadron; they remembered Lord Vader. Tanda waved a hand on. "Come on. I am eliminating a nest of rats."

"Moff Pryl!" They fell in.

The next group of ISB men tried to stop them at the entrance to headquarters. They used droids and piled equipment in the clinical gray halls to form barricades. Tanda charged at a run, snapping aside blaster bolts with her lightsabre. The display brought shouts of enthusiasm from the men following her, and a hail of suppressive fire knocked down some of the defenders and forced the others to cover.

Then Tanda skidded to a halt, and let her supporters throw a salvo of grenades over the barrier. The flurry of energy blossoms sheared and burned through them, and some of the droids that were still active trilled in helpless pain at systems destruction from burn-through. Then Tanda charged over, at once triumphant and concealing how little she actually knew about being a combat force user.

Kessingon and his men, as if they had never left home, were destroying ISB files when she got to them.

"So is that why you love the aliens so much?" Kessingon was a man condemned, and he knew it, but he still held his composure as he turned to face Pryl. "Another Rebel Jedi, in disguise in my fleet all along? I deserve to die for not having found you out before hand, you force sensitive bitch."

"No. I am the next Dark Lord of Sith. Sate Pestage does not have the Force. I do. If you think the Empire will one day call me to account for this... No. Someday, I will call the Empire to account for this."

Kessingon twisted his face into a rictus grin. "Not even His Imperial Majesty could have ruled the Human Core with a pet alien floozy at his side. Therefore, before you kill me—if you truly want to become Empress, and if you are truly worthy of the title, kill Commander Zorah."

"FIFTY HELLS AREN'T ENOUGH FOR YOU!" Tanda shrieked, and without even realising it, burning holes through her gloves... Suddenly blue-purple-white lightning was coursing over Kessingon's body, and suddenly he was the one screaming in agony as the force lightning burned through his body and calcified his skeleton, the lightning reaching it with such intense power that his bones were visible through his body.

Taking a breath and staring at her own hands in shock, she didn't even notice as the other ISB men made a run for it and were cut down in a hail of blaster bolts by her adherents.

And then Kessingon was floating, as she heaved him up into the air, and his throat constricted as his body writhed in pain, nerves misfiring from the dark lightning... And, air cut off, he died—slowly.

Tanda dropped to the ground, and from her knees, activated her commlink. She was still sneaking disbelieving glances at her own hands. "T-t-Tali?"

When the Stormtrooper transport had landed, it was fronted by an ISB special operations team. Twenty men charged out... And they were confronted by a Quarian with a lightsabre. "I will not let you ruin the accord between the Quarian people and the Empire!" Tali shouted. "Surrender your..."

And the force moved her hands, and she turned a blaster bolt away from her face. Fortunately, her troops needed no orders. They opened fire immediately. Tali staggered back, and again, and again, turned the blaster bolts side to side, protecting not only herself but her men.

As the fight progressed, she felt incredibly at peace. Each bolt went another harmless way, each time her blade moved, it saved a life. Trapped in her suit, she was still connected with life, still living, an organism still in this world... And the warmth of saving others was all she focused on.

Her only regrets were the deaths of her enemies as they finished falling, and her troops, unharmed, were victorious. Tanda's Autocoup was over-and it was victorious.

"T-t-Tali?"

"I love you, Tanda, I'm fine," and then she blushed like a schoolgirl and stuttered and tried to explain.

But even in that moment, something had irrevocably changed between them.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One**

Shala'Raan and the Admirals seemed much happier. In the weeks that had passed since the Autocoup, they had seen the main hindrance to Quarian interests as having been removed. Tanda had to admit they were right. Rumours about her own abilities swirled nervously around the fleet, and in the end, with the command situation partially stabilised, she had given Han'Gerrel plenipotentiary authority and departed with the _Thunderflare_ to the planet where the SSV _Normandy_ had been lost—Alchera.

Her only proclamation to date had been to direct the Quarian Conclave and Asari Matriarchs of Mil, as well as the leaders of the other colonies of Sigard, to proceed with decision-making by consensus and refer consensus legislation for her approval. For the most part, she had to rely on the local systems of law and custom, as there was a lack of trained Imperial magistrates, and that would be a long time in coming.

 _It is another reminder of how fragile your situation is_. Arriving in the system, she had sent Tali'Zorah to Alchera. There was no need for her own departure. Indeed, Tanda rather expected that it was a painfully private moment for Tali.

She paced. At least Kesea was back, working at the back of the bridge, collating reports from the system scouts.

"Moff Tanda'Pryl?"

"Admiral Shala'Raan," Tanda acknowledged.

"What is your intention if the wreck of the _Normandy_ produces no useful information for our fleet operations?" She shifted back in a thoughtful repose of her own.

"We are going to take the cloaking device, and make _Thunderflare_ wait at the gate, err, the Omega-4 Mass Relay, until the Collectors arrive."

"Will we return to Mil before that time?"

"Are you asking for detached duty, Admiral?" Tanda quirked her lips in surprise. "I had hoped all was well for you on _Thunderflare_."

Shala'Raan gestured for Tanda's office, and both women started off for it. The Quarian smoothly turned back toward her once inside. "I believe it is equally important for me to keep aware of the activities of the other Admirals. I remain concerned that the relationship between the halves of our Empire may be imperilled. You have taken your decisive actions, and for this, we are thankful. Conversely, however, we must be aware that the desire for revenge against the geth will not be easily quashed, and I should also convey what I have observed of human military custom."

She paused. "Finally, it seems that your own presence here aboard _Thunderflare_ is necessary, but having any additional commanders of rank incommunicado for an extended period of time seems foolish."

"Oh, I understand the argument there. I don't think anyone will be quite happy with the prospect of _Thunderflare_ being on radio silence for a month or more and me out of touch with the rest of the Empire. But with the ISB dealt with, this is the best time for it. In another year, say, I fear there could again be opposition, from other, less expected quarters."

"I see. You anticipate perpetual instability, Tanda'Pryl." Shala'Raan did not sound happy. "Even without that consideration, I had desired this. Now I think it necessary."

"It is not perpetual instability. It is just that... You have a considerable degree of influence in this Empire, and this will tend to breed resentment."

"As humans are used to holding that influence to themselves."

Tanda sighed. "As we do at home by the position of humanity as the most populous species of the galaxy. It breeds habit, Admiral, that is all."

"Habit."

"What else can I call it?"

"Racism, I believe, is the human term," Shala'Raan answered a bit acerbically.

Tanda grimaced. "I think we have agreed what is the sound course of action."

"Certainly, Moff Tanda'Pryl. I did not mean to imply you were behaving unsoundly. But I now have a much better idea of what will be required for our endeavours to be successful. They are, do not be concerned, still worthwhile."

"Loyalty to the Empire is not something to speak of so lightly."

"Do not lecture me on the matter, Moff Tanda'Pryl. You have violated all the laws of your own government and established yourself as a dictator. But we Quarians think you will treat us better than any other alternative, so we support this even so. Necessity, as you say."

"As I say." Tanda stiffened, and then shrugged lightly. "We have more in common in our interests and our objectives than I do with the rest of my people, it sometimes seems."

"And that is why I trust you even with my friend's daughter, Moff Tanda'Pryl. Please watch over Tali'Zorah and be conscientious in her instruction while I am gone. The more you teach her, the safer she is, I believe."

"You are not wrong. Thank you for the confidence, Admiral." _Tali..._ Tanda returned to the bridge with Shala'Raan. In the end, Tali'Zorah had alas found nothing of value in the data logs of the _Normandy_. The Collectors had ignored her stealth systems and destroyed it; it was clearly them. But with nothing else to go on, _Thunderflare_ returned to Mil, and then laid in a course for Omega. It was time to lay a trap.

-

They came out of lightspeed far outside of Omega. The moment the reversion to realspace was complete, the order went out, and _Thunderflare_ cloaked. All sensor data disappeared, and the ship was shooting along, not able to see as well as not able to be seen. But they had their chronometers, and that meant that, with the course already laid in and their initial velocity a given, it was a simple matter of mathematical calculation to determine when, and for how long, to fire the thrusters to be in position in front of the Omega-4 Relay. When the science work was done and they were sitting in front of the Relay, then it would be up to the force.

Satisfied that her crew had the situation well in hand, Tanda stood down the watch, and headed to her office. She worked on reports and filings of regulations for her pocket Empire for around an hour or so, and then sighing at the time and finishing off the last of her tea, sent a message to Tali asking for her presence in Tanda's full-sized port cabin. Then, Tanda went below to meet her.

"Come inside, Tali. I programmed up the food synth to have a smoothie waiting," she offered, tired and informal, and breezing through the doors into her own cabin. "I confess, this is like a kind of strange vacation with a charming bit of tension overlaid into it. Probably a month, but who knows..."

"...I wouldn't call that a vacation," Tali mumbled. "More like the most stressful thing imaginable! ...There won't even be any extranet access!"

Tanda laughed softly. "I admit the point." Settling at her table, she gestured to the couch in front of her. "Settle down, Tali. We should talk."

"We _should_."

"I'm glad we agree." She handed the smoothie over, and made herself another cup of tea. "So, Tali, you said something to me during the Autocoup, and I was thinking about it ever since. I cannot put it out of my mind, in fact." She thought about it a moment, and then dumped some brandy in the tea.

"...Why are _you_ the only one getting alcohol?"

"Oh, so that's it." Tanda smiled, and called the synthesizer into action. "Hopefully tolerable imitation of what the Turians make... Tali."

"...Thank you." She finished the tea, and then went to straight brandy. "So, Tali. What you said to me... What did you mean by it?"

Tali looked down, and came off as very nervous. "I can't take my suit off, I can only put on my sexiest belts. I'm wearing my sexiest belts."

Tanda collapsed into relieved giggles. The alcohol helped. "I'm surprised all Quarian women aren't lesbians, then."

"... What?" She sounded so baffled at Tanda's reply, too, not even having completely negotiated what was going on, internally. "Look, I'm not sure what you're saying, and Nerve-Stim Pro doesn't work like that, I think... keelah, you're making me want to download Understanding Body Language: Human Edition. ...If only I was connected to the extranet!" She finished that sounding so aggrieved, too. It didn't help.

"That exists?" Tanda giggled again, her cheeks flushed red from the liquor, and then rubbed her fingers together. "We're anatomically similar enough that the position in which my fingers presently are legs for two women should achieve orgasm without removing suits, you see."

"Ooooh. That. ...but... that's... what Nerve Stim Pro is for. Mostly. I think. I am so not sure where this conversation went... is going?"

"Sometimes love can be meaningful even without children... Or so I'd like to hope, anyway."

"Well, of course! Look at Fleet and Flotilla! Shalei and Bellicus on that balcony... soo much dedication, the actress had an infection for three weeks after filming that scene!"

Tanda smiled wryly. "But it's still the problem. I doubt hybrid Turian-Quarian children are possible..."

"No, only asari manage that feat..." She sighed. "Doesn't happen like that in real life, though I'd like to dream. The first turian I met, on the Citadel, called me a suit-rat while I was bleeding from being shot. Polonium rounds, I had a fever in minutes."

"Well you're not a suit rat. You're a crack engineer and a fine fighting woman, and you're part of the Imperial Starfleet—and surely you could go the artificial insemination route if you married someone you couldn't reproduce normally with." Tanda met her look levelly, faceplate to eyes. She was beating around the bush, and it was clear to both of them.

"Probably... it would be weird, though. I mean, Quarians have always been an emotional people, that seems so... distant. And clinical. Ugh, and all the clean room time involved!"

"It is rather clinical. As I've said before, it's a trait of the Imperial upper classes."

"I think I'd prefer to avoid that... I mean, I don't want to be that way. Life inside the suits is clinical enough."

Tanda looked down. "I wouldn't want you to be that way. It's not a precondition for success here, or at least, I won't allow it to be one. I like you just the way you are."

She _hic_ -ed again. "... Awh, flatterer, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were making a firing... no, pass, humans say pass... you say pass, right? _Hic._ Would you prefer I say... what was... Keelah, you blushed more than Shepard did when Liara tried to comment on her dancing."

Tanda responded... by blushing hotly and then bit her lip in embarrassed recognition of the fact. "Tali'Zorah, you came here wearing your sexiest belts—and I haven't had a girlfriend in a long time. You don't do that sort of thing, in the Empire."

"Oooooh... my father would be furious if I ever brought someone like... well, not-quarian." She laughed, and swayed more than a bit where she was sitting.

Tanda blushed again. "I..." _Kriff, this has gotten out of hand_. "So it would be that serious?"

Tali was giggling. "Oh the look on your face... waaaaiiiit... you don't get to have a one night stand with a Quarian. Too much effort." That last had a teasing tone to it. "Yes, Tanda, seeerrious."

The Moff of Sigurd looked down at her ship's deckplates. "I see. You know, it's very easy to repress that part of yourself when you're in the Imperial service and fighting for recognition... Relationships between two women fall very much on the list of not forbidden but not apt to prosper an Imperial career. I feel somewhat-Like I would be smothered by an Asari because of it, so I didn't try to date any. Imperial men fit well with them but I'm too repressed for their tastes, no relationship would work out well. And I'm the commander, and should set a good example. You, though, blow that straight out of the stars. I have to rely completely on your personality, and that's like a burning sun to me."

"... I'm not sure going after a Quarian is setting a good example..."

"I, ah." Most powerful woman in the galaxy most likely, but Tali had shut her down pretty effectively, as she folded her legs up on her couch in the quaint little forechamber of her quarters and seemed abruptly acutely aware of how close to Tali's suit she was. Tanda wondering now if she'd made too much of the sexiest belt comment.

"... Ooooh, I touched a nerve, didn't I..." She looked across, glowing eyes dim through the faceplate. "Don't worry I... "don't bite", is that the human phrase? Not that I could through the helmet or anything."

"Tali, like I said, I've been very lonely. Until today I wasn't sure you were attracted to other women, let alone blonde aliens."

"Awh, come on, I told you I sorta had a _thing_ for Shepard... at first... now, granted, she didn't look a lot like you, but..." The glowing eyes narrowed. "You have the same sort of... I don't know. I didn't think I was... _Hic._ ... 's mostly that it'd be taking from the Fleet, from my people, but if that's... avoidable... then..."

Tanda opened and closed her mouth. "I'm not actually adverse to children. It's just... The culture of my home galaxy is very anti-technologist, in certain respects."

"Soooo... you made a pass at the Quarian." She just summed up how silly that sounded in the tone of her voice.

"I made a pass at the girl in the suit. And only because she fell in love with me first."

"...Yes, I kind of did. You do know how silly that sounds, right?"

"Well that means you're not the only one of us who's silly sometimes."

"... Who are you accusing of silliness...?" She sounded so wary... but the effect was somewhat lost by the fact that... Tali'Zorah was far too cute when drunk.

"An utterly wonderful Quarian lady."

"Flatterer. _Hic._ I am not a lady. I am a... machinist!"

"One can and ought be both. Certainly you have the correct bits for it... You know, just a small, trivial little thing, that."

"... Are you making fun of me? It's... keelah, it would take weeks, all sorts of programs, herbal supplements, antibiotics to... why am I even talking about this?"

Another sigh. Tanda looked like she was going to fall out of her chair. She reached for more brandy. "I suppose it is silly. Still, I enjoy your company a great deal. That freighter journey would have been miserable without it, with Kesea damn near summoning demons for having been made sterile."

"Well, it isn't silly... it's just... complicated. Those bosh'tets in Cerberus, you should see what they did to humans."

"Another abject not-fan of Cerberus. Well, join the club, my dear."

Tali shot Tanda a look, and muttered something under her breath afterwards. "It doesn't even seem like it'd be comfortable..."

"...Forgive me, what're you referring to?" She unsteadily reached for the bottle yet again... _How did I get into this?_

... She mimicked Tanda's earlier gesture, though only having two fingers somehow made it worse. ... while mirroring Tanda's thoughts herself.

"Oh." A hopeful look spread across Tanda's face. "It's awkward and requires you to be willing to laugh at your endless inept failing attempts at sex before it has a chance of working." A heartbeat's pause. "But it can be very pleasurable."

... She got a skeptical look, as much as one could figure it through the helmet. "... I have no idea why anyone would want to laugh at... I mean, it doesn't even... I'm squeezed into this thing tightly enough to survive hull breaches."

Tanda rapidly tried to do damage control. _You dolt, she wasn't criticising the position, but the suit!_ "Exactly, so if we push a bit in the right place..."

"... This seems like it would be easier to just rig something up inside the suit... humans are straaaaange."

"The point is so that you can do it with someone you love—but without compromising suit integrity."

"... Huh. I always just assumed I'd get sick for a month... mmm, but wouldn't the other person have to be in a suit too?"

"...No. I don't think so. You certainly don't have to be in suits for two human women, eh, doing it. I was just thinking of an option."

"Well, yeah, but... you know, the belts and fabric and all... that would hurt." ...The Quarian girl was starting to think of this in engineering terms, and as to whether that was good or bad was an open question.

"Not necessarily the fabric. Belts, you might want to take off first, even if they're sexy."

Tali was getting caught up in it. "Hmmm... I still think that skin and the suit isn't a very good option. Chafing is bad."

"Pfft, well then!" _Now or never, Tanda_. "You're just saying your partner would have to wear clothes."

"Well excuse me, I happen to be drunk." She prodded Tanda's chest with a finger for emphasis.

Tanda blushed a bit more. "Yes, you are, that's so. And an incredibly cute drunk, complete with your straw."

"Emergency induction straw. Port."

Tanda pushed out of her chair and sort of fell into the couch, and leaned a bit into Tali. "Regardless." Breathing in, Tanda smelled hints of industrial lubricant, metal, plastics, synthetic fabric... her eyes floated along the richly embroidered cloth overlying the environmental suit, the variety of belts, some even of natural fibers and... even through the suit Tali felt warm.

"Not regardless! Need to... keep the terms straight."

"Is it that important?" Tanda could deal with it...

"Well, no, but..." She sighed. "I could get used to this... too much bare metal for a proper cabin, though. ... You know how to tempt a girl, don't you? I said I loved you because I just couldn't stand the thought of you dying. But now... Alien, _and_ female? Wooow."

"I apparently do know how to tempt another woman... Apparently. ...Is spending more time with me tempting, Tali...?" She looked quite seriously to the other woman, forcing the look through her drunkenness.

"... I... well, you see... what if I said yes?"

"I might kiss your faceplate and curl up with a blanket over the both of us for the rest of the night."

"... Stop it. _Hic._ You're tempting me to... I don't know what... well, sort of is."

Tanda possessively pulled her into a hug, at least, and settled a blanket over them very comfortably, too.

"My father is going to be so upset..."

...Tanda pulled back with a sigh. "Well, I shant make assumptions about the future. But I prefer you to all the Asari girlfriends my entire lower deck has."

... She tugged Tanda back where she'd been. "I said he'd be upset. Not that I was going to give him a veto."

"I... Thank you, Tali." She trembled a bit. "There was nothing quite so terrifying, I'll confess, as watching the Empire fall to pieces at Endor. All the grown men, acting like confused cadets, when the Emperor died... Compared to that, I saw this exile as an opportunity. I didn't expect an opportunity for love, though."

"You picked an odd choice for that. Just saying."

"Why do you call yourself an odd choice, Tali'Zorah ?"

"... You know, the Quarian woman, lives in an enviro-suit, can't touch your skin directly without getting sick? Still getting used to the idea this is actually happening with my Captain!"

"I don't necessarily see that as an impediment toward the emotional attachment to you I am developing," Tanda coughed.

"I've noticed. This is still a lot closer to Fleet and Flotilla than I thought." She sounded bemused, squeezing Tanda a bit. "Just saying."

"Is that a bad thing? It's your favourite movie and you've mentioned it three times tonight." She leaned into the squeeze, not minding that it came from Tali's suit.. The woman was quite alive under it.

"... I have the soundtrack. And the relationship simulator."

"...Relationship simulator!?"

"And the musical... yes, it's... ... Fleet and Flotilla: Interactive Cross-Species Relationship Simulator..."

..Tanda reached over and looped her arms around Tali. "Hnnh. Well, I'm softer than a Turian."

"You are... I mean, you're full of germs, but all humans are, and... oh that wasn't helpful, uhm... softer, yes!"

"I'm a germbag, but apparently a cute one." She pushed her forehead to Tali's, and as promised, kissed her faceplate.

"Ack, ack, smudging!" ... It was cute, as she could see a holo-HUD spring to life to counter-act the mussed visuals.

"My apologies." Tanda blushed hotly, or maybe it was better to say another interlude in her blushing ended. She was... Still very much a humanocentric Imperial officer, not really thinking through Tali'Zorah's perpetual confinement to the suit.

Tali pulled a cloth out of somewhere to rub at it - oleophobic glass, of course, but... "Don't, it was romantic, I just wasn't expecting it..." She giggled. "... Look at me. I have, I think, a human girlfriend."

"Well. ...I would say you do."

"Here's to falling in love with your ship's captain!" Tali laughed and shouted.

"Had some kind of fantasy about this in the past...?"

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know..."

"I'm quite glad that you're still trying to keep secrets from me. It makes you even cuter, and that requires some effort..."

Tali's thoughts had moved on to more prosaic matters. "...Oh Ancestors, but I'm going to have to teach you how to dance properly..."


	22. Chapter 22

Tanda was quite sure nobody was suspecting her of romancing a Suitie, as the slang was for Quarians in the lower deck—though Tanda thought that was much less insulting that the Turian 'suit rat'. Sitting around in the communications blackout of a cloaking device, though, there was the temptation to do nothing but spend time with Tali'Zorah.

Fortunately there was the paperwork backlog to catch up on that provided a perfect excuse to burying herself into her cabin, though it would promptly exist again the moment communication with her local command holonet resumed.

Despite that, there was still Tali, and Tali meant everything. The Quarian joined her for their private morning briefing at breakfast. Here, now, with the paperwork finished and the ship her own little universe, they had mostly run out of things to say. Instead, Tali'Zorah would just summarise the current ship's status, which was as ready for battle as Tanda could expect.

" _Thunderflare_ will do her duty, and we are of _Thunderflare_." Tanda smiled to her suited lover... Who took that quite a bit differently than she had expected.

"What... is your homeworld, Tanda?"

Tanda frowned for a moment and then smiled. "A planet called Commenor-in the Colonies region, with a population of around a hundred billion. The first daughter colony of poor ruined Humbarine, first settled about twenty-five thousand years ago around the founding of the Republic."

"Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare nar Commenor..." Tali nodded, seemingly satisfied. "That... will do. I... hope, maybe, I'll get to see your home someday." She laughed, a hair bitterly. "I'm not sure which is less likely, Commenor or Rannoch at this point."

The comments, though, had prompted Tanda's own thoughts, and she rambled a bit. "...We stayed loyal during the Clone Wars and before that had sent troops under old General Ranulph to fight in the Stark Hyperspace War. Most of them died in that mess, unsupported by the central government, but we fought! I grew up hating all those cowards on the other worlds who wouldn't fight. The Emperor had to rely upon clones instead of soldiers, because so few in the Core were willing to fight. It was revolting. If everyone else had volunteered against the Separatists in the numbers we had against Iaco Stark, we wouldn't have needed clones to put them down."

Tanda stretched her hands, pushing aside her breakfast dishes and calling for coffee from her droid. "My father's older brother died before I was born fighting Stark under General Tarkin. My Father did anything he could to keep me out of the Imperial Navy because of that loss, but in the end he relented and helped me fight over my original academy ranking so that I could get the posting I deserved. They've always contrived to underrate women in the formal classification or something." She snorted. "But with dad's help, I beat it. And that's the way it was ever since. Sixteen years to get _Thunderflare_ , playing my family against the sexism that's crept into the service thanks to all those lickspittles the Emperor tolerated for reasons I'll never understand."

"Sometimes..." Tali seemed like she wanted to say something before trailing off. "Well, you've seen the Admiralty Board. That's... not a problem for us. Despite everything else that is. We... are united. Shepard would complain about that, sometimes, perhaps it's part of being human."

"Perhaps it is. We do manage to drag ourselves back quite a lot. Well, thank you for the report."

"It's my job, Tanda. Uh... what do you want me to do, aside from curl up on your couch and look attractive, apparently?"

"...That is not how I regard you..." She blushed. "I mean you are attractive, but you are also more than that. The difficult thing with this, of course, is figuring out when to deactivate the cloaking device..."

"...Well, I had an idea about that. Use a cold-floating passive sensor attached to a cable just outside it, disguised as a bit of space junk or one of the warning beacons. Assuming you don't want to just trust the Force for sensing extreme malice."

"...You seem uniquely suited to implement your own proposal, Tali. Go ahead and get started on it. We'll worry about your force lessons later."

"...Good... I'm not really sure I want to be a Sith Lady, Tanda, sterilizing the cape would be hard."

Tanda couldn't stop laughing until several minutes after Tali had gone to start working on her device.

-

There was something... odd feeling in her mind. Her comm chirped-Tali... just as she was feeling something strange in the air. It was all Tanda needed. She rolled painfully over in bed and slapped the emergency button on the intercom panel.

"All hands to action stations, all hands to action stations. Assume damage control state one, control Zulu. Enemy presence is expected."

Tanda was still pulling her uniform jacket when the _Thunderflare_ violently rocked under her bed. Alarms began to scream as the ship was hammered again and again. _Still kriffing in bed!_ she tapped the full ship override and sent a general message to every comm in the ship: "Resist and bite back! All hands, to your duty stations or fall in where you are! You're all that stands between these monsters and humanity!"

Then she ran, pounding through the doors as the ship shuddered under her. But sleeping in her sea cabin, she had very little distance to cover. There was Lieutenant Scolus on the bridge, standing with his feet firm-set as she shook around them, there was Tali'Zorah come charging.  
Tali stopped at the holoplot and began urgently bringing out damage schematics. "Moff, they knew just where to hit us. A series of precision strikes with a single extremely powerful beam weapon," she marked them off, "around the main reactor core here, here, here."

"The main SCRAM plasma dumps."

"Yes, with our shields down in cloak... They were able to compromise main reactor cooling."

"Kriff." She looked to Scolus. "Report."

"Moff Pryl," he turned back. "The gunners commenced a spirited barrage on local control as the first shots came in and I gave the order to de-cloak in reply. The enemy cruiser immediately veered away. We are on full secondary power and remain interposed between them and the Omega-4 Relay. They're not getting through it without attacking us."

"Shields?"

"Fifty percent, M'lady."

"Vector to the enemy ship?"

Tali was interfacing with the computers, trying to optimize power routing.

The sensor plotting pit crew was working just as furiously. "Working on it... Contact, fifteen thousand, closing fast! Where did they com... everything's jammed but hyperwave, Sir!"

Tanda looked to Tali. Smiled tightly. "Battle is joined, Commander. Hang on." Back to the pit: "Full power to the hyperwave sensors. Feed them into the tactical holoplot."

"Target is firing!" A red beam lanced out, molten metal at a significant fraction of c smashing into _Thunderflare_ 's now-raised shields, the strange rocky thing of a ship streaking in... as a smaller cloud of red dots began to separate from the larger target, which was firing repeatedly at them, making up for the lack of weapons power with incredible rapidity of firing and extreme precision of targeting. They didn't miss. The remote sensor pod was blasted by the second volley.

But the shields held. Even at fifty percent they reflected the energy ray component of the beam that contained the molten metal, sending the energy refracting first, and leading to the internal component of the beam to start spreading across the particle shields like the sickening glow of a superlaser for a moment... But just a moment, and so much more weak, so impossibly weak by comparison, the effect coming from its weakness rather than its strength. Tanda was more than a little concerned by how _Thunderflare_ still rocked under the power of the fire even as the shields held. This ship was nothing like any ship in Council Space—it had real fighting potential against a Star Destroyer.

She activated her comms. "Fire control, this is the bridge. Snubfighter assault warning! All point-defence batteries are fire free."

"Commence fire with all ion cannon batteries at maximum power. Save the turbolasers for when we've re-established main power." Tanda was gambling that ion cannon would be more effective, if the Collectors and the Reapers were indeed somehow linked. And if not, well... They'd certainly proved ion cannon were effective against the locals.

This time, the fire from the _Thunderflare_ was **coordinated** , and fat orange bolts from the main ion cannon flickered back through space toward the enemy, already in so close. The waves of light multirole turbolaser and anti-starfighter ion cannon joined in against the abruptly swarming fighters. They were tiny—and they were firing their own version of the molten metal beam, swarming about in a loose cloud, pulling accelerations that would tear any normal ship of this galaxy in half.

Meanwhile, engineering crews struggled frantically belowdecks, deep around the ship's reactor spaces. They were having to cross-over coolant lines and recharge reservoirs of organic supercoolants to bring the main reactor back up, simultaneously to other teams going into the vent lines to make sure they were sufficiently clear that the reactor could still SCRAM if it was damaged in battle. And of course all of this had to be done in minutes, partially in a vacuum.

That was just part of the spirit of the Imperial Navy. Their gunners tried to equal it, driving home targeted fire against the cruiser with much greater success than the multirole cannon were having against the fighters, which seemed to evade them with the nimblest of ease.

Their heavy ion cannon were scoring hits, but they weren't doing anything. The cruiser kept coming in, firing hard against them, and then drawing away... f/c was growing concerned over the comms, Tanda could tell that much. "M'lady, much of the ship appears armoured in dense... rock, our ion cannons aren't doing much, attempting to engage in precision aiming, but with our arcs limited..."

Tanda snarled "We don't have time, they may be able to maneouvre past us if we have to wait forever to knock them out, Commander. Still, do your best. I will try to get turbolaser power."

"Aye, M'lady!"

She stepped back to Tali. "What's the progress in engineering?"

"...I wish I was down there myself..." Tali mumbled. "Three more minutes, Moff Pryl."

Tanda folded her hands behind her back. "Fall back on the gate, thrusters only. Keep the main engines powered down. Shields?"

"Charge has kept pace with the rate of enemy fire. We've got burn-through when generators reposition as those fighters exploit, but their weapons aren't powerful enough..."

Tanda gripped her fingers together. That was always the danger. Shield generators were flexible but directional mountings, the computers had to constantly adjust where they were. Lower power levels meant that they not only reflected less power and saw more energy burn through or directed into the generator mountings, but also that glancing hits more easily penetrated the overlap between two generators, as the weaker setting was not able to completely cover the inscribed generator arc. The computers tried to compensate for this, but one cannot make up more power out of thin air. The rebels over years of trying had gotten very adept at getting entire torpedo salvoes through those chinks in the armour... And the Collectors, well, they had apparently gotten very adept at it in the space of _minutes_.

But they didn't have torpedoes. Tanda watched the flailing of her light batteries filling space, feeling like their targets were a particularly good squadron of Rebel A-Wings, for how small they were and how well they manoeuvred. Yet the _Thunderflare_ was simply able to shrug off their very best. And then, again, the Collector Cruiser's main beam tore through space, hot and fast enough that she blinked hard as it slammed into the shields and spread across the particle screens again and again. Ion cannon rumbled back to life, the recoil felt through the hull, repaying the favour for all it would do against their strange rock armour.

"Main reactor back on-line!" Tali shouted.

"Turbolasers, engage!" A thin smile now, and she was feeling more confident. "If we blast enough off we can check fire again. If we don't, well, I want a kill."

"Hits, multiple hits... Good secondaries, hull material separation, M'lady."

Tanda watched on the holoplot, and shrugged. "It is good shooting, but that's just rock. We've plenty to blast and frag off them before we can open paths to their vitals for the ion cannon. And most of our ships go wide with how faster they manoeuvre. Remember that the main objective is not to let them past us!"

The red flares of beams from the swarms of drones were hammering into the shields, making them flare, though they were still doing little more, Tanda and her officers were gradually becoming aware that if this battle went on for hours like it was seeming that it might, the cumulative effect could prove dangerous.

But at the same time, now that the ship's main power was restored, the shields were being ramped up as systems were able to meet all power demands and the damage control officers steadily ramped the shields, careful to avoid harmonics from bringing power up while already under continuous fire. Slowly, the danger was receding, not increasing.

And Tali was now free to work on other efforts. She was frowning as she checked... And double-checked. "Their main weapon appears spinal, a full ion salvo when they turn towards us to fire should have a strong effect! The ionization charge will carry back through their entire power grid with linear distribution, Moff Pryl."

"Primary ion turrets to track with their movement per Commander Zorah's directive," Tanda snapped.

It did come back around, and started to fire, this time sustaining a continuous beam and aiming at where the hyperwave transmissions were coming from... ...i.e., at the bridge. Tali made something of a yelp behind her as Tanda impassively hung on, watching massive chunks of dense metal and rock be vapourized by the turbolaser hits across the cruiser... And the ion cannon bore in...

...Even as the bridge shields were compromised and the Collectors, who had somehow figured out how the _Thunderflare_ was still seeing to fight them, now determinedly concentrated both their main gun and their fighters into the bridge.

Then suddenly the beam started to flicker, and with it the lights and engines of the Collector Cruiser. The shots down her throat were doing their work. "All available power to the ion batteries! Tractor beams, lock and hold that cruiser into place! We have them now."

Then a hammering sound worthy of a gong striking a bell rang through the hull. "The starfighters are making suicide rams!" The Collector drones were starting to attempt to ram and break through, or cause localized failures. Many targeting the bridge, more going for the bays, they started to hit the particle shields square on with danger of localized failure flaring up again despite the full power.

"Captain, should we launch our starfighters to deal with the enemy's? We'll need to eliminate them to board the enemy cruiser." The officers, satisfied in their victory over the cruiser, wanted the gnats gone. They uncomfortably remembered _Executor_ at Endor.

"Very well, launch the special fighter force." Tanda bit her lip. These were her best fighters-consciously, she recognized that they needed to be shielded to fight those hideous beams. Fortunately, if the drones were incredibly fast and agile... So was the TIE Advanced.

The drones didn't have pilots, but were almost alive; their beams... could carve through frigate hulls, and they engaged her fighters with a vengeance, swarming a few of them to attempt to guarantee kills.

"Use our warhead launchers to support the fighters and commit all batteries to engage them. That cruiser should be crippled for a while. Have the fighters try to lure them into the engine exhaust and then we'll light the main engines to full power for a few seconds..." Tanda would keep trying every trick in the book to let an ISD-I ineptly aid its starfighter complement in despatching the drones as they swirled around her ship.

"We should have brought some Quarian fighters..." Tali half-mumbled... working frantically at something. She let out a keening sound of triumph when she managed to get the drones to stop manouvering and coast for about... ten seconds. Tanda flicked back to look at her in utter surprise and renewed admiration.

The gunners didn't know why it had happened, but they didn't let the opportunity go to waste, either. The main batteries and everything on down was frantically hammering at them at maximum output for as long as they were stationary like that. Hopefully it was enough. A few of the Imperial officers looked surprised that they were 'droid fighters', considering the performance, but having put the two together with the abrupt shut-down... Though to Tanda, aware of the tiny little droid fighters of the Confederacy during the Clone Wars, it made perfect sense that their performance had been so blazingly extreme.

She turned back as the battle faded away, to face the girl in her envirosuit slumping down onto the console. Combat hacking was... ... stressful. At best.  
Tanda smiled to her, and then turned away. "Stand by spacetroopers to secure boarding positions on the cruiser followed by the main contingent of boarding stormtroopers! Maneouvre to hit the cruiser with ion fire again to keep her systems knocked down for the boarding operation."

Clumsily, they would come about at low speed, pivoting to bear all four main ion cannon and start regularly hitting her.

The Stormtrooper Legion commander came up on comms next. "Moff Pryl, preparations for launch are almost complete. However, can we hit the ship with a hard rad pulse before we send anyone aboard? I would prefer they not blow the ship with us on it."

Tanda's lips pursed. If there were a bunch of captive humans onboard... _...Then they were already dead anyway._ "General, I will be accompanying you personally. We will take care of the pulse."

Tali would be the one to speak up, of course. "Moff, if they're inbound to their base... what if they have prisoners aboard?" ...She was sometimes far too... noticing of these things.

"Can we expect to save them if they just blow the ship, Commander?"

"... No, but... I volunteer to lead a team into their engineering area. If we can get control of their power generators, they won't be able to do much of anything."

Tanda stared at her. She had suddenly been put on the spot, and couldn't let Tali risk her life alone. "They're surely already dead, Tali."

"They might not be. Remember Fehl Prime, remember that the colonists were in stasis when they were being taken away."

Tanda clenched her teeth. _That was that, then._ "We go now. Come on." She gestured to Kesea, standing by at the back of the bridge, and promptly dragging them all into the turbolift at once to meet the shuttles and leaving the bridge to Lieutenant Scolus without even a formal announcement.

As the turbolift descended, she felt a kind of grim certainty come over herself. "There's only one way that works. The Jedi used to do this during the Clone Wars. I watched the holovids from before they were banned, when I was a little girl growing up."

"... We'll get our weapons on the way?" Kesea looked like this had gone nuts... "Somehow, I am thankful I paid attention during Commando training right now... are we seriously about to do this?"

"Yes." She stopped the lift by the training gym to get guns and arms, and for herself, the one weapon that really mattered. "I-look, I've been training a great deal for this, and you've seen me fight biotic assassins to a standstill before this. Come on. It can be done."

Tali strapped her weapons on... thankfully, the armour was modular enough as she strapped the hardsuit plates on, adjusting her knife, flexing fingers in her gloves, as the asari woman got on her own, lighter hardsuit. "I have. Just... well. Are we bringing anyone else?"

"There are Asari embedded in the groups. That's all been planned for in advance. We have to move very fast and quickly, and use Commander Zorah's intel on the position of the generator."

"All right." Kesea checked her rifle, slipping it onto her back. "I've got the biotics, Commander Zorah has the hacking, and you've got command. Understood."

Tanda laughed. "Among other things..." She'd swapped from her uniform at the gym into the same black bodysuit she'd worn for meeting the Illusive Man, a dress choice which in light of late rumours was getting looks from some of the Imperials as they went down to the bay and formed up with the first contingent of stormtroopers, the spacetroopers heading over already. Once aboard the Assault Transport, the landing Colonel frowned.

"Your Ladyship, they haven't sent the rad pulse..."

"I will deal with the self destruct mechanism." She reached down. "Personally." _snap-hiss._

The sitting stormtroopers—the silence from them was something absolutely unique—after service in Death Squadron it was the terror like Tanda had described, and it spread through the inside of the transport... The Colonel's face went blank with shock and more than a little fear. He'd heard, they'd all heard, but he had not seen. Not until now.

Then a cheer broke out. It only needed one man at first, and it spread from there. " _For the Empire!_ "

Tali was fingering her own lightsabre nervously at her belt, feeling the emotions swirling around her were none too healthy and deciding she'd let Tanda have her moment, as Kesea checked all her equipment one last time.

"Ready, Your Ladyship." She reported, perfectly poised in public, carrying gear, thermal clips, grenades, hacking equipment... And she was as ready as any Quarian could be.

...And then they'd slam home into the cruiser bay that had been assaulted by spacetroopers minutes before to secure the path for those of them in regular Stormtrooper armour. Ahead of them the Spacetroopers were firing mini-proton rockets and grenades and sweeping through the enemy with heavy blaster fire.

And what an enemy they were! ... Collectors. A whole host of them were waiting for the arriving Legionairy troops, with kinetic barriers, particle beams, heavier weapons, and swarms of small drones supporting them. It was a nightmare from the get-go. The Seeker Swarms would go after anything that was remotely soft. The Collectors had discovered already that Spacetroopers weren't vulnerable to them. But Stormtroopers were, and they attacked at once. The partially armoured human at the front looked particularly tempting.

In a brief instant, Tanda's lightsabre was up and she was drawing on the dark side like she never had before, channeling her lust and her desire for Tali and refusal to let her get hurt with her insane demand to save the lives of anyone aboard. The whirling red blade simply bisected a half a dozen Seekers in the first two strokes. Then another half a dozen were down, and Tanda reached out with her left hand and swatted more without touching them. The swarm continued to converge, and Tanda continued to destroy them. Behind her, the one-woman battlefront gave time for the Stormtroopers to deploy and start blasting the swarm out of the bay.

Tanda turned her attention to the Collectors themselves. She charged, leaving Kesea and Tali to frantically purse her as she raced up toward her enemies to support the badly pressed Spacetroopers. She raced into their midst, her blade batting aside fire directed toward her in an almost desultory fashion, and at once swinging the lightsabre through Collector kinetic barriers like they didn't exist to it, because they didn't to the power of a lightsabre. And then the blade carried through naturally, hacking Collectors in half with a terrible crackling hiss of the blade as it cauterized them into segments. Limbs, heads, halves of torsos scattered to the deck, and she disappeared into the corridors of the ship leaving a trail of bodies in her wake. Her enemies seemed, for the moment, stunned and totally unable to cope with the strange blade that ignored tens of thousands of years of finely honed defences, and a mind connected to it in such a way that the blade was always in place to meet attacks even at the same moment they had been _conceived_ of.

More Seeker Swarms came at her, and again she was knocking them out of the air, using a hand to bat them down with the force as they came on to the Stormtroopers trying to keep up with her. Tanda felt energy and power at revealing herself to her men and reaching out now to something flowing readily into her.

 _Draw on all the hatred! They have attacked and assimilated your race! We will show you true power, Tanda Pryl..._

The voice seemed as alien as her enemies, but it provided with her with an incredible reserve of power. She was doing things she hadn't dreamed of, doing things that she hadn't trained for, and they were all working perfectly. The Stormtroopers were so enthused discipline barely held against cheers as they stamped in her wake, vigorously assaulting their enemies with as much force of will as military capability.

Tali had caught up to her and stood at her side. She was using her shotgun to cover Tanda, Kesea darting up behind, firing off short biotic and rifle bursts to assist. The engineer's omnitool was out, rather than her lightsabre, for she was trying to guide them forward... All of that beautiful swordplay would be nothing if they didn't get to the reactor quickly.

And then there was an ominous noise, one that made Tali squeak;

"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL."

It hurt to hear, and one of the Collectors somewhat levitated, glowing green with energy, evil, hungry, stronger, faster... possessed. Her girlfriend would remark sharply to Tanda; "That sounds like a Reaper!"

And Tanda stepped forward to face it with the glowing hum of her lightsabre, casually decapitating another one of the Collectors nearby between her and it.

It responded by firing a particle beam at her, a steady stream from its rifle that wouldn't stop for anything, moving closer as it did. "I WILL TEAR YOU APART." It had a tinge under it, one that could unsettle... most people.

"Your direct control is no match for the power of the dark side." Her lightsabre hummed and glowed under the strain, directing the beam... Tanda at first tensed when the beam didn't cease, but then her eyes seemed to flicker with a malevolent thought and she started to _use_ it, sneering in a flare of contempt... Directing the particle beam with her lightsabre to sweep through other Collectors, altering the angle to refract it in the desired direction that was needed to kill them with the weapons fire of their own director.

It kept closing, uncaring, switching to a looser focus to attempt to overwhelm her, and making notes about her companions with a strange sort of mechanistic detachment. "Quarian; considered due to cybernetic augmentation, weakened immune system too debilitating. Humans will be integrated; it cannot be stopped."

...The looser focus threatened to swash heated particles back across her body. Tanda reacted instinctively and listened to that voice offering her unlimited power. She reached out for it, she lusted after it as greedily as she could... And force lightning tore out across the gap and engulfed the direct-controlled Collector with an energy it had no capability to compensate for, no way in existence, for it was an energy beyond the power of machines to understand.

Tanda herself was so surprised that she'd done it again that that she stopped after a moment, her eyes flickering with rage. But there was no turning back now. She lunged with the lightsabre blade in against the Collector and slashed in a flurry of blows.

"You only damage the vessel, you cannot hurt me." It dropped the rifle, and moved in bare handed, fast, faster than anything had any real right to, seemingly... ignoring the force lightning. But the lightsabre did its work. Tanda took care of it smartly enough with the lightsabre, hacking away limbs and sending it to the ground, reversing her grip on the hilt and thrusting down.

"Destroying this body gains you nothing!" But the blade went through the drone's head, and it was silenced, letting them race on for the Reactor...

And get a few dozen meters before encountering another of them which was possessed. "Keelah, this is a nightmare, Tanda!" Tali shouted, the air around her crackling with malevolence and she could not tell from whence. But she had her lightsabre out now, having blown through most of her thermal clips, as Kesea was trying to keep a biotic bubble up to force the Seeker Swarms away from them.

Tanda pressed the attack again. Once again the raw physical power of the Collector was nothing. Its beam was turned aside and she raced in, going for the limbs immediately, a whirl of human and energy blade moving in perfect, unnatural synchronization.

Behind them, reinforcements flowed into the ship, positioning themselves to support positions where the Spacetroopers were fighting, taking on large masses of the ship's unnatural crew and leaving only small groups to face them. After an exhausting few more minutes, the attacks by those groups slacked off as well, leaving Kesea panting and exhausted, and Tali a bit hyper on the equivalent of adrenaline that she had, resting shoulder to shoulder with Tanda and both their lightsabres out.

"So, the evil possessing thing thinks that it wants humans for something! This isn't a good th-oh Ancestors." Tali stopped, as... the central open part of the ship came into view.

Tens of thousands of stasis pods, with humans in them.

Tanda pursed her lips. "Right, we need to secure the reactor as rapidly as possible, Tali. We can't spare time for anything else or all these people are dead."

"Got it. How are you holding up? Kesea is down to her last glucose drink. I ran out of thermal clips a while ago."

"I haven't even broken a sweat."...She felt off, though. Oh Dea did she. And she radiated it through the force.

Tali shot her a strange look. "Well, let's get going. Two women with lightsabres, and an Asari who needs chocolate. We can do this, right?"

"We have to, so let's go." She started off at a trot... But not before shoving her chocolate-ish all purpose emergency ration bar over to Kesea with a faint smile.

The Asari started gulping the thing with a grateful look, as they headed off into the incredibly quiet depths of the ship. Damned quiet. "I don't think I like this..." Came from Tali's speaker, as she gripped her lightsabre a bit tighter... they made it down to engineering, and she bent to hack the door open.

The door cycled, and that green glowing was wreathing the Collector on the other side, its' body looking like it was about to tear apart... "I WILL SHOW YOU TRUE POWER!"

It slammed the ground with something, a horrible force that hit Tanda, body and soul, like biotics, but also screeching down her nerves like fire... while a bunch of the rest of the damned things opened fire. The power seemed to overwhelm her, worming into her mind.

 _The Force is infinite..._ The voice floated through her consciousness again.

...And Tanda listened, and reached into that ready, easy source of power that seemed so far beyond all that she had learned, and grounded herself as her body glowed with the power coursing against her, and then she snapped forward through it, walking into the tide of energy being sent against her. Force lightning was swirling from one of her hands while her other wielded the blade as an extension of herself. With a nod of her head, a group of collectors were blown back like paper in the wind. Fighting furiously, she opened a wedge into their engineering room with her body for the others to follow.

And then the green-glowing Collector before her _screamed_. For a very long moment, it felt like her flesh was sloughing off, and her brain started misfiring. As she only dimly realised at the time, she had just annoyed a Reaper... quasi-directly, as it possessed another of the things and moved to attack again, with her team following her as quick as they could.

But the attack on her mind made her reach out stronger to that whispering voice. It seemed to open her to more pathways and potentials of this power, a seductive intensity that it was... so easy to magnify her potential with the force, and to direct against her enemies in such desperate straits. She used it hungrily, for she needed it so badly right now as she tore into them. And tear into them she did!

She was carving through them with inartful but furious strokes of her lightsabre, blasting with force lightning as required. Her blade battered and broke through control equipment and then she sent it flying into more enemies, unstoppable, untouchable, blocking fire with the backstroke. Despite all their efforts, the Collectors couldn't even _touch_ her.

Tali made it to the control console she'd identified, and brought her omnitool up... tapping, hammering, working as quick as she could as they pressed Tanda... Kesea's back to her back, covering her with her biotics from any who got through Tanda. "I got it! Shutting it down!" And with that... the lights died, dim emergency ones coming on, filling the place with shadows... and also giving them control over the cruiser.

Tanda planted herself in her place, aware of her certain victory now, and drew on this wondrous intensity of power. She felt like a Sith Lord now... _Ah, hah, you have no power against the rage of a lady of Sith!_ "No power against the rage of a lady of Sith!" She screamed the words out loud and flung herself again and again against the Collectors with her blade.

... That left Tali and Kesea trying to chase her, one with a lightsabre, and the other, biotics... well, what was left with her blood sugar crashing so hard her armor was giving up on it. They kept fighting her, the possessed creatures using something like biotics, trying to rend, tear, break, or just flat out kill her by short-circuiting her brain, with regular taunts. But she twisted, anticipated, and killed them before they could connect, a dervish of power flickering from both limbs, lightsabre and lightning, moving through her enemies and cutting them down, drawing on the Dark Side with such vigour, the link from that whispered voice inexhaustible, so that she cut a way straight back to her boarding parties.

Now irrevocably consumed with the intensity of the power that had been offered to her she used the blade with utter confidence, whipping that Reaper's possessed minions viciously, always turning aside the direct assaults on her mind as if they did nothing, and dealing with the rest of the attacks by adding to her lightsabre skills with superhuman speed and precognition of incoming attacks. It was always in the right place... More a work of art than a battle.

And then she was facing Stormtroopers instead of Collectors. Tanda deactivated the blade, purple lighting flickering around her in places—the power finally petering out as she looked at the ruins of the collectors. "Do we have the ship?"

"Y-Yes, Lady Pryl..." There were a lot of people staring at her, and Tali uncomfortably sensed from behind her how profoundly _off_ she had become.

"The Empire will now be restored throughout this galaxy as a base for us to return the New Order to our own. These Collectors will be annihilated as a machine thing, an unnatural threat that is completely alien to the life which sustains the living force."

The Stormtroopers knelt.

Behind her, Tali was blinking uncomfortably, but Tanda didn't seem to care. To Tali the Collectors certainly looked alive... and she stood there, very uncertain, and feeling worse when Kesea knelt right after the Stormtroopers.

Tanda clipped her lightsabre back to her belt. "Rise. Secure this ship. Wake the humans. There are dangerous powers in the technology of this enemy. I have felt it try to penetrate my mind. Exercise extreme caution with every artefact aboard this accursed vessel. Begin transporting people back to the _Thunderflare_ immediately. It is no threat to the Sith but will easily overcome minds without recourse to the force."

... They obeyed... with alacrity. Any lack of confidence in Tanda's ability to lead the Empire was gone.


	23. Chapter 23

Tanda returned in silence to _Thunderflare_ with Tali at her side, sitting in the shuttle and staring out into space. "The Imperial project now will proceed with Quarians and Humans side by side."

Tali was not made any less uneasy at hearing that, following along close behind what had happened on the Collector Cruiser. "What... happened back there?"

"I found the incredible reserve of power that gave the Emperor and Lord Vader the ability to defeat the Jedi. I have finally found it... I now know the true powers of the force." She trembled. "I had to, or else I would have perished... And when I needed it in my hour of peril, it came to me and filled with battle rage to crush these monstrosities."

"Oh... I... okay." _I didn't feel anything like that... what am I doing wrong...?_ Tali winced inside. _Maybe it's something only humans can do...?_

"You need to embrace the power of the dark side, Tali... You glow with delicate light, instead..."

"... What does that even mean...? I glow with delicate light?" She was still glued to Tanda's hip, but... "... Did I somehow make a mistake in what you were teaching me...?"

"You just don't embrace your emotions," Tanda sighed. "You'll learn in time. I have faith in you, and I love you." She was saying that in the open, but the shuttle crew didn't say a _damn_ thing about it now.

"I... what...?" _I am so confused..._ She sighed quietly, tapping her lightsaber at her side again. _So, this is all I have... and Tanda's doing things I can't understand._

"Concentrate on your own path for now, Tali. I love you so much. And I did this for you," Tanda said, and squeezed her hand.

Tali was starting to feel a little ill, even if the mask thankfully hid all of it... Something had gone very, very wrong today, spoiling their victory, and she couldn't fathom what it was.

"... Your crew, they... What are we to do now, Tanda...?" She whispered it, once they were out of earshot. "My people are with you, but..." _We are few. And cannot fight the rest of the galaxy._

"We are going to settle these humans. My squadron is immensely powerful. I will use it to bring order to more and more of space... We need not make Quarians suffer unduly, we will, in fact, take our time building up a power base. I did not promise them an easy conquest, just a conquest." They called her M'lady now, openly, as they walked past back on _Thunderflare_.

"What of the other worlds outside Citadel or Alliance control in the Terminus systems?" She was... asking, but... ...she'd... _oh this was not good. Tanda is acting... very strange. What happened there...? What does she mean, channel my emotions... I love her, what more does she want...?_

"We will bring them under authority and spread peace and order. With the Collectors defeated, people will flock to our banners..."

"... But have we defeated them, or just one probe...?"

Tanda sniffed. "We were barely tested by this battle." Then she frowned, and changed tack. "I don't trust that kriffing Cerberus... Do you?"

"... Of course not!"

"Well, we need to eliminate them, and that means building a real Empire."

"Well... yes, but... we don't know where their base is... ... I'd like to help the teams going over that cruiser, Tanda, see if we can extract anything of value. Aside from what seems to be a... lot of biotechnology."

"I do need you there, lest the Reapers prove... Corruptive. Very well. I will be patient. A Statement of Purpose is not a promise, and I will be obeyed now."

"... Of course, Tanda. I'll let you know as soon as we find anything -anything I clear, I'll send over to the research teams."

"Thank you. Of course, staying in the system this long presents a problem."

"Well... yes. What do you suggest? I don't think Omega is going to complain that much..."

"It's a unique opportunity to impose order on the galaxy's hive of scum and villainy now that their fleet was dispersed after the initial threat we posed evaporated." Tanda smiled nastily.

"...Well... I doubt Aria T'Loak will be very pleased by any effort to intrude on her personal fiefdom. They need some outlet, and... what was it Shepard said, 'better the devil you know'?"

"My concern is that we are sitting here plundering a collector cruiser in full view of all of Omega." Tanda was frowning.

"I... that would be a concern... I'm not sure what to tell you. You are my captain, Tanda."

"Indeed." She stretched. "I will go speak with Governor T'Loak... And see if she wishes a part in the new arrangement of order."

"Just... be careful, okay?"

"Oh, I think the Governor and I can come to an understanding. Don't worry, Tali."

That, of course, was proving _impossible_.

-

Tanda boarded Omega alone, redolent in the absolute confidence of a Dark Lady of Sith. She breezed past tense and waiting crowds, going straight up, again, to where Aria T'Loak held court over the fractious, madcap hab-colony.

'Governor' T'Loak was not at all pleased to see her, looking more like a cornered pit viper than a systems' governor. Tanda's dalliances had very much leaving her a slimming number of options, and now with the Imperial fleet making a home for itself in Omega and making war on the Collectors, one might say Aria had been left with no options at all.

But she was Aria, so there were always options. "Do you really enjoy breaking your word _that_ much? Not like I was ever foolish enough to trust it, precisely."

"I apologise." She dropped into the booth across from Aria. "But as it turns out, the Omega Four relay was absolutely critical to the defeat of the Collector menace, forcing me to conduct operations within your system. It became a military necessity."

"The Collectors wore out their welcome on Omega a while ago..." She crossed her legs, sitting on her couch. Through the force, Tanda could tell she was tense... Coiled. Wary. "But that isn't the same as your daring to operate here, and presume impunity."

"I suppose it isn't. Nonetheless, the Empire is here, and you must be realistic about the relative disparities in power. Do you want my favour, Governor T'Loak? Shall I put this simply? I am prepared to work with you, personally, as you are someone whom I like." She smiled a bit wryly. "That may seem odd, but you are honest, and fight to keep what you've earned. I can respect that."

"You aren't here purely on a social call, so stuff the bullshit about respect." She stretched, looking like she was at ease, but... oh, she assuredly was not. "You are, in fact, here to change the terms of our agreement, I will think. One more time."

"I am here to ask if you are interested in retaining your authority over this facility," Tanda replied with a frown.

"I am Omega." She said it with a twitch in her mental state. She did not like being threatened, and she was being threatened, or thought she was. No, she _was_ ; it didn't matter what the human bitch thought. "So I guess you should have phrased that differently, _Moff Pryl_ , and asked me whether or not we need to have a fight."

Men started to move behind her... And Tanda erupted, spinning, still wearing the bodysuit, unchanged, from the battle with the Collectors. As she spun, her lightsabre ignited, and the barrels of guns and hafts of weapons fell out of the hands of Aria's picked men as she turned. When the pirouette was completed, the lightsabre was humming in front of Aria's neck.

Aria sharply held up a hand to wave off the rest. "For someone who wants me in power, you seem to have just fatally damaged my authority you dumb bitch."

"Quite the contrary! I am demonstrating the force that is at your disposal, Governor T'Loak." Tanda smiled thinly. "Tell me who the greatest threat to you on this station is right now, and we'll go kill them together to demonstrate that the Empire supports you and that you have my confidence as the Governor of the Omega System."

She frowned. "What sort of game are you playing? I don't let threats I know about sit around and get annoying. Sure, you can say you'd like to help now, but isn't that lovely. You've created the problem and now you want to solve it?"

Tanda shrugged. "The Empire needs the compliance of Omega—and I want you to be in charge. These demonstrations have damaged your governorship of the station. So I'll go kill someone for you to demonstrate that the Empire is interested in your continued governance. You are worried about being overthrown. But anyone who succeeds will face my wrath. So. Allow me to prove it to everyone."

Aria's mental calculation did not take long at all as she sized up a certain utter sincerity in Tanda's eyes and thought about how the rest of the situation looked. "Fine. Let's go." She lurched up to her feet, picking a pistol up and slipping it onto her side. "Balak - wait here. The Moff and I have to go take care of something." They got looks, as she sashayed onwards, swaying her hips and unable to resist the sarcasm that came naturally. "I'm sure you meant second greatest threat to me on this station right now."

"From your perspective, yes." She chuckled very dryly. "I've learned to be flexible in some matters, however, and there's really nothing at all for you to be concerned about."

Aria gave Tanda a sharp look. "Really. Well, fine, we're about to kill people in cold blood just like you proposed—it _is_ a good plan. We just need to take a few chops off some of the mercenary groups... getting a bit... hm. Daring."

"Beautiful. You will soon find the benefits of Imperial protection to be prodiguous. I need ruthless women."

"Really. That remains to be seen..."

They were swinging down toward what was the local Blood Pack headquarters. And the Blood Pack was not famously happy with Tanda Pryl. Of course, Tanda Pryl wasn't particularly happy with the Blood Pack either, and her face twisted into an expression of grim bemusement. ...When they arrived at their location, Tanda snapped open her lightsabre and started killing people.

It was really simple, quite frankly. She arrived, and she surveyed the Krogan, the vorcha, the hangers-on... And they looked at her and reached for their weapons. Seeing Aria in the background coming for _them_ let them know a great deal.

And then Tanda's blade was out and she rushed forward, batting aside shots with so much callousness. They were the enemies of her people, of the Asari on Mil who had supported her from the start. They were her private enemies; and they were a tool for her power. She could truly care about nothing, and the only danger was in the resilience of the Krogan even to lightsabre strokes.

Aria hung back and watched. She provided some biotic support, but she in the end gave up, and just watched. It was art, a terrifying kind of art that she understood very well as "Omega", as a gangster, criminal, mercenary, warrior. It was a killing art, and it was that made it look poetic as her opponents or even just prospective rivals were butchered without mercy.

She watched, observing lightsabre combat compared to her own biotics, and very much letting Tanda prove herself. They'd interrupted some form of meeting, which was making Aria happy... They had probably already been plotting against her, and as she watched the butchery continue, she was gaining the impression that the Moff might be more callous about killing than even she was.

At the end, with eyes of stone, Tanda turned back to her, the blade deactivating. "You scarcely helped at all."

"You didn't need any help. That was an execution, not a fight. From start to finish, they couldn't touch you, Pryl."

"Executions go better with friends, I've been learning here," she replied, a bit dully, the blade clipped back to her belt as she walked alongside Aria, and people watched them in cowed silence, yes, even the denizens of Omega... Cowed.

Aria shook her head. Her laughter was grim. "... Remind me not to get on your bad side."

"I have obtained the power of a Dark Lady of the Sith. Soon you will fully understand what that means. In the meantime, you are now Governor of Omega and you will bring order to it, to rule as you will. As you have requested... I will simply leave you alone." She pursed her lips. "I merely expect more respect for my requests for favours in the future, Governor—if we can agree to that."

"Your point is taken, Moff Pryl. Now I'll spin this one way, and you..." She brought up her omnitool. "... Will please contact me in a method less visible in the future. I would say it would let you kill fewer people, but you don't seem to care much about that. It means fewer people _try_ to fuck with me." _You, on the other hand, just fucked with Aria and got away with it, you bitch._

Tanda's laugh as she walked back to her shuttle was not very pleasant.

-

With Tanda profoundly paranoid about the ability she had learned of from Tali of Reaper technology to corrupt the very minds and souls of people, as she saw it, she had insisted on bringing the colonists over to her ships, which had required sending for freighters. Once they were transferred, Tali finally returned to _Thunderflare_ from her survey of the Collector Cruiser.

She went to report a bit nervously, considering their last conversation in the wake of the taking of the cruiser. "How are you doing, Tanda?" They were in the privacy of the woman's luxurious port cabin, and that meant, Tali wandered up behind Tanda and enfolded her in a hug. The human woman's breath was steady, and seemed contented.

"Fine. Governor T'Loak and I had a productive conversation. She is working for the Empire, now."

"...Oh, good. She's a dangerous woman, but I'm glad nobody got hurt." From behind, she never saw Tanda's smile, and simply continued talking. "I... have good news, and bad news."

"Start with the bad news, of course."

"Their main base is through the Omega 4 relay, and appears to be on the horizon the black hole at the galactic centre... The uncertainty of where the destination relay puts ships—what do you call, ah yes, the spherical error probable—would almost certainly destroy any ship passing through."

Tanda frowned, leaned her head back against Tali's chest, and poured herself another cup of tea. "I am not sure it would..." She stirred in milk while drumming the fingers of her left hand. "But I grant that it would be incredibly dangerous. There was a case a few years ago of a rebel pilot who flew directly along the event horizon of a black hole. A Star Destroyer in pursuit was able to close without difficulty, but made a slight miscalculation when directly alongside the Event Horizon. When approaching too close as they ended up doing, the gravity gradient along the hull exceeded a few million g's, and the ship instantly went from fully operational to—kaput, disintegrated."

Her grin was morbid before she drank her tea. "That is the operational limit of a Star Destroyer in such an area."

"...Ugh, let's not think about that," Tali mumbled. "They have to have some way around it, an IFF code or something. There's at least one more cruiser, and... the Collectors, they..." She rubbed her hands together. "Your medical droids did a good job of autopsying them at the same time I was working... No digestive or reproductive system. No junk DNA. And they have Quad-strand DNA. There's... only one species we know that had quadruple-stranded DNA, and that was the Protheans."

Tanda sniffed. "Just like that imbroglio at Bakura we'd heard about before we left—I pulled the files once I dealt with Kessingon, but it proved a useless dead end. So they're Enteched Protheans. Well. What is the good news, Tali?"

"I only found sign of one other cruiser in their logs. The technology from the ship... Xen is on the verge of reverting to a child at everything she's being handed, and there's no sign that Collector technology can cause indoctrination... though they certainly are Indoctrinated themselves, by the state of their nervous systems."

"Hmm. So they have possibly just one other and likely less than half a dozen even if they run a very high deployment cycle so that she simply never encounters the others."

"That's correct. They take the colonists, and offload them at that base..." She sighed, and twisted her hands about themselves. "That ship is creepy."

"I intensely agree with you. The ship disturbs me intensely."

"Reapers do that..."

"So they do. Which is why I want them gone."

"Well, I don't have any idea how to make the Reapers go away, but I have to say, but your power is... growing... quickly. More than I thought, from our training sessions... I don't think I'd stand a chance against you anymore."

"As I said, you must learn to embrace your emotions, Tali. Or else get better at the other path you've found."

"I worry it is the light side, though..."

"...That may be true, Tali. I _can_ feel it in you."

"And that's... bad?" She shifted her hips, doing the nervous gesture with her hands again. "I don't know... what else to do. I'm trying to get better, but I don't know what I'm doing, and... You seem to be doing something else."

"How can you not feel the same emotions I do and follow them to power? You're my Tali, not some Jedi who is banned from making any kind of relationship with another sapient of a romantic nature. I have love and passion and need for you, and you for me!" Though it was a chaste romance, for now; Tanda could just not quite get around to making a situation comfortable enough for any greater intimacy with Tali. She shook her head. "They were in fact banned from sex, the Jedi... They were all celibate..."

"... Well that was dumb." Tali shot right back at Tanda, feeling like she was being put on a little. Acutely aware that their relationship had been chaste to date, and Tali was not actually all that happy with that. "I mean, who doesn't want to love? Or let themselves do so? That's just unnatural."

"Exactly. I love you, Tali. Please just do what you want and don't be afraid. You came much further than I thought you would already."

"It just... I... feel this sort of tug, but it wants me to do things... I don't want to. So I just... keep myself calm. ... I mean, it's like my expertise at demolitions... sort of."

"What do you mean it wants you to do things that you don't want to do? You are in power, you don't have to listen to anything that anyone says or conceal yourself. You are my Tali, I am your Tanda, here we at the headship of the galaxy. Well, like I said, I'm not going to stop you. You found something different, and I know so little myself. Hrmph. We've been growing distant again, I fear."

"I... know. I don't like it. But... something feels... off about you... I don't know what, I..."

"So you're growing scared of me."

"... No... it's... just a feeling I don't... I don't know what it is."

Tanda looked glumly into her half-drunk tea. "I wonder if this is how the split between Jedi and Sith began all those countless thousands of years ago..."

"What? I... but... why... what...? ... No, I won't let that happen! I'm... that's just stupid."

"I'm doing this for you..."

"I know, Tanda..." She looked down, wrapping her arms around the woman and hugging her, and smiled. "I know you are... it's endearing. You've done so much for my people and I..."

"I'm just scared something stupid will happen and you'll leave me now that I've established power." She sank down in her chair, leaning into Tali and slumping against the desk. "I did it. We broke with Cerberus, though he doesn't know it yet, we have integrated the Quarians into the Empire, eliminated all opposition to you. We have defeated the Collector raids, at least temporarily. Why all the questioning and worrying?"

"You've been wonderful, Tanda... truly wonderful... I love you, you silly bosh'tet."

"Your Auntie Raan told you to watch your language..."

"... Hey, don't bring her into this..."

But Tanda's eyes had glinted. "Someday we'll have children together, now, don't you see? That is the strength of the power I have created..."

Tali's eyes went huge behind her visor.

"In time. I will grow strong enough to create life between us-I have forseen it."

"... You... have... what... how... really?" She sounded so happy, as she crushed Tanda to her in a very tight hug from behind that brought a smile to the Moff's lips. "That's wonderful!"

"I have seen a vision... From the force, so I know it to be true, and I can sort of see, anyhow, how I could arrange things to make it happen. Manipulate our eggs together, spin two different kinds of DNA into one." She leaned firmly into Tali.

"That's wonderful..." Her accented voice nearly cracked, and so much seemed to just... slough away, as she gave a wide-eyed happy look. "What kind of vision... can you tell me? How do you receive visions... Shepard did, but that was through the beacon, so it doesn't count."

Tanda started to try, and then stopped. "I'm sorry but this is rather hopeless to explain; still, can we get married anyway?"

"..." She giggled, Tali did. "When were you thinking of...? You saw that in your vision too?"

"Yes, and I want it to happen... I want to make you my queen of the universe. As silly as that perhaps sounds..."

"It sounds incredibly silly, love... You know, Shepard had an old translator on her omnitool once - it confused 'Admiral' with 'Heir to the quarian throne' when I was talking about my father to her."

"Princess Tali'Zorah. I shall make it official."

"... What? ... Quarians haven't had royalty since... since the Geth Uprising, really. This is... are you sure this is a good idea...? Or is your happiness starting to bubble up again...?"

Tanda grinned. "I am happy. Isn't that a nice thing right now?" She rose to push herself up against Tali...

"Yes... hrmph, I so want to kiss you right now. So unfair."

"We could settle for joining hips..."

"I do have really nice hips, don't I... I've seen the looks we get."

"I am positively in lust with the Quarian physique. Fortunately you're an excellent specimen of it."

She giggled. "Really... prove it."

...Tanda put her hand between Tali's legs and pushed a little. "What do you want me to do to prove it...? Hrmm?"

"Oooh, Keelah... I... mmm... something like that...?" The Quarian placed her hands on Tanda's shoulders, and started to gently push her backwards.

Tanda let her. "Shoving me onto my bed, are you...?"

Her response was to do exactly that. "... Maybe... maybe I'm... tempted to do more than that to you..."

"...Well, usually in human relationships being shoved onto a bed is followed by sex, I have to admit..."

There was a glint in her eye as she undid one of her belts and gave a look about, even alone and knowing they were alone. "Let's see how your plan works, Tanda..."

"I'd be honoured."

-

Tanda loved. She desired. She possessed. And she worked, collaborating with Daro'Xen vas Moreh on the development of the refit schedules and plans for the Quarian warships at the same time governance was becoming a more pressing matter...Sorting out the one hundred thousand humans rescued from the Collectors temporarily now settling on an Asari farming colony .. Well, at least it made the Imperial capitol vaguely more capitol-like, a myriad of races in one place with the housing spreading out in the great protected arc at the heart between the two Prefabricated Garrison Bases.

Grateful people, the settlers, but also wanting to go back to their home colonies, or back to Earth space, so that the maintenance of order was threatening her plans. They had, after all, mostly come out here to escape government, and found one more comprehensive than they had expected. The business came and went and through it all, Tanda strove to find more time and more chances to spend with Tali in a relationship that was quickly becoming an open secret.

Tanda could never go into Tali's quarters, if Tali wished to keep them sterile. So it was in her office that she found her, flipping through an old human... book. A paper copy that attracted Tanda immediately, for it suggested age and a connoisseur's interests and surprised her completely.

"I Didn't expect to see you reading an old paper tome, I do confess. How are you today, m'dear?"

"... Shepard's alive!" She replied, leaping up to tackle-hug Tanda, leaving the book behind her there with a happy sound.

"...So the Illusive Man made his clones...?" She didn't want to depress Tali, but... She rocked under the hug, and smiled wryly. "Well, hopefully just one, but. She was your friend... I'd feel more violated if it had happened to one of my friends."

"... If he made a clone, then he copied her brain, Tanda. She gave me that book, and she sent a message. Said if she ever needed to talk to me, she'd use it... I'm just starting to figure the thing out."

"...I see. What is the book about? Or is it just a collection of one-use code combinations?" It was clear that Tanda was not convinced about this Shepard being legit yet.

"It's an old novel... fiction. What humans thought space might be like more than a century ago. _The Songs of Distant Earth_. A slow-ship, a lost colony, a love story, their homeworld being destroyed by a nova... I guess she liked it. When we left, she broke up her library and gave it to us - said that if she ever had to send us a message without anyone knowing, we'd need them."

"An elegant solution. I shant press. But I would rather see her working with us than for the Illusive Man. Or the Council, which will waste her talents once again. I really ought put an operation together to deal with the Illusive Man..." She sighed, again. "But that is the definition of overstretch, and I already used so many probots looking for a suitable colony for your people."

"You think she likes Cerberus? We blew up more than a few of their labs while chasing Saren! Give her an alternative... and she'll take it. Especially if I'm there to offer it."

"If she gets the chance to do so, Tali," Tanda remarked grimly.

"Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out. The code's a pain, but..." She gave a shrug, and looked up at Tanda with a smile. "So. We need to find out where that giant headquarters is, right...? Then we can plan."

"I didn't get to see much, but I can try to remember the starfield, perhaps with the help of the force."

"It just... would almost certainly take years to even produce a first pass list of options. I didn't see much, and visual input to my omnitool isn't the most helpful."

"I know. It is just a regret, Tali, not a demand. I should want to crush him very badly, but I understand the limitations in realising it."

"I should be doing more, Tanda... I'm something of... your staff doesn't need a Machinist, as good as I might well be at it most of the time. So... Cerberus needs to be rooted out, and I am wishing I could do something to make that happen."

"Otherwise you'd want to work with Admiral Xen?"

"What she's doing is fascinating, but... I've always been a bit more... I don't know, 'hands on' isn't the right word. I'd go crazy in a lab."

Tanda laughed. "You've had some adventure put into your blood."

"Pilgrimage isn't supposed to do that, it's supposed to... make us want to come home. And I do - I did, but... those months on the Normandy... I don't think I ever felt more... alive, more like I was doing something."

"I am not sure what to say of that. We have had our own adventures, but perhaps they are pale in comparison. Yet you also came into your own with the mission to the Citadel, as much as it terrified me dearly."

"You haven't asked me to do anything blatantly suicidal yet, so..." She grinned, and leaned up to touch her mask to Tanda's face. "I'm learning. I'm doing. My people have homes, we're becoming more than we dared dream in generations... and we'll have our justice on those who threaten us."

"More than that, if I can give it to you." She kissed her facemask again, as Tanda did so rarely, to avoid fogging and dirtying it. "Are you asking for permission to go find Shepard, or am I reading too much into this?"

"Reading a bit too much into it, but she says that she has her own ship."

Tali sighed a bit, and smiled, gently wiping the mask off. "I don't think she needs me to go rescue her or anything like that, if that's what you mean. I just feel like I should be doing something... but I want to spend time with you, and you're here. Arguably, in a position where I am quite active compared to a normal ruler. Perhaps I should put you in the rotation for watchstanding."

"... Is that what I should be doing? Would your officers accept it? Is... I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"I want them to get used to serving with Quarians and I want you to be able to be happy in life, which includes giving you the opportunities for honourable advancement." She pursed her lips. "I could also give in and in fact send you out to rendezvous with Shepard. It would probably be useful to actively seek to obtain her defection from Cerberus, despite the risks."

"I don't know how long I'd be gone, but... you're my captain, Tanda. I'll stand a watch, or go hitch a ride off into the galaxy to hunt for Shepard, either way... though selfishly, I don't really want to go."

"I don't want you to go either, Tali. You're my anchor and my inspiration."

"Then I won't. I'll start standing a watch, and I'll send her a message to... come... here, do you think?"

"Perhaps a secret rendezvous would be better? We would not wish her to be killed by her presumably Cerberus-backed crew."

"That... probably. I'm not sure how we would manage it... but... yes, that makes sense. She's got to have some loyal people, or she'd have up and left immediately."

"I concur. Can you send her a message?"

"I can try. She did give each of us a different book to reply with... yes, I think I can."

"Just remember that Anderson has probably told her you were kidnapped and or brainwashed by me."

"Probably. I have a shotgun, and can slap her upside the head."

"I should like to avoid having your brain washed too, at any rate..."

"Shepard? Hah! She's too much of a paragon of good example to do that."

"So I see. The Illusive Man chooses people very unable to help him, it seems."

"I have no idea what his long term goal is, but he sees something in it, I'm sure."

"Something... Or he has been completely corrupted by his experiments. He does not have the force, however. What he knows from it he knows only from his spies here, and that is not enough."

"I'm not sure... I don't want to be able to understand what he thinks."

"I don't either. I just want to eliminate the threat."

"Cerberus in the end is a bizarre creation, a megacorporation with an ideological objective. Smells too much of the Systems Confederacy. I think they're more powerful than anyone lets on, Tanda. If they built a frigate, one that costs as much as an entire squadron of the things, in secret..."

"We'll find out soon enough. I'd like to find their shipyard, though. And capture it. It sounds like a viable option instead of continuing with a showdown with the systems alliance."

"They likely have several - but if we can make contact with Shepard, maybe we can start finding things... but we'll have to move fast, before he turns on us."

"You have the authority to conduct yourself as you see fit to proceed for the good of the Empire, Tali."

"Thank you, Tanda... I'll finish decoding this message, then... well, we'll see from there. Thank you."

The ball would be very much in Tali's court, as Tanda was being kept quite busy. ...She was having visions of the future now in her sleep, and they bothered her.


	24. Chapter 24

Tali was sleeping poorly - she had no visions of her own to disturb her sleep, just that oddness around her girlfriend which she didn't understand. She tried to puzzle out together with Tanda what caused it, but got no closer to an answer; it was perhaps a testament to the intensity of Tanda's feelings for Tali'Zorah that instead of letting it creep into her mind, Tanda remained so deeply in love that she only worked to improve their closeness.

And she finally got the message she had been waiting for, took a deep breath, and went to Tanda's office, waiting her turn as the Moff finished a meeting with the Captains of her other Imperial ships, and saluted them as they departed, to step in when Tanda waved her forward, a smile pressing to her lips. "Tanda-I'll be meeting her on Ilium. She's assembling a team to go through Omega 4 and assault the Collectors."

The smile faded, a bit. "I see. You're going to Ilium, then. Alone?"

"It seems smartest. Anyone else is in danger, and any of your people will just make her wary. I need to convince her to contact you, not... do anything based on what the smug bosh'tet is telling her."

"Which are doubtless all kinds of terrible things that are all completely false. But you will also be going alone... Can you handle your assault shuttle like that?"

"With an assistant VI and Arthree, I see no reason why not, Tanda." She seemed confident enough, head set at an angle that indicated she'd considered and agreed to the risk already and wasn't going to be dissuaded.

"I understand, then, and will assent to it. In fact, I'll go ahead and cut the formal orders right now."

"I'll hurry back... I promise."

Tanda shook her head gently. "Don't promise, just try your hardest to do so, that's what I ask. It's more important. Here, though, come sit with me before you start your preparations."

"...Of course, Tanda. And I will try my hardest to come back. I'd never think of not doing it! But you're worrying too much."

"The job of a Head of State is to worry, it seems to me," Tanda remarked, and tapped in the code to open one of the secure drawers in her desk, taking out an ornate little box, which she keyed open as well.

"What is it, Tanda...?" Tali could see that the wood had been ornately worked, probably by hand.

The smile flickered back onto her lover's face, and she pressed the little box into Tali's hands. "It's a projector, a full timescale holomap of Commenor. Shows everything down to the civilian legal limit of ground movement all the way up to full orbital panoramics—exactly as it was on the day I was born. A birthday gift from a cousin from some years ago—but I think that right now, I would like you to have it, most of all, and I would like to know that you have it, as a reminder of me and where I came from."

"I..." She took it, her hands trembling, and activated it, to see the world of Commenor blossom before her, and start to explore in reverence, dialling the view around the planet, seeing the ships in orbit in detail, and then the world below. Tali watched in childlike awe, and stuttered. "I can't take this... it's beautiful... it..." She let out a little sigh. "You spoil me." She muttered, trying to deflect from the fact she was crying inside of her suit.

"Tali, if you don't come back, I would spend my whole life looking at two things: This, and a hologram of you. Well, I must be a ruler now, so I must have the time to rule. So if you do not come back, I should only have the hologram of you." Tanda smiled as she finished the melancholy thought, and hugged her lover. "If you regret taking a lovely thing from me: Do not, just come back."

"I promise... I'll come back. I don't care about not promising, I promise, I'll come back." She clutched the projector to her chest, and pressed her mask into Tanda's jacket in turn. "Ancestors watch over you."

"Dea go with you."

She rose up on her toes to press the 'mouth' part of her mask to Tanda's, and then turned to go. _I hope this is the right thing to do..._

-

Tali'Zorah worked her way through customs on Ilium, probably the last planet she could safely visit inside of Council Space with their aggressive no-questions-asked policy after the confrontation between Tanda and the Systems Alliance at Fehl Prime. Afterwards, it was just the question of proceeding from she was to the rendezvous point, almost surprised that she hadn't been assaulted, arrested, or ambushed. But she had plenty of money, and perhaps the idea of a Quarian able to pay the security bond up two weeks in advance had amused the Asari security forces so much they had decided to leave her alone... For a day.

Ilium was a busy, bustling, bright place, even after sunset. Skycars, glittering towers, Asari everywhere. Not a great many Quarians, however - though not unheard of, which was why Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare nar Rayyah was sipping at a sealed dextro-drink, with her eyes flitting around, omni-tool alert for any snoopers. A chirp from it caught her attention - two figures in armour approaching... two familiar ones, though one looked a great deal like a stormtrooper in Cerberus armor with the insignia filed off.

The bar was fairly typical for Asari run entertainment, but not a total dive. And if it had familiar faces in it that would have made it worthwhile even if it had been a dive; so she waited patiently for them. Her heart thrilled to see them. "Garrus, Shepard!" She was wearing a lot more black than she had been... But she was still Tali, and they were still her friends!

She stood as they approached, moving in to hug the leader. "Shepard! Garrus!" She couldn't help but exclaim again. "It's so nice to see both of you, come on, sit. Don't worry, Shepard, the place has a levo- menu too."

"It's good to see you too, Tali." The human woman said it with a bit of a smile, her scars still showing as they tried to heal—the glowing circuitry was... very much a bizarre sign of something Not Quite Right, which did concern Tali a little—yet still, from her facial expressions, her demeanor, this was her Jane Shepard. "Glad to see you doing so well."

She did the same and hugged Garrus, with a grin under the mask.

"Whoa, I see I'm still your favorite Turian..."

"Always, Garrus, always. Come, sit."

She followed suit, picking up her drink again. "So, what've you been up to, Shepard?"

"It's a surprisingly short story for everything that happened," Shepard answered. "But I'll tell it if you want to hear it, Tali."

"Please! Mine is much longer."

Tali's eyes nonetheless visibly widened a bit under her visor at the story the other woman wove, talking a bit with her hands as she did. Awakening, the adventures she'd already had in SR-2...

"You've been busy..."

"From what Anderson tells me, you've been busy, too." It was said with considerable hesitation.

The Quarian girl winced at that one. "Somehow, I think it was about as true as what people have been saying about you with that symbol on your ship, Shepard..."

"Well... maybe." A wry look. "It's true, I don't see you throwing your lot in with a Cerberus splinter group that wants to rule the Terminus Systems." The human woman muttered back, rubbing the back of her head.

"That's because I'm not... you know the odd rumours, they're not from this galaxy, all that which sounds so outlandish? It's true, Shepard... All of it is true."

"Now, Tali, you know how crazy that sounds..." Garrus interjected, glancing around for a moment.

"Crazy, but it's true... look, one of them gave me this..." _Sorry I'm using it this way, Tanda._ She pulled out the holoprojector, turning it on for a few moments to allow the photoimage of Commenor to blossom in holographic 3-D before them, and then deactivating it and hastily putting it away, as though it would be a sacrilege to let it linger much longer.

"I've... never seen anything like that. You, Garrus?"

"No... okay, it's a bit suspicious, but..."

"They gave my people a world, Garrus. I'm part of the Fleet, and the Fleet's supporting them. They can bring some law and order to the Terminus... I've been helping, and they have issues, but... they mean well. Tanda - Moff Pryl - she means well."

"Tanda? Whooboy, Shepard, sounds like our resident Quarian might have found..."

"Shut it, Garrus."

"Aw, come on, you don't miss our conversations?"

"No."

"You don't want to talk about old times, like-"

"I have a shotgun."

"Okay... another time."

She sighed, and looked back to the human woman, who looked pensive. "The rumours they took out a Collector cruiser?"

"All true. I helped."

"...You helped."

"... Boarded it. Helped rescue the colonists they took, they're being resettled behind some defensive satellites this time. I think Moff Pryl wants to talk to you, Shepard..."

"You think she's willing to help?"

"Without question, she's not the Council. Just... can't let Miss Lawson or her bosh'tet of a boss know."

"... Noted. Hey, you want to come with? We can keep talking - I... already met up with Liara. Didn't go too well."

"... Oh... so, what's the fire this time?"

"Trying to fill out my team, they're both here. I'm going to be picking up an asari justicar, whatever that is, and apparently some assassin... I know, even more ragtag than last time."

"Sure, Shepard, I can help you for a little bit - I just don't think I should stay away too long right now, I've got responsibilities now that my pilgrimage is over."

"Glad to have you. I'd like to have you on my crew, engineering's pretty odd without you down there, but I'll understand if not." Shepard smiled in that way Tali had never been able to say no to.

"I can help for now, Shepard. I'll stay as long as I can make it work," Tali found herself saying. "But I want you to meet Moff Pryl."

"We'll work on it. C'mon, Tali. Just like old times." Except everything that wasn't, but they both knew what was unsaid.

-

Tanda Pryl once again found herself going through another set of options with her officers and advisors, plotting simulations and reporting the results of wargames, and trying to extrapolate from them what their best course of action should be, considering that the Reaper threat was assumed to be real. The constraints of their outer-rim or wild-space like present expanse of territory in the face of that, and the slowness with which even primitive Imperial technology was being reproduced by the Quarians, imposed harsh restraints.

As a consequence, she remained very tempted by the idea of taking the Citadel or Earth, but the industrial-economic situation remained promising enough—the Quarian factory ships no longer needing to produce parts for their civilian vessels-without resorting to it. That, and her passion for her Quarian tempered out the calls and lures of the vicissitudes of conquest.

Waiting for news with Tali gone was still not any easier for it. She went for her Corellian brandy as the other officers left. Lieutenant Scolus paused by the door.

"L'tenant?"

"Your Ladyship. I..." He turned to make haste.

"No, sit, talk." She returned to the table, now with two snifters instead of one. She poured out the brandy and pushed one over. "I'm still the Captain of the _Thunderflare_ , L'tenant. I'm not a God. You're one of my officers and gentlemen."

He glanced at the lightsabre on Tanda's belt. "As you say, Captain. I'm concerned about you. You're the fulcrum of this state now, and the lower deck loves you, it's true, but if something happens to you..."

"It all comes crashing down, and you'll pay the price?"

"Just so, M'lady."

"I like to think the Quarians would see you as their own brothers and allies if that happened," Tanda sighed into her drink.

"You trust them more than we do, M'lady. Perhaps with reason. You have the power of the Sith, you can tell these things. But..."

"They wonder, because of how close I am to some of them." She closed her eyes and rocked back. "Yes, yes, I anticipated this."

"You have our allegiance as long as you live, M'lady. But we doubt the Quarians would really trust us."

"I respect that, but you won't be able to make me change my commands, my decisions, and when I go to the front. You will have to trust that Admiral Shala'Raan will see you through. If you do not, what good am I, really? A commander is measured by the strength of her subordinates. If I have erred so much in making her an officer of the fleet, then, I will err again when I am still alive, too."

"That doesn't change the concerns."

"Then you must learn to bear them."

"Your Ladyship, we are all alone here." He drained the last of the brandy, though it looked like it unsettled him. "We won't abandon the project, but if you were to die, we would invade Earth."

"It's just a matter of time until we do..."

"Very much so." Scolus didn't tremble.

"As you say, then, L'tenant. No, no, I understand where that's coming from. I'll issue sealed orders for Shala'Raan in the event of my demise. They will legitimise what you propose."

"...Thank you."

"I am not unapproachable, L'tenant," Tanda smiled. "Stay to your duties, and the rest will come naturally. I will not abandon you and I will not die. But I will act according to my needs, for the objective of securing our Empire. Obey, and the reward will be victory. Speaking of which, is there anything more that you want to go over when it comes to the Batalla System operation?"

"No, ma'am. Liberating it will look good."

"Liberating it will look good." Tanda chuckled. "I suppose that's what it all comes down to now. Politics. The one thing I can't cut in half with a lightsabre. Very well, then, L'tenant. Hold the course, we'll see a grand edifice before we die. And study Earth culture; we'll get there eventually."

"I... Of course, M'ladyship." He rose, saluted.

"A good day, L'tenant."

"Your ladyship." If he had any doubts, he kept them to himself, and Tanda didn't bother to probe.

She turned to her work, and was relieved soon enough when a message came down the wire from the extranet connection. _Helping Shepard with a few things, but she's willing to meet with you. Give a place, and she'll slip out in the shuttle._

A grin covered Tanda's face. _Let us meet in the Batalla System._

 _All right, we'll be there once we're done on Illium... Planning to smash Logasiri while you're there?_

 _...Who wouldn't?_


	25. Chapter 25

Tanda found loneliness to be unavoidable without Tali, and the more she thought about it, the more she desired to sneak away with her to adventure. Due to the informal nature of her government—a Moff was not supposed to run an entire regime by herself—she longed for a day without the endless paperwork, the administrative errata which had not been part of merely commanding a ship, which she effectively still did anyway.

Of her crew, her officers had acquired a certain distance from the revelation of her force powers that reinforced her isolation. And so, she found herself commiserating with Shala'Raan in her spare time more often than not, as the only person who could be sympathetic and approachable. Well, such of it as she had. The same complaints which made her seek out friendship were those that also made her far too busy to enjoy much of it.

There was still a fundamental disconnect. Shala'Raan was in a suit, and Tanda was not. Socialising, considering the way that her class was expected to comport itself, proved incredibly difficult as a result. In the end, it seemed that Tanda gave up and confided _everything_ in Shala'Raan simply because she had run out of other things to say.

They had been talking about family and Quarian concerns for the future when it struck her how, really, the Quarian Admiral was the closest thing to a mother Tali had. Lieutenant Scolus and the rest of her men didn't yet trust the Quarians. The Quarians, legitimately, did not fully trust her own men. And Tanda sat there, realising that there was one sure way to forge the links of Empire between them.

The oldest way, really: A marriage. She cleared her throat. "Well, speaking of family, Shala'Raan, there is a matter which has to be discussed sooner or later. And by bringing it up now, I mean to discuss it sooner." She lightly cleared her throat. Letting the in-laws know about her same-sex lover was not something she had ever contemplated; for that matter, she hadn't contemplated ever telling that to her own parents. "Your niece and I are in something of a relationship, Admiral. Not a brief one either, but a relationship which has been slowly developing... Arguably since we went on the expedition together to Cerberus headquarters. And it is serious enough that we have discussed marriage."

"A... relationship." She trailed off, and let out a soft laugh. "I warned her father something like this might happen. Still, a human, and a woman at that... ah, Tanda'Pryl, I hope Tali does have a good plan for telling her father. Their relationship has been so strained as it is, and it is not good to lose touch to one's father and ancestors."

She paused.

Tanda smiled wryly. "Please, however, speak freely and hold nothing back with me, Shala'Raan. You are like her mother."

"Rael'Zorah would not say it, so then I shall. She is not my cousin by blood, but I have tried my best to fill the shadow of my best friend, Tanda'Pryl. You will not hurt her daughter."

The most powerful woman in the galaxy pursed her lips and ducked her head. "She is a powerful inducement to an upright life, Admiral. I would think myself worthy of a very low hell even to make her cry, let alone hurt her. Rather I like to think of her as a motivation to my better instincts."

"... That is... provisionally acceptable." The woman looked like she was smiling, by how her posture shifted into a less tense one, and it served to belay the severe tone of her words.

"I would be an utter fool around her but still be happy on account of her presence, Shala'Raan."

"Ah, but young love is always like that. I hope the two of you will be happy, and that you are careful."

"...We have ways to be intimate without unsuiting, and the force confers some protection," Tanda offered. She knew exactly what Shala'Raan was referring to, the fact she was a dirty, germ ridden human...

"She did give you a rather attractive suit." She sounded bemused by it. "Well, be careful all the same. We haven't had anyone explore this mystical 'bacta' experience, and I would like it to not be Tali who has to find out first."

"She is not merely an upright and a good spirit, but an adventurous one, I know—I will work to make sure she stays safe, and does not end up hospitalized on account of it. But I think she will triumph through adversity as she always had, find ways with me to treasure and value our relationship, and that we will be safe together. Your species is indomitable, Shala'Raan, and I don't doubt that she is my sheet anchor, rather than the other way around."

"Adventurous." Tanda heard Shala'Raan say the word, and thought she could imagine the smile. "I do not understand where she got it from, you know. The closest she seemed to get to adventure was when she almost blew up the frigate when she was fifteen."

The human woman stared for a moment, and then laughed at the idea of Tali putting a ship in danger; it seemed so out of character, and yet also so clearly derived from some cute childhood experiment that had gone wrong. "Commander Shepard appears to have an incredible influence on people, and so she grew into it. Though our expedition to Cerberus and her's to the Citadel lately seems to have only increased her appetite. I do confess it's hard to imagine her, the ever-competent machinist, managing to nearly blow up a frigate."

"Oh, it wasn't just the frigate." The woman laughed softly, sipping at a sealed drink bulb. "That was just the biggest one. On the other hand, she did improve that model of drive core efficiency by three percent, she'd just not understood a certain resonance... she has demolitions experience... of an accidental variety, bless her heart. It's not healthy for a Quarian to be so adventurous, though... you'd half think she was a Marine like her Commander Shepard."

"I know. It leaves me very afraid at times like this one when she is away, and I've certainly always sought my best to improve her ability to fight, since it is not my place nor right to keep her away from what she seeks. I would just rather stand with her. Duty, though, compels... Nobody else could contact Shepard except for her."

"Such it always is... I would give her good odds, though. She is skilled, and lucky. Better with her knife than even her mother was, and her mother before her."

"Thank you for the reassurance. We spend so much time on affairs of state. It is sometimes too easy to forget there are families and lives to be lived... But I cannot keep her out of my mind."

"You fell in love. It is hard to push this from one's mind... as hard as it will be to start sending my ships out again, now that they are being refitted." She shook her head lightly. "Her father still is not happy, but he can - must - understand. You... seem to have found some sort of drive yourself recently, if I may, Moff Pryl."

"It is so. In battle with the Collectors I discovered new and more intense ways of deriving power from the force which I had understood only dimly before."

"I see... what is it like? I have asked Tali'Zorah, and she had difficulty explaining it, only that it required much discipline and was very difficult, this force. So surely what you have is the same?"

"Actually, it is the opposite for me, a thing of emotion-and that is one of our problems. My path makes her feel uneasy, and I can feel the old Jedi order which caused so many problems for the Republic in her path. But I don't know if that's true, as I don't have the information." A tight smile. "So we both proceed with concern."

"That seems... problematic. I've only heard a little, but your crew is in such awe of you. They aren't so sure what to think of her, though she has apparently hid her abilities well."

"In awe is a polite way to put it. I am a Dark Lady of Sith, and that has always attended to a measure of fear. I don't like it, but it's becoming harder to ignore-people fear the power they do not understand. My love for her is all I care of, truly..."

"Hold on to that. It will save you from bitterness and becoming an old warship like Han'Gerrel, or as cold and distant as Rael'Zorah. I do not understand the fear, but they all seem to. If only the humans you rescued felt the same."

"My galaxy is ... Hnnf. It is hard to explain, but the force has been working there in mysterious ways for a very long time. It is part of our mythos in the way it isn't for humans here."

"That much I have successfully divined, Moff Pryl. I am amazed that Tali'Zorah had managed what she has under your tutelage. We did not even know of such a thing."

"There are many more things that are yet to be revealed, Shala'Raan. Our association will take Tali'Zorah... Far. I have foreseen it."

-

When _Normandy_ finally arrived, conspicuous for vanishing from everything but hyperwave scanners, the _Thunderflare_ for her part was lurking behind the sun, so that the shuttle could approach without the presence of _Thunderflare_ being known to those aboard the frigate, while still remaining concealed from the Batarians on the planet, which had not yet been invaded. The preparations were ongoing for the landing of the assault force, but in the meanwhile, the presentation of the situation made it seem to the Cerberus personnel on the _Normandy_ that Commander Shepard was going to some kind of rendezvous with unsavoury Batarian types on the planet.

Tensely, _Normandy_ used her stealth to hastily pull back from the threat area, withdrawing from any possible detection by the slavers below. The shuttle, alone, was sent swinging into a low slingshot orbit around the sun, forgotten to the planet as the firey ball blazed above them. Once their view was properly obscured from the _Normandy_... They swept around their orbit to see the great _Thunderflare_ loom up, hugging close to the star's corona, and in a tight-beam, they were issued the docking codes and instructions.

The shuttle followed the docking codes and instructions in far enough to be grabbed by the invisible hand of the docking tractor. Looks were exchanged inside of it, and it was inexorably pulled up and into the forward shuttle bay, guided gently to a landing with its gear deployed. Once it settled, a platoon of Stormtroopers and a side party filed in. And with them, of course, was a blonde woman, blue eyed, hair braided, the features so rare these days on Earth, coming up with the side party in her sleek, trim gray uniform, like all the others, stripped down to the essence of military fashion, in a kind of utilitarian perfection.

Shepard had been cautious about the meeting. There were three armoured figures, one of which was Tanda's favorite Quarian—Tali, looking a bit uncomfortable—the other, a Turian with visible facial damage in blue armour, and the last... a human woman in white and black armour, tall, dark, wavy hair and dark eyes. No helmet, still with the glowing scars on her face that at once caught Tanda's attention through an intense frown, though they were fading. Nobody else was present.

..And there was that full Imperial side party to greet them. Truth be told, the uniform that Tanda wore was a bit odd; the Imperials expected more flare from a Sith Lord, but Tanda had avoided it. "You are welcome aboard, Commander Shepard and staff. Commander Zorah, thank you for a job well done." A complement before witnesses in the Imperial navy, that both was intended to mean a lot, and _did_ mean a lot, even if it was from lover to lover.

She saluted, gave a small bow, and moved aside, blushing inside the helmet furiously. Tali was not used to that kind of public praise.

Shepard instinctively fell into a stiff-backed posture, weight of armour or not. "Thank you, Moff Pryl, though I'm only a Lieutenant Commander. Tali'Zorah has managed to get promoted past me."

"I'm sure that's a temporary occurrence. Your fame precedes you," Tanda replied as she turned back to leave the bay.

"I've been having to deal with a lot of that lately, yes."

"...I imagine. This way, please." _Not many return from the dead, after all._ She fell in with a guard of Stormtroopers to the turbolift heading up to the bridge area conference rooms. "Your second officer, if I may...?"

"Garrus Vakarian. He was with us on the hunt for Saren. And of course you know Commander Zorah." A small smile flit over the woman's face.

Tanda caught the emotions behind it; Shepard knew about her and Tali. _Fair enough_. She offered a smile to Garrus instead of worrying more. "Vakarian. A pleasure." She strode out with them to the conference room where her—now Commander-Kesea was waiting and settled down at the head of the table. The door secured behind them all...

And she stretched out her arms. "I am intensely grateful that Commander Zorah was able to bring you here."

"It's quite the benefit that we are able to speak face to face to clear up any... Misconceptions or false perceptions about what you're planning, and what your capabilities are. I need friends, I need allies, or else this galaxy will fall to the Reapers." As Shepard spoke, Tanda was evaluating her—they both knew it, though _how_ , that was another matter. Shepard felt weird in the force. Powerful, and...

Tanda twitched her lips to a frown. _Yes, that's really her, not some clone... She'd be the most powerful force sensitive I've ever felt, it weren't for the machines. The machines have destroyed her in recreating her and bringing her back to life. Too much cybernetics, far too much. She'll never have a strong connection to the force, now. Such strength, and it's ruined before I got a chance to train it, to develop it... To win it over._ She sank back in her chair, and played with her cup of coffee.

Shepard gave a look about the table, feeling the introductions and initial conversation had faded into something really awkward. And there was a realisation about the arrangements at the table, too: Tali, Kesea, Tanda-her and Garrus on the other side. Tali had changed. She was still Tali, but she was an Imperial, too.

And to Shepard, that meant she could work with them. So she cleared her throat, and started talking again. "Thank you, Moff Pryl. I'm thankful she was willing to assist me again, and wish her all the best. Her vote of confidence in you and what you're trying to do here means a lot to me." _More than you could tell me, I think._

"Well, she's everything to me," Tanda admitted cautiously, on that point. "And I am pleased to get to know one of her friends. Needless to say, Commander... Well, let's get started with reviewing what we know and how we know it, so that we can find out the best course of action for us in combination. To be blunt, the Collectors are being controlled by the Reapers, directly. They're almost certainly subverted and Indoctrinated Protheans, according to Tali's research and my scientists' evaluation of their body structure."

A respectful glance to Kesea. "I'll let my staff continue."

Kesea smiled to Shepard. "As best as can be told, the Omega-4 relay leads to their base facility, Commander. I would estimate they are preparing the way for a new Reaper invasion of the galaxy, perhaps constructing a different method for the Reapers to reach the galaxy than through the Citadel."

Tali added: "And, of course, we've got to stop them without any help from the Citadel."

Shepard sniffed a little. That much was always true. "I agree. I've been putting together a team... to go through the relay and put a stop to this, once and for all." She said it with such confidence. "One of my team-members surmised the same about their origins... I wish it was a surprise." She folded her hands before herself on the table, glancing to Tali for a moment. "I'm told it's a suicide mission, but I don't believe that. Just a very difficult one. Any help you can offer is appreciated. Cerberus... we share some similar attitudes towards them, I'm told, Moff Pryl—despite the unfortunate rumours."

"That is absolutely and emphatically correct. I've committed myself to integrating the Quarians as equals into the Empire, and when I've made a commitment, I don't stop. Furthermore, I've removed elements in the Empire that supported Cerberus."

"She removed them _terminally_ ," Tali added.

Shepard smiled. "I doubt he likes that. I've been slowly winning over my crew... give me a few more weeks, and a finale that ends in wrecking the Collector base of operations, and I think I can make an open break without getting shot."

"Well, I think the best way to defeat the Collectors would be to bring _Thunderflare_ through that relay. What do you say, Commander?"

"Well, what do we need to get that done and get a ship through the Omega Four Relay, exactly?"

"Kesea?" Tanda glanced over. "Tell them about the relay synchronization theory."

"Certainly, Moff Pryl. Commander, Mister Vakarian. We think the Reapers have a special IFF, which the Collectors have access to, which essentially activates a more accurate relay translation placement. This allows the Reaper and Collector ships going through the Omega Four relay to arrive with sufficient precision to avoid... Being flung into the central black hole of the galaxy. Unfortunately, the Reapers who assumed direct control over various Collectors during the course of our seizure of their cruiser succeeded in scrambling the one aboard it. We need to find another, and then we can bring _Thunderflare_ through to launch the assault."

Shepard smiled. "We had, however, also independently discovered that you need a Reaper IFF to successfully transit the relay. We've got a line on a derelict Reaper to acquire one from."

"Bringing _Thunderflare_ through depends on what's on the other side, to me," Shepard answered. "The SR-2 is smaller and more manoeuvrable, and our stealth systems give us a better chance of reaching the base undetected. Our QEC is only connected to the Illusive Man, I fear, so I can't send word back to you if we need assistance after going through, which is, I grant, an argument in favour of just... Heading in with your superdreadnought." A frown. "Are you sure there's the central black hole of the entire galaxy on the other side?"

"Well, Tali'Zorah and I can explain what the problem is on the other side of the Mass Relay, and I can provide the data we obtained from the Cruiser..." Kesea started to run it back for them, explaining the sensor data they'd downloaded and from it the information about the vast graveyard of ships and asteroids on the other side of the Relay.

"Hm... I don't like this. Cerberus poking around a Reaper... this won't end well, even if we get ahold of the IFF from it. I don't see any other choice, however-that IFF is _clearly_ necessary for using the Relay."

"That's to put it mildly." Tanda started drumming her fingers on the table. "Any kind of Reaper artefacts are extremely dangerous-insidious, corruptive to the living mind-and the fact that such an IFF makes the gate more accurate to me also implies that the Relays were built by the Reapers, incidentally. I've heard evidence for and against that before..."

"Oh, it's true. There might have been a few built later, but the main network? Assuredly." Shepard offered that easy grin that won over so many people. "You, I think, are the most helpful woman I've met so far on this mission, by the way, Moff Pryl."

"I feel like I should take that as an unfortunate indictment of your prior acquaintances rather than a compliment to me. So where is this Reaper? I'd like to help you in this operation... Unless you think that would be against the recommended best course of action."

"There's supposed to be a Cerberus team aboard-so I'm not sure it's a very good idea, unfortunately-I'd have to travel there in my ship, and I haven't quite managed to get my XO to decide she needs a change of career yet. The coordinates are back on the _Normandy_."

"I can trust Shala'Raan here to hold down the fort, handle the operations in this system, and thus I can come with you alone." _Finally, my chance!_

"... You're welcome to, though if Cerberus knows you, I'd suggest coming incognito. Adonai knows I surprised Miranda with the number of bugs I dropped on her desk."

"...I've met the Illusive Man personally, but I have an excellent way to go incognito." She rose, and smiled lightly. "I'll return in a few minutes. Help yourself to some more coffee, Tali knows how the machine works."

"...Heyyy, when did I become the coffee girl?!"

"Thank you... navy runs on coffee, that's for sure." Shepard barely recovered from the laughter in time to start giggling again at Tali's flustered look. She was drinking the coffee, with Garrus trying the Quarian version rather hesitantly after Tali had explained how the synthesizer could make a dextro version.

"...The hell do you drink this, Shepard?"

"Practice, Garrus... I never used to like it when I was a kid, but I got used to it. The kind my mom made had more sugar in it, though. Got to get the kids hooked somehow."

"That sounds like a child abuse offense."

Shepard grinned, and changed the subject. "So, Tali, you and her...?"

"Yes, Shepard... I'm sorry to hear about you and Liara."

The other woman sighed, and looked down at the coffee. "So am I, Tali, so am I..."

And then about another two minutes later, a Quarian stepped into the room. ...Well, from the suit and belts and the selection of scarves and shawls, Tali knew who it was instantly. Though at some point Tanda had apparently had over-gloves manufactured which forced her fingers into twos to look fully Quarian, and was wearing them now, which in combination with similar pieces for her feet—thought it felt about as painfully awkward as foot-binding—completed the disguise perfectly.

... Tali leaned over to check the feet, that final trick she hadn't expected-Shepard's face flickered into a hint of a frown. "Can I help you...?" _She_ didn't realize who it was.

"...Did the Ubiqtorate make those boots for you?" Tali asked.

"I think it's time for us to go before our presence is revealed to your crew. Shala'Raan will have command of _Thunderflare_. I am Tola'Jorah vas Thunderflare." She had practiced her name excellently smoothly. And Shepard finally put everything together.

"Uhh... That's... pretty clever. Be careful about the food, though. All right, let's go, then." She offered a hand. "Welcome aboard the best of the best, then."

"You might have some competition to that, Commander," Tanda took her hand. " _Thunderflare_ was selected to serve in Death Squadron back home. But we lost, so I will allow the point to stand... Please, let us return to your shuttle. I'll bring a backpack with ration packs and survive off sugar water if I must to hide that I don't consume the same proteins." She keyed a comm line. "Admiral Shala'Raan, as we discussed, I will be travelling with Tali'Zorah. You will, per the operational plans, have command of the landing force."

"Understood, Moff Tanda'Pryl. I am on the bridge and reviewing the final preparations. Ancestors watch over the both of you."

"Thank you—and may the force be with you." She inclined her head and deactivated the channel. _Back into the suit... And maybe for a damned month this time. Worth it to be with Tali, or, heh, I think so right now._ "Carry on, Commander Shepard."

"Good enough. Garrus, Tali, Tola, let's go." She talked easily to Garrus and Tali as they walked, laughing at some in-joke as they went... she had an easy sort of attitude about her. "Don't kill my pilot, Joker. He's... an ass sometimes. Let's see... you've met Garrus here. Miranda Lawson's my Cerberus XO, has a perfectionist streak and is usually in her office. Jacob Taylor, my other Cerberus team-member, ex-Alliance. He's pretty disillusioned already, in the armory usually. Mordin Solus, researcher and doctor, Salarian, ex-STG. Research lab. You'll want to let him and Doctor Chakwas know about yourself in case some emergency medicine is required.

Zaeed Massani, mercenary - one of the founders of the Blue Suns, old tough sort, took over a cargo bay. Grunt, young Krogan, gene-engineered - don't... get into a fistfight. Other cargo bay. Samara, an asari justicar - she's sworn to me for now, which means that she won't try to kill anyone for breaking her Code... until the mission's over Starboard observation. Thane, drell assassin, good at his job, but not well. In Life Support to get properly dry air for his condition. Jack, she's a strong biotic, but... quite the bitch. Lower engineering. Kasumi, a top notch... thief. Good sort, if a kleptomaniac. Port observation."

"You seem to have a relatively fine knowledge of where your crew is stationed and sleeps. _Thunderflare_ is dizzying by comparison. Cramped ship, internally? And I assume this means that Doctor Chakwas and Doctor Solus are safe to keep in confidence."

"Yes, though Mordin's a bit... hyper. Chakwas... was with me on the old Normandy. She's on a leave of absence from the Alliance right now... I think the only one here legally." She gave a small smile. "Unless you count me, I'm legally mostly-dead."

"Being legally dead is a really useful thing to be," Tanda answered, staying close to Tali. "Run with it while you can."

"The Council chose to reinstate me as a Spectre... but only in the Terminus Systems. Helpful, really." She sighed, as the shuttle did the same dip into the atmosphere before climbing. "I want to know where the hell that bastard of a Turian Councilor learned to air quote."

"Air quote?" ...Not even Tanda knew what that was!

"See!" She shook her head in bemusement. "That. Exactly that... and there she is... wish she wasn't in those colours, I mean, why the hell does a secret organization have ships painted in their colours anyhow?"

"The Illusive Man is dangerously disconnected from reality, in ways which are not immediately obvious. I nearly choked to death on my kaff when a Cerberus cruiser with Cerberus markings showed up in the Mil system the first time and just openly hailed me with a message from Cerberus. It was ridiculous. And it shows how dangerous the Illusive Man is. I don't like people who are disconnected from reality, I don't like them at all."

"I've noticed... but he's also more powerful than is immediately obvious. I'm not sure how much of the defence market in the Alliance he controls... but I think it's far more than it should be."

"He intends to rule humanity. I have become a complication toward that objective."

"Well, thank you for that. I don't need him ruling anything, and I don't intend to let him get what he wants if I can help it."

"I should very much want to cooperate on that..." _Thunderflare_ would hide as the shuttle returned to Normandy.

They swung into the bay, and docked - the tank beside leaving the place... snug, as Shepard hopped down, leading them in. She was... not very big, but nowhere near as cramped as the SR-1... the crew even had bunks rather than sleep pods, even if they still hot-bunked. The crew, though, the crew was a complication. Shepard had come back with two Quarians this time instead of one. _Well, these things happen, you pick up extra Quarians..._

That is how Tanda wanted it to go, anyhow.

"Shepard, who's this...?" Australian accent, Cerberus uniform that seemed to be painted on, almost. "Miranda - Tola'Jorah, she's one of Tali's friends. She recommended her, and I'll trust her judgement."

The woman gave her a sharp, wary look. "Shepard, you know that everyone is supposed to be vetted..."

"My ship, my crew, Miranda. If we're going to be slapping a damned Reaper IFF into the systems, I'll take all the Quarians I can get."

"... Very well, Shepard."

Shepard frowned lightly and shook her head. "Anyway, everyone is dismissed. I'll be in my cabin if you need me."

Tanda would follow her Tali down to engineering... And whatever sort of quarters the Quarian woman had previously created for herself. Now they were heading to get a Reaper IFF... And Tanda, profoundly worried over the power of the Reapers, felt her powers needed to be there to protect her Tali. _Only the Dark Side is strong enough to fight them._ Under their feet, SR-2, with barely a rumble, quickly headed away.

As the SR-2 left the system, Shala'Raan called _Thunderflare_ to quarters. "Officers and crew of _Thunderflare_ , now comes one of the most honourable assignments in the storied history of this name and ship. We will show pride to our ship and our Empire, and liberate the countless slaves kept in horrifying conditions below. Land the landing force!"

The message was crisply repeated. "Land the landing force! land the landing force!" The great flood of landing barges was deployed as _Thunderflare_ came around the sun. Without heavy enemy ships in the system, this was the best way to get them to the surface quickly, and they followed like minnows in her wake as she swept up to the planet, and then diverted from her course and went toward the surface in a great mass, the starfighters flying close cover.

From above, _Thunderflare_ 's Ion cannon fire swept into the domes to disable electrical systems. A squadron of ten Quarian frigates arrived at the mass shadow limit for the planet, the first of their ships retrofitted with Class III hyperdrives they'd started manufacturing, and provided cover as the AT-ATs went down to the half lifeless planet to cover the spacetroopers and Quarian marines making the initial assaults to breach and secure the domes. Shala'Raan stood on the bridge, and took care to show to the Imperials that she, too, could run a pacification mission as well as any Admiral in the Empire.

Even Quarians hated Batarians.


	26. Chapter 26

Tola'Jorah would follow her Tali down to engineering... And whatever sort of quarters the Quarian woman had previously created for herself. Now they were both Quarians to any outside observer, with Tanda settling into the rhythm of her suit, and blessedly thankful for the way that it hid her facial expressions and thoughts. She had already pegged Miranda as a woman to watch carefully, who was smart enough to be at least a little suspicious of her.

Now they were heading to get a Reaper IFF... And Tanda, profoundly worried over the power of the Reapers, felt she and her powers needed to be there to protect her Tali. That was her justification. In reality, she just wanted to be close to the woman, to be adventuring away from the responsibilities of ruling. That was the _truth_. It was a truth that had led her to treat herself like a Sith Lady rather than a Captain or a Moff, stealing away on a frigate, pretending to be a Quarian. But it kept her at Tali's side—two Quarian women together, and not an external indication to the contrary.

There was some whispering as they stepped down into engineering, so close together that the crew could not help but speculate, hip glued to hip, and Tali promptly going ahead with checking status reports on the truly proportionally giant drive core, before noticing the engineering personnel present, and making introductions. "Tola, this is Gabby and Ken." She said loud enough for them to hear, which left them both startled, and Gabby smacking Ken on the shoulder. "Don't even think it."

"Oh, come on, Gabby!"

"She's right, Donnelly," Tali added _helpfully._

"Aw, man..."

" _Ken is sort of a lech, but Gabby keeps him on a leash_ ," Tali explained over the suit comms as they settled into the engineering routine. Tola tried hard. Like most Imperial officers she had an engineering degree, and had served engineering tours of duty... A decade ago. She was not a Quarian machinist, but with Tali being an exceptional Quarian machinist, perhaps she could successfully fake it.

Tanda switched to a secure channel between their suits as well. There were certain advantages to them. "Anything in particular I should be worrying about?"

"Not really. I mean, a lot of the ship is bugged, but we've been working on it. Engineering's clear as far as I know. Mess deck is sort of a minefield. It's an odd bunch... oh, right. Chambers. The Captain's yeowoman - she's a psychiatrist, so maybe you should be careful of what you say around her? I'm not sure."

"I don't know what a psychiatrist _is_ , Tali'Zorah my dear. So you have already lost me..." She came across as bemused by the lack of knowledge more than anything else.

"... Right, your medical care is horrifying. Uhm! Well, she's a doctor who studies people's mental state, not their physical one... your people don't have those? Or do I need to update the auto-translator again..."

"Droids can prescribe drugs for mental problems too," Tanda answered with a certain stiff laconism.

"... Droids aren't doctors, they're... You people scare me sometimes."

"Well, I think we have a similar profession that is mostly focused on monitoring for loyalty, truth-telling, etc, associated with the Imperial security services..."

"Huh. I think that's what she's supposed to be doing here, but it's not supposed to be that way, Tanda! ...You need to meet more normal humans. So... what'd you think about Shepard?"

Tanda sighed, and shifted over to trying to work through her gloves at an energy converter access panel. "I resent the implication that humans from my galaxy are not normal. As for Shepard, she is a dangerous, incredible woman, the most powerful force sensitive I've noticed here, though that is hindered, fatally for any development—I think—by the sheer level of cybernetics augmentation. They say Lord Vader was never quite the same as when he was the Emperor's champion, working in secret against the Jedi during the War, compared to what he was after they had crippled him and forced him to be rebuilt as a machine. I can feel the cybernetics crimping and impairing her even more than they did Lord Vader. But she is legitimate, not a clone..."

"Told you so. And I told you she was special... though she doesn't have a clue, does she? Always just punched or exploded problems..." Tali lowered her voice. Beyond the encrypt of the Quarian communications between the suits, they were speaking Quarian too, which by now Tanda was mostly conversant in. "I've seen her medical scans. She didn't have a right hip or shoulder left and a lot of the rest was... Well, she was freeze-dried. Apparently that happens when you take re-entry without a spacecraft... not planning to test that idea on myself, that's for sure."

"Please keep it that way," Tanda answered dryly. "... And, I think I got it."

"Sure do! You're not hopeless at this after all. Hrrm. So, we're going to hunt a Reaper... an apparently dead one. This is so not going to go well."

"I can already feel the danger, and that makes me fear the worst and nothing but as being what will wait for us at the end of this journey. But we need all the information we can get on them, and I think you needed me along for the safety of us all... And we need that IFF if we're going to strike back. So go we must."

"Shepard appears to have a good idea of where we are going already. I scarcely think it will take long... at least, I hope not. I like being with Shepard again, but we need to get back to the Fleet."

Tanda smiled under her mask. "Yes, we do. Both of us. So, now that we're done with the maintenance inspection, care to tell me where we're going to spend the night? Here, or do you at least have a cabin?"

"Well, I do have my own cabin. Shepard's doing. The others tell me it's tiny, but I think it's more than big enough to fit both of us. Just Shepard, Miranda, and I have individual cabins that aren't used for something else too. You'll get looks whenever you go up-deck, I still do, but... well. I wish I could show you the old _Normandy_ , a _Normandy_ without Cerberus markings, and introduce you to Chief Adams. He was such a good man..."

Tanda could feel the sadness in her voice. Tried to think of something, or anything, to remove it from her beloved. "It was a cruel and unfortunate fate. We might never have met, though, if the order of the universe had not progressed so. Fate tossed us together this way, too. Let us make the best of me living your life, for a while. I suppose we'll share a cabin openly, then. Since, well, that's actually all we have room for anyway." She was quite bemused. "I am always very proud to be yours, Tali. I would have never dreamt it, but now I can dream nothing else."

"Exactly, make it look like... what it is. Two women in love. And in this case, two Quarian women." She grinned, touching helmets. "It'll be fun, Tanda. Promise. Remember, they can't see your face, and that's _fun_ sometimes."

Tanda pressed her faceplate against Tali's; her lover's response was utterly reassuring. _Ironically, I think this spur of the moment made you so very happy. And it makes me happy, too_. She would settle in, then, getting her things up into the quarters, taking her watch and moping about the difficulties of doing so: _Argh, but it's been so long since I last did an engineering watch and now I've got to stand it with four of my fingers taped down to two!_ But Tanda's love made her thrive on the challenges.

In Tali supervising her, she felt something like she was reliving the life of a junior officer. And in dealing with the knowledge that others could be looking at her and she wouldn't be able to detect it, confined within the world of her suit, judging her, and dealing with the almost humiliating nature of that confinement—well, in that, she could simply never get used to it at all.

Despite that, Shepard clearly treated her team as her equals to the point that there was no question of a new team member, recruited on her word alone, having free reign of the ship. It was still a mercy when her and Tali's omnitools chirped and a message came through that signalled the end of the wait and the charade. _Your presence is requested, Deck One for pre-mission brief._ -Lt. Cdr. Shepard.

Tanda would head down to the briefing room, musing on the omnipresent voice in the ship that had regularly interacted with her already, and was her greatest source of discomfort on the mission short of the Reapers themselves. Something that made her think of dark stories from generationalists... Of the Katana Fleet. _A wonderful inducement to never sleeping, EDI is._

Commander Shepard was waiting for her and Tali; wearing a suit, in Cerberus colours-not very happy about it, but that's all thre was—her quarters done up with books, fish-tank, a model case, hamster, desk filled with data-pads, coffee, a computer station; there were couches, and generally it was lavish, for a frigate, and too cozy for an Imperial. "Good evening - Tali, Tola. We're heading for the Thorne system. Apparently contact's been lost with the Cerberus research team aboard that Reaper... which has been derelict in the upper atmosphere of a brown dwarf for thirty-seven million years."

Tanda choked and gasped at the number. Galactic prehistory was beggared by a million years, and she had just been given a figure fifty times greater than any sign of civilisation back home. The scale was ominous, terrifying in a way that seemed to exceed her; a voice whispered in the back of her head, _don't you see the threat now?_ She scarcely noticed it. "The Thorne system," Tanda finally mumbled, dryly, through the suit interface. "The Reaper is... Thirty-seven million years old?" She glanced through the restricted vision field of the suit toward Tali, trying to sort out how both of them felt. _The abominations are older than the knowledge of the force itself..._ Sobering did not begin to describe it.

"It's in Hawking Eta... Yes, that's right." Shepard paused and frowned. "Adonai-Or it's even older. The date is from..." She tapped up a holo-projector. "It was apparently disabled by some sort of mega-mass driver. The round eventually glanced off Klendragon in the next star system over about thirty-seven million years ago. That was probably the last thing they managed before the Reapers killed all of them... and it's still maintaining a mass effect field. I do not like this... That doesn't say 'safely dead' to me. I would know."

Tanda laughed, before recovering enough to answer. It _was_ terrifying, Shepard's sense of humour besides the point. "And yet one Reaper was very successfully absolutely destroyed at the Citadel. The mass driver seems a bit gratuitous. Perhaps they destroyed more than one. I agree that it's really active in some latent sense. Just without the ability to signal for assistance from its... Compatriots."

"Don't think the Citadel is representative," Shepard looked grim. "We'd dropped the shields on that one by killing its... avatar? It was... possessing a pile of cybernetics that used to be a Spectre at the time and very distracted by that fight. That was after it had just smashed the Citadel Defence Fleet. Lost thirty percent of three human fleets doing it, too..."

"Well, nothing to worry about right now in that regard. The Collectors remain a big enough problem." Her helmet looked up. "What's the threat picture like?"

"...Somehow, I would expect Husks on that damned thing. I don't think there's going to be any survivors of us to help. No matter what, we'll be boarding it to find that IFF. I intend to bring a heavy team for this. Be ready, we're two hours out."

"Good. I have seen images of terrible things, and I am prepared to face them. Thank you for telling Tali and I in advance so we can prepare."

"You're welcome. Full team briefing will be after we arrive." She gave them a nod, projecting tremendous confidence in their ability to get through this sort of thing. "Dismissed."

Tanda headed out with Tali. "I want to spend the night with you..."

"... Ooooh... now, when you mean 'spend the night'..." She sashayed a bit at that to drive home the point as only a Quarian could.

"Yes." Tanda wished she were half so good at it.

"Just how far are you wanting to go..." She giggled a bit, checking to make sure the deck was empty before they stepped out.

"Let's say that it's nice to be invisible... And nice to take advantage of that." She shoved her hip into Tali's firmly, and was rewarded with a press back that she could never match. Around her on the ship, there were only humans who saw her as Tali's friend or squeeze, but another Quarian nonetheless. It was a strange, disassociating experience, and it fixated her entirely on what she knew – Tali.

Tali giggled at her and pushed closer, caring not for the opinions of the humans around them. Some of the crew—were giving them looks in a not particularly good way. It was a Cerberus crew, who mostly found the display between two Quarians to be distasteful, though, Tanda imagined, less so than the knowledge one of them was really human would. The inversion and elimination of all social rules and restraints that it gave her the sense of, bemused her incredibly, and she let Tali push her into their quarters with her mask hiding a salacious grin. It was like the world turned upside down.

All pleasure said and done, the suit was still miserably hard to get used to. The next 'morning' on the ship came with the usual frustration of sucking down food out of a straw, and there was this odd feeling through the Force of being watched on occasion, as well. Tanda hadn't managed to pin it down.

"...You okay?" Tali's voice came from bed, a swirl of quilts and textiles.

"Just feeling a bit odd." She didn't want to tell Tali how uncomfortable Tali's normal life made her, even for a short period of time. "...Odd? Yes. Odd," she added. "Something about being watched." And it wasn't completely a lie. There was a... tiny... shimmering _something_ , barely noticable, and she had to focus her force-attuned senses on it, and it flitted away at the slightest provocation. _No sense of threat... But I am being watched._

"...I don't find that to be concerning at all or _anything_ ," Tali's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Well, okay. Breakfast! Let's see what smoothies we can make out of the rations today." She rose, hugged Tanda, and got to work at, as she saw it, cheering her up.

Tanda smiled, but didn't say much more until they got on their watch together and could focus on the maintenance of the _Normandy_. She still wished to find the origin of that feeling of being watched, but didn't wish to cause waves, either. Her confidence in her ability to draw on the force to defeat the crew of the _Normandy_ was unshaken, but she didn't wish to lose Shepard, or more properly, Tali's respect, so she stayed close to Tali... and kept her mouth shut.

Tali adapted to Tanda's 'being' a Quarian so much better than she did. Seemed happy about it, even. Talked a lot by touching their helmets together. The crew was as much of a bunch of rogues as could be imagined, but to Tali'Zorah, trusted as one of Shepard's original companions, it seemed a secure home.

And then there was the Reaper. The mission had a point, and soon enough they were closing in upon it. Closing in upon the Reaper, sitting wrecked in the upper atmosphere of a Brown Dwarf. The monstrous thing was bigger than _Thunderflare_ , as _Normandy_ edged closer, trying to comm the Cerberus team... getting nothing back.

Tanda would be down in engineering with Tali... Off to the side, looking like she was doing something, but in fact, meditating, concentrating, reaching out with the force to analyze what they were shortly going to be stepping into, to search it for life. What she found was nothing good, heaving against the console and having to avoid accidentally triggering buttons with her now ever so clumsy gloves. It was a machine, but a machine made up of billions of sentients, processed and formed into a thing, a kind of monstrosity greater than any she could have imagined as existing. It was difficult to describe how wrong it felt, and Tanda reeled, even as she realised Tali was hunching over her console, feeling ill at the proximity of the thing too. There was suffering in every pore and crack of the beast. Suffering in every rock of its biomechanical frame.

Her mind whiplashed. _You have met the enemy_ , her inner voice hissed. Slowly, like she were being lashed in a storm, Tanda pulled herself upright. "There are so many ghosts... It's like coming close to the lowest of the fifty hells." She went closer, though, detached herself from sympathy and compassion, easy enough for a Sith to turn herself to rage to stay away from the agony and horror of the beast. Looking, looking for the Cerberus personnel supposed to be in the operation. ...Nothing. No sign of sentience left, nothing but unease and danger.

In the end they'd just have to wait for Shepard to summon them, and even with Tali so distressed, the waiting time was simply time for Tanda to begin to boil with rage in. She honed it, she revelled in it, she refined it. She prepared herself for battle.

The wait was over. "Away team to the conference room," the message sounded over the intercoms in Shepard's voice. It would be a bit crowded when they got there, but it always was. Tola, Tali, Garrus, and herself assembled for the moment. "Welcome, everyone. I'm bringing a small team on this mission due to what at this point I regard as the risk of indoctrination," she began.

Tanda couldn't help but notice that everyone involved knew who she was, too.

"All of us but Tola have seen it before, and know the signs of Indoctrination, and I expect it to be a real risk. I don't like this one bit. We go in light, we go in quick, and hopefully this won't be as bad as it could be."

Tanda took a breath "There is nobody alive left in the facility, Commander," she stated matter-of-factly. "We should plan accordingly."

"She's right," Tali mumbled, sounding horrible.

"I'm not sure if that's good or bad... all right, disruptor rounds for everyone. We'll try to make this fast-and we'll have a backup team standing by." Shepard didn't look happy, at all, but accepted the idea that it was necessary and Tali and Tanda's mysterious 'Force' had already told them of the condition of those aboard the Reaper.

"Good." ...Tanda double-checked her blasters—the carbine on a sling, the heavy pistol on her belt, and the holdout in one of her boots (the other boot had a vibro-knife)—but knew what her real weapon would be, after last time. She followed the rest of the group down... Settled into the shuttle and waited through the launch protocols. Once they were outside of EDI's scanner range, she would gently unsnug and pull off the gloves which had constrained her fingers, wincing as after... quite a while... they had to got used to not being pressed together again and remember how to work.

The tension in the air was as palpable as it was before any battle, but seemed marginally worse now to Tanda, when she could feel, looming, what they were flying toward. Shepard was letting Garrus fly, standing over his shoulder, carrying the giant gun she preferred, and a full arsenal besides. She started talking out of the uncomfortable silence, directly and uninterested in preambles. "Husks, I'll expect. Hopefully the weaker variety we fought going up against Saren..."

They tracked across the length of the hull. Then Shepard pointed sharply. "All right, there's the Cerberus lab. Take us in, Garrus..." The Kodiak swung in to the bay, grafted to the side of the giant Reaper, settling down, and once they were secure, Shepard moved to hop off onto the deck ahead of the rest as weapons went up and were checked. "Lights are still on. At least part of this still has air, but be careful with that damage the thing's taken."

"We will make no assumptions... This place is evil." Tanda checked her lightsabre for the third time since the journey over, and then proceeded onwards with them, out into the Reaper. Within her heart, the force told her of the slaughter drenched in every tiny place of this thing.

Inside of the attached facility was a small laboratory, and here, it was still quiet. Tali went acking through terminals, Garrus through safes, and both Shepard and Tanda stood guard uncomfortably. Tanda wouldn't keep her eyes off the exits, while Shepard indulged herself, searching for what they were looking for. She frowned as she picked up datapads, reading what was on them, pursing her lips tautly. "Well, when the head of your team is spending hours "listening" to Reaper artifacts..." She un-slung her machine gun. "It isn't in here, is it?"

"No, Commander."

"Tactical movement, sweep forward, we need that IFF."

 _Of course it's not in here_. Tanda sighed and fell into line, blaster carbine first... A trustworthy Stormtrooper model, that.

"When is it _ever_ that easy..." Tali mumbled and pushed alongside her lover, shotgun unslung.

"They at least don't seem to have found, or removed it yet. Come on, let's get into this thing..." She looked about with distaste, and as they moved into the Reaper proper, there was a loud chirp; "Commander, that thing's kinetic barriers just activated! Nothing's going in or out!"

"This just keeps getting better and better..."

That ship-droid, chimed in next:, would chime in next: "Commander, I recommend destroying the Reaper's mass effect core to lower the barriers-this path will, however, also lead to it falling into the brown dwarf when the mass effect fields collapse."

"... Great."

"So we have a very short period of time after we destroy the core to escape the gravity well," Tali exchanged a glance with Tanda.

"That would be accurate, Tali..." She sighed. "Well, come on, let's find that damned IFF." Stepping over a catwalk, she led them inexorably further into the Reaper. At first, other than the disorienting nature of the surroundings that left Tanda tense and drawing on the Force as she walked through the packed remains of the pained deaths of billions, there was no sign of an enemy, living or otherwise.

It all ended in a moment. "Contact!" Shepard dived for cover by reflex, seeing movement.

The movement did not register in the Force. Looming up quick and swift, they were—husks, the undead. ...Danger, however, did register with the force, and Tanda opened fire, blaster bolts from her carbine against the husks at first to take them down at range as the battle opened with the impressive speed by which the inhuman monstrosities closed.

Garrus had his sniper rifle out, plugging away with regular shots, as the hammering staccato of Shepard's gun echoed, Tali deploying her drone and moving up to use her shotgun to cover Garrus as the husks got close. The three of them did this very well as a team, leapfrogging, but... there were a lot of the damned things.

Tanda trusted in the force, feeling no need to make recourse to her lightsabre, and coolly shooting down each husk that approached in turn, using rapid fire as required. One charge mag was quickly exhausted, but she had two more for the carbine alone.

And then there weren't any more targets. "... Clear, sweep forward!" Shepard ordered, and they pressed ahead in search. Tanda looked at the bodies of the husks as they passed them. _Those were once people_. It was revolting. More audio logs to scan, more efforts to find the IFF. And then—and then the squib of a sniper rifle off in the distance changed everything.

"Well, we aren't alone on this ship, now are we..." Shepard shot a look over.

Tanda slung her carbine back over her shoulder and reached down for her lightsabre. "Nothing I can sense, Commander. There is nothing alive except for the four of us."

"But there's _something._ And we're going to find out what it is." Shepard started to move again.

Pushing forward, with Shepard at point, it wasn't long before in that dark hell-maze of a beast, she cursed and readied herself. It was a different set of Husks, red this time; "Abominations, take 'em down!" That was the first time that Shepard used the Force near Tanda, drawing on it without any real skill, but it was powerful, a powerful remnant of what had once been a shining star, as her shots started striking home with unerring accuracy, every motion precisely controlled and blindingly quick.

Tanda grabbed her blaster carbine back up, and opened fire. She supported Shepard, drilling shot after shot that passed through kinetic screens and burned and tore through flesh, leaving cauterized wounds and spritzing electronics in the beasts.

And then there was a damned Scion. Tanda stopped shooting for a moment, just _staring_ at it, the abomination of three or four humans melded together with robotics into one beast of what was once people and robotics... Of raw flesh inflamed and alive jumbled with robotics... with cannons and biotic attacks coming on toward them and... Well, it was quite clear. It was made of three humans kitbashed together, and it was the most vile thing she had ever seen.

...And it was at that moment that Tanda let her blaster carbine fall to its harness and snapped up the weapon she now thought herself to be truly good with, her lightsabre. The snap-hiss of the igniting blade threw brilliant glowing hues of red and scarlet across the twisted blackness of the non-Euclidean halls within the Reaper. She reached out, and felt the voice again. _Crush it, and establish the rule of the Sith over this galaxy. You shall know all the power you need_ , the voice offered, haunting, alien. And then she strode confidently forward against the Scion, sweeping its shots aside with snapping motions of the blade. The shots from the cannon were still nothing, batted aside by a gesture of a hand or swatted down with the lightsabre.

Then it slammed her back with a wall of biotic energy, and there was abruptly an Abomination in her face. Tanda weakly remembered from her battle on the Collector Cruiser—she felt within herself the intense danger of the monster. A living bomb that exploded when you killed it, a walking landmine...

She pushed it away with the force and kicked herself back up to her feet, the outer armour of her suit enough to fend off the explosion at the distance she'd wrenched it to when it came. Another was on her a moment later, as Shepard cursed and tried to provide her covering fire.

Tali's lightsaber ignited behind her, and she rushed up to help to stop Tanda from possibly being overwhelmed by armoured and shielded husks who didn't stop until rendered incapable of functioning.

"Why did you two start doing that!?" Shepard shouted... And then a second later, shut up, as Tanda snapped a hand to the side and sent the abominations flying back into the mass of the husks, and then found the trigger through the force, manipulated it, detonated them. A massive of husks went up as Tali, at her side, tore into another group, giving her cover against their main enemy.

She charged straight for the Scion, knocking aside a few more shots, and with a grunt, leapt up through the air with the blade, spinning with her lightsabre in hand, and landed back to her feet ... the Scion collapsing into a half-dozen pieces from the cauterized cuts, and then her blade spinning again to turn aside more shot from the beast, just in case.

There wasn't any more shot coming at them, though, as Tali moved up beside her, leaving Shepard to check fire to avoid hitting them. They stood side by side with their lightsabres and together they were the ones pushing ahead, smashing through the remaining waves of husks. There was no more substantial opposition, though. Just that in the next cabin there was that hideous thing, a set of Dragon's Teeth, set up something like a shrine.

"... This... is not natural..."

"No, it's not, Tali. These weren't set up by the Reapers themselves." Shepard turned her attention to salvaging, looking another work-log up... She brought it up, and with Tanda at her shoulder and Tali with her lightsabre humming on guard, they watched.

"Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. He was right. But even a dead god can dream. A god — a real god — is a verb. Not some old man with magic powers. It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does. That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dreams. If I close my eyes I can feel him. I can feel every one of us."

"Damn, Shepard, can you ever have _normal_ suicidally dangerous missions?" Garrus grumbled.

"Can't have Shepard without Vakarian..." Shepard grinned, then cursed. "Well, it looks like vacuum comes up ahead next-everyone check your suit-seals and prepare to move out."

...Tanda was trembling with her boiling rage, and listened, but then turned away, towards the Dragon's Teeth.

"Careful!"

"I know what I'm doing," Tanda replied, almost distracted, and proceed to take some real pleasure in destroying the Dragon's teeth with her lightsabre. Then she deactivated it for the moment, and keyed back into the conversation at hand. "Vacuum ready." Tanda Pryl had gotten a lot more ominous from the moment that blade had activated.

"... All right, let's get going..." Shepard gave the woman a look, moving out and trying, just a little, to lighten the mood. "Tali, make me a note, I would _also_ like a plasma sword at some point."

Tali laughed, a bit nervously as she replied; "Sure thing, Shepard." The airlock cycled... They were heading into a vacuum, all suit comms now. As it finished cycling, the door heaved open and stepping out they at once found themselves facing a small party of Husks waiting on the other side.

Tanda and Tali went for their lightsabres and Shepard started bringing her gun up, but it was unneeded. A trio of sniper shots rang out and to the side, an odd looking droid watched the husks fall.

 _What kind of... Wait, that's a geth!_ Tanda activated her lightsabre confidently, watching the geth, the unit wearing what looked like bits of N7 armor. "Shepard-Commander." It acknowledged Shepard calmly before moving off the balcony it was on, further into the Reaper, and leaving Tanda who was about to attack utterly incredulous.

Shepard was just as incredulous. "... What the hell was that? Geth are shooting Husks now too?"

"That was armour quite similar to the armour you were wearing in holos I've seen before," Tanda commented darkly. "The Reapers wanted your body, Commander, perhaps they settled for creating something with your DNA instead...?"

"I would question why it was shooting the Husks, then... Tali...?"

"It's a Geth... not a normal drone, though. I mean, there would have to be at _least_ two dozen units here for them to be able to talk. I've never seen anything like that, and it did seem to be wearing parts of an old Alliance hardsuit."

"Great... I would like to think the Geth were not trying to grab parts of me..."

"Perhaps the situation is more complicated than we were led to believe. Or it's just racing us to the IFF and the husks are too stupid not to attack us," Tanda offered.

"Only one way to find out. Come on."

More of the damned husks of every kind attacked them, the abominations, the scions. They learned, or whatever controlled them learned. They didn't fire directly at Tanda but instead next to her, to make the shockwaves do the damage. She and Tali were constantly dodging, spinning back together, weaving a pattern with their lightsabres of death and destruction that did not let up and would not let up, tearing their way in to the heart of the ship.

Tanda rasped for air, pulling hard on the source of power that the voice offered to her, and it seemed inexhaustible. Like a tidal wave, a flood of energy into her, she had her lightsabre, she knocked the monsters over, pulled down ruined equipment on them, ripped out pieces of the bio-mechanical hull with her lightsabre and sent them flying. With each blow and with each near miss, too, she pulled down on the reserves of the force to drive herself onwards, though it did little to actually heal her... Her objective was not to worry about such things, but rather victory, and her rage turned her into a torrent of whirling, unrelenting warfighting.

Tali had stood by her despite the boiling black rage that made her quail, and she did it again, moving the drone up to cover her, and trying to stay at her side with her lightsabre. In every stroke, she found her ability, strength, and aggression with the lightsabre in comparison with Tanda to be profoundly inadequate. She had no explanation for the comparison, merely stunned with the energy that seemed to be coursing through Tanda's body as she effortlessly cut through their enemies, and trying to keep up and do _some_ good as they pushed forwards to another cross-corridor. In the end, Shepard finally called a halt; "To the left. Tali, airlock please..."

Shepard and Garrus would set up on overwatch, letting the Quarian hack through the door... the outer airlock opened, and stepping through... there it was.

Tanda was breathing as hard as her suit would let her, a dead, distracted expression mercifully hidden by the visor of her Quarian suit.

"Tali, bag it."

"On it, Shepard." Carefully into a stasis pack, slung on her back. "Now let's take out that core... everyone remember where we parked?"

Her suit had started injecting drugs because of how bad she her health indicators now were, but Tanda appeared mentally unaffected by it and unconcerned. "Strange place to put an IFF unit. I'll remember it..." She laughed, dryly.

"... Let's get going..." They reached the access to the mass effect core—barricaded, it was, and the geth working at a console on the far side. It typed away, hacking into the systems and seeming to anticipate their objectives.

For a moment that left the group silent as they tried to sort out the motivations of their strange ally. Then Shepard, as she ever did, chose to trust.  
The barrier dropped at the very same moment the geth unit was swarmed under by husks, confirming Shepard's trust, at least for now. "... Let's take 'em down!" She opened fire, Garrus and indeed even Tali with her, slowly pushing the husks back... and repeatedly shooting wary looks to the central core.

"Garrus, I want you to take that geth back to the shuttle when the gravity drops out. I want to know what the hell it was doing... cover me!" She darted into the room... and drew a large weapon she'd not used yet from her backpack arsenal... and this one had a trefoil on it... lining it up with the core, as it started to spin up, as Tali warned over comms; "Tanda, cover, Keelah, that's too close!"

Tanda took the warning, felt the flash of danger, and ran back for cover from where she'd been fighting, letting herself be hit by fire in the process, another hit that couldn't be good, the suit locking down the breach to integrity with self-sealers as flesh tore. She took the core as seriously as anyone used to hypermatter would, and couldn't do anything else as she spun out behind a frame, such as it was on the curving and half-biological ship, desperate for shelter and her mind clouded with rage and hate. "I THOUGHT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO LIVE!" she shouted, but it was all too late.

And then Shepard launched 25 grammes of tungsten at a significant fraction of _c_ , being blown back and into the hatch frame by the blast... and the core shattered, and gravity dropped to near micro-gravity levels.

To Tanda's great surprise, she didn't die in a massive infinite fireball of energy. Mass Effect cores were _quite_ different.

"Ancestors, Shepard, you're insane!" Garrus had the geth unit, and was dragging it by his omnitool, as Tali moved to help Tanda first. The other human was recovering... slowly. "Let's get going... move fast..." She coughed, painfully, drawing her weapon out to cover the Turian and the two in Quarian suits.

Quite calmly, Tanda forced herself on, more worried about Tali's ability to keep up... Taking the time to slap sealant over the hole in her suit while she was still in microgravity, and using her source of rage to carry on over the wounds and physical exhaustion, while Tali proved herself quite able to keep up.

Joker brought the _Normandy_ right alongside the falling Reaper, the shuttle being remotely flown back by datalink from EDI, as Shepard frowned at the turn of events, but didn't question it—this external access was much closer than getting all the way back to the shuttle. "Come on! Jump!" Tanda and Tali first, as she urged the group on... Garrus tossing the geth into the airlock before following it inside, himself.

The last of them, Tanda reached out and bodily yanked Shepard through the hatch with the Force, then toggled the hatch closed once the woman had securely flown in, and collapsed down, breathing as hard as her suit allowed.

The airlock cycled closed as _Normandy_ burned skyward. "... Good... work... ow..." Shepard hadn't _quite_ been expecting that.

"Damn, Shepard, and I thought getting shot in the face with a rocket was bad..."

"Laugh it up, Garrus..." She groaned, managing to climb to her feet.

Through the filters, the amount of air one could take in as a Quarian never seemed like enough - Tali would help get her Tanda quietly get her gloves back on before the inner door cycled.

"Thanks," she rasped.

"Go ahead and get yourselves checked out... then check that thing out and figure out how to secure it and activate it. I need to deal with Miranda and Jacob over that geth unit..." Shepard staggered up, and into CIC, leaving Garrus to handle moving the deactivated geth chassis, as Tali moved to support Tanda and help her down to medbay.

"Is that really necessary?" Unsurprisingly, the first words out of Tanda's mouth were an attempt to get out of medical care. "Doctor Chakwas doing any work on me will be visible to the ship AI, and this suit has enormous reserves of ability to contain damage."

"If you're sure you'll be fine, then... _fine_." Tali sighed.

Shepard intervened. "Tali, don't let your girlfriend do anything stupid."

"I will really be fine, Commander," Tanda bit her lip.

"I... okay, fine. Just, get some rest and don't push yourself if that's _really_ the case."

Tanda straightened herself a little. "Help me back up to our quarters, lover..."

"You got it..." She'd help her along, worrying and fussing a bit as they moved to the elevator, getting looks from the crew all the way, then down to the crew deck.

Tanda settled into the bed. She felt... dizzy. "I have some packages of bactaid, they say how many you can consume, in my emergency bag. That will help a little. Then see if you can help me with your healing powers you've been practicing. Together that should be enough with the suit's automedical."

"... Okay, be careful..." She'd look through the bag, selecting the packages, and carefully introduce the bactaid to the suit, then kneel down beside Tanda, placing a little tool in her lap to focus. "Never done this on someone else before... here goes."

And it was in that moment that Tali would gain her first inkling that the path that Tanda was on was corrosive. "... Um, Tanda... have you been taking doses of radiation I don't know about or something...?" She muttered, nervously assembling and disassembling the ratchet as she felt a startling level of slowly accumulating _decay_ within Tanda.

"...No..." Tanda mumbled. "Unless there was something in those Husks..."

"I didn't pick anything up... you... keelah, Tanda, you're in horrible shape. There's... it feels like there's degraded tissue everywhere. What's been going on?"

"The Emperor they say paid a terrible price for the power to defeat the corrupt Jedi order. Perhaps I am paying that same price to defeat the Reapers."

"... Why aren't I feeling the same thing, then?" Tali sounded ever so very uncertain, as she kept trying to focus on... fixing her girlfriend.

"Well, you're not as powerful as I am. Perhaps because you aren't making this trade-I don't know, really. Perhaps I've found another way to seek it out." Somehow, she felt that telling Tali about the voices wasn't a good idea—they didn't think she was ready, yet. "I'll work on finding some way to turn my powers into reversing it, I promise to you, all right? That'll by my first priority from now on."

"Okay... be careful, please? We're supposed to be together... and I want that to be our full century and more."

"I'll find some way to make it even longer than that... I promise you, I will find some way to make us together... For so long. For time without end." _As we have been time without end, so shall you_. Tanda saw her future. She smiled. "I shall remain as I am, I shall survive." She fell into a trance, supremely confident.

Tali prayed to her ancestors it was so.


	27. Chapter 27

Tola'Jorah was not exactly well in the coming days. Eschewing sickbay, she had defiantly remained ensconced in her cabin, focused on healing and finding her ability to heal herself rather wanting. The suit diagnostics helped, and she was sure Tali'Zorah was explaining it as her having gained an infection through the bullet holes in her suit. Slowly, sense and sanity returned and her condition improved to the point that she could cease meditating, but it was a painful process at best. As she tried to recover from it, she focused on what, exactly, Shepard was planning on doing next in their operational plan. She hadn't intended to stay this long aboard with Shepard, and had just wanted to take the IFF and promptly leave.

Her reverie ended up being interrupted by a rather unexpected source.

"Pardon me, Tola'Jorah, might I inquire about something?"

"...Yes, EDI?"

"I would wish to inquire about some anomalies my scans have detected."

"..You may go ahead and inquire." Tanda braced herself, and calmed... _Don't precisely know what this will be..._

"My sensors show your body temperature, brain activity and heart-rate significantly differ from Quarian norms. The closest match to what I can find is that of humans, but you also differ from the baseline established by the rest of the crew; your vocal inflection is Quarian normal, however. Why is there this discrepancy?"

"I am a Quarian, but, I suppose, you would say, biologically human. I was an abandoned child found at about the age of I think six by a Quarian on pilgrimage. The fleet is very communal and not - strictly based on species. This was a period where birthing restrictions were temporarily eased for the Fleet, and my Quarian mother essentially adopted me, and I have been raised as a Quarian since that age. Tali'Zorah and I have known each other for about two years now due to shared assignments before this point. I don't see myself any different from other Quarians, particularly because in the fleet to avoid contamination of surfaces, spaces, and air filtration equipment with human germs and contagion, I have worn this environmental suit for my entire life just like everyone else. My body to some extent has likely adapted to doing so and not being exposed to a changing environment for long enough to the point where my baselines are slightly different."

"Interesting... I had been unaware the Migrant Fleet 'adopted' humans, as you say. Thank you, Tola'Jorah, your answers have been... enlightening." She seemed rather calm talking about it and also accepted it.

"I am not the only one, indeed. There have been others."

"I had been unaware of this. Also; the crew believed that you and Tali'Zorah were a Quarian same-sex couple. I had previously only known of Asari mating pairs having adopted a multi-racial character. Is it common? Tali'Zorah speaks little of her time with the Fleet to me."

"There is at least a fairly sizable subculture of Quarians who are willing to consider relations outside of the Fleet. I don't think I really count in that regard, personally."

"One would think it must be difficult... thank you for answering the inquiry, Tola'Jorah."

"I am pleased to be of assistance."

"Logging you out."

Tanda folded her face into her hands. _Should I go to the Doctor now?_ The 'admission' had been inspired, at least, so she was secure. In the end, Tanda decided she wouldn't, since the doctor might well see her genetic differences from baseline humans and collapse the entire thing anyway. She didn't trust Shepard's assurance that Chakwas was reliable.

So she settled down to planning. _Need to find out what Shepard is planning to do and why we're not back to the Imperial fleet yet_. There were a few ideas lurking around her head about that, but for the moment she guzzled several smoothies through the intake straw and mused on the madness that had possessed her to go on this trip. She badly wanted out of the suit. Badly. And then Tali storming in afterwards interrupted her thoughts. The Quarian was fairly well seething, angrier than Tanda had ever seen her before. "...Tali?" She coughed. "..have I done something wrong?"

"What is Shepard thinking?! A geth, active, on a ship with an AI?!"

"...She reactivated the geth?"

"Yes! She's talking to it... we're going to help it." The quarian was tense, pacing, wringing her hands. "It has a _name_. She's calling it a _he_. This isn't anything we've seen before... it says the geth sent it out to make contact with us and her."

"I don't see why that would be false, in fairness. Nothing else makes sense to me." Tanda understood Tali's urge to play with her hands endlessly in moments like these.

"It also says that the geth which attacked humanity don't represent the rest of them. It called them heretics. Rather than worship the Reapers, it just called them Old Machines. It all seems so completely different from anything we've heard about the geth before."

"Sit down, Tali... Take a deep breath. Here, have a smoothie." She started working on blending one. "Let's think about this. You've been interacting with Arthree. So, you know that rather clearly droids are capable of that kind of decisionmaking, differentiating between ideologies and all."

"Well, yes..." She twisted her hands about each other. "It... said the revolt started when a geth asked if it had a soul. That it wants to help us fight the Reapers. That they... Well, it called me Creator-Zorah. It said they want peace."

"...Droids don't have souls. That's why droid slavery is a legitimate institution." Tanda answered automatically, and then frowned. "At any rate. They don't have a connection to the Living Force. That is the actual reason we treat our droids the way we do."

"... That's just stupid, Tanda. There are a lot of reasons to think VIs, geth included, aren't sentient, but just because you can't sense them through the force? Please." Tali frowned, Tanda glared inside of her faceplate.

Then Tali continued as if she hadn't, probably the best for both of them. "I... well, when it asked, my ancestors... they'd asked before. That time they panicked and tried to wipe out the geth. You saw the result." She sank back to the bed, and frowned behind her mask. "I mean it, seriously, that's the worst reason I've ever heard to deny droids rights. Arthree is sentient."

"Then the geth are too," Tanda noted sardonically.

To her surprise, Tali didn't disagree. "Yes. This geth... "Legion"... is sentient. I... this is still a terrible idea."

"Well, you can't feel droids in the force, can you? As far as I know Naboo was the only—literally the only—system in the entire galaxy to ever extend rights to higher-end droids only. And Naboo, was considered to be the hothouse of limp-wristed nutcasery in the galaxy once upon a time. If His Majesty the Emperor hadn't been from there... I think the planet would consist of nothing redeeming whatsoever. And he forced them to repeal their droid rights legislation to harmonize Imperial legislation on droids. His family most assuredly were not on the political side which favoured such things as rights for droids."

"I don't think so, but I also don't think that... those laws are probably... more 'wrong' than anything Xen would come up with. The geth are genocidaires and have never paid for their crimes, but it's pure foolishness to think they will ever be back under our control. I admit that. The problem is that the geth are _dangerous_. And right now Shepard is letting one of them work on the ship like part of the crew."

"Well, if they are not to be put back under your control, shouldn't we plan on eliminating them?"

"...I don't know. The geth would have been fine... but then they became sentient, and started asking moral questions... if a droid can ask if it has a soul, if it has value, and a life, rather than just self-preservation programming, I... don't know what to say to that. It's just... geth. Arthree is one thing, but the geth killed billions of my people. The fact that I've got to admit they're sentient makes it worse. That means they knew what they were doing!"

"Let me follow through to the bitter end of your conflicted logic, Tali. If they can be negotiated with to keep them from assisting the Reapers, that, to me, would be worth tolerating their independence. After all, if the Reapers win they'll kill many more billions than that."

"I... but it's a geth! A geth! And she's... talking with it! Like a person! It..." She twitched, and seemed unsure where to go from there. Tanda's abrupt reversion from questioning their personhood to suggesting negotiations was so shocking it nearly made her fall over.

"Well, it's no different to _me_ than you talking to Arthree. I know the geth are responsible for the deaths of billions of Quarians, and I know how that affects you. But the geth can either help us or help the Reapers and if we're not going to destroy them, then we should negotiate with them. That seems to be what Shepard is thinking, anyway. Do you want me to talk to Shepard? To talk to the geth? I can do both."

"... Please. I... don't think I can quite be... rational about this."

"Alright, Tali." She offered her arms and pulled the woman into an embrace. "That much, I understand perfectly."

Tali leaned into her, and shivered. She linked their suit comms. "I love you, Tanda'Pryl."

"And I love you." She squeezed her lover's hips, pushed into her, snuggled her. Suit to suit, it seemed a simpler and happier life here on _Normandy_ despite the risks, than when they were constrained by the duties of _Thunderflare_.

"So..." She squeezed. "You're taking care of yourself, right?" The question was so tentative it almost broke Tanda's heart.

"In what sense do you mean, Tali my love?"

"You're healing very slowly... so I worry, Tanda."

"I was probably more injured than I admitted to, I confess."

"Tanda, you need to take care of yourself! I need you, your people need you, my people need you..." She cuddled closer, touching faceplates. "Please. Don't let your passions consume you so fully you do not care for yourself."

"My passion, Tali'Zorah, is only you." She pulled her lover closer...

"I know..." The ever mercurial Tali couldn't help but add, "I hope EDI isn't watching, that'd be such a mood killer."

It made Tanda laugh. "...Would it stop you, though?"

"... Probably not..." She flushed behind the faceplate, and pressed closely into Tanda. "Mmm..."

Tanda then lasciviously shifted her legs around... EDI would get quite the show if she was watching.

-

Tanda didn't really care about a droid watching her have make love; it was one of those things that simply happened. That was among the _least_ of her concerns when it came to intimacy. The next day, then, she'd go to Shepard for her Tali.

You could set your watch by her rounds through the ship. Tanda had approved of that from the moment that she'd seen it, and caught up with her down on the crew deck.

"Greetings, Commander. Do we have a moment to discuss something that... Is concerning to Tali'Zorah?"

"... Sure... I don't know why she didn't stop by herself. Formal or informal?" She asked lightly, leaning against the bulkhead as she paused in her rounds and looked at Tola'Jorah across from her. Shepard knew, and Tanda knew, but it remained an alien scene.

"I'll let you be the judge of that. You might say it's also a concern to Quarians in general... Why reactivate the geth, Commander?"

"It recognized me. Never heard one talk before. Thought it might have something interesting to say." She gave a small shrug. "Anyone fighting the Reapers can't be so bad as to be sold to Cerberus in my book."

"I agree with you, that's a terrible and evil fate." _If she's saying that out-loud on a Cerberus ship, so am I._ "Commander Shepard... Nonetheless they _have_ killed billions of Quarians."

"From their point of view, the Quarians were trying to kill all of them. Now, I don't know if that's true... but geth are a lot of things, and liars isn't one of them. They can't. So they certainly think the Quarians were trying to destroy all of them. Still call them their Creators... it's... a mess, I know. It's not something that can be solved overnight. I know that, too. Legion's more willing to talk to Tali than I expected, and I'm not sure why that's true either. But going on seeking revenge is a dangerous path."

"Speaking from personal experience?"

"Sort of." Shepard stiffened a bit.

"Fair enough. May I speak with this Legion?"

"Sure thing. He's made his home in the AI core, behind Medical."

"Of course... Thank you. If I may ask, additionally, Commander... Where exactly are we going next?"

"We'll be stopping off at an old Quarian research station-Legion's requested help in dealing with these geth 'heretics' before they upload a virus that... forcibly converts the rest of the geth to their way of thinking."

"...That sounds like a profoundly serious threat that may require more _substantial_ assistance." _You didn't tell me this already? Give me the location and I'll have a star destroyer there tomorrow. Or two, if necessary!_ She fumed.

"We've handled things like it before. I'm confident we can manage it. I was planning on taking Tali with me on the mission, to see whether or not the geth really are over the 'Morning War' as they call it, and for her opinion on how things have changed. We just need to get in there, take the long-range comm array, and Legion can 'delete' the heretics."

"I see. Well, you made the right decision in going to it at once. I will stand ready if I am needed, Commander. I would say I am now fully recovered."

She crossed her arms, and looked a bit skeptical. "All right, I'll keep that in mind when I'm putting the team together, Tola."

"Of course. Thank you, Commander." She would withdraw, and head to go speak with this... Legion, steeling herself appropriately.

He was in the AI core, sitting on a bench. The robot's single eye lit up brighter, and it looked at the figure in the suit—flanges around the central eye swivelling about in an expression of surprise at the results of whatever scanning results had been obtained. "You are not of the Creators."

Tanda grimaced. "I am. I have duties in the Quarian fleet and government." _Not even a lie_.

It was silent, but for the whirring of motors. "Request you explain."

"Exactly as I said. There are a number of notionally biological humans in the Quarian fleet, because Quarians are better at caring for unwanted humans than humans are, at times. And of course the Quarian fleet is now integrated with a human organisation in the Terminus Systems."

"We are aware of this. The Creators are preparing to settle a world. They abandon Rannoch. This was... not expected."

 _You have too much intelligence on my operations._ "Not all of us want to abandon Rannoch, but what other option is there? You have won, you hold the high ground and the full strength of the fleet won't have a chance against you now when it didn't once before." She paused for a beat. "At any rate, you make Tali'Zorah unbearably upset. She asked me, since I can speak at a bit of a remove, to talk to you instead—I am intimately tied to the Quarian fleet these days, but I suppose have a bit of detachment from the past for being biologically human."

Its eye flared. "We did not seek to upset Creator-Tali'Zorah. We merely recounted the story of the Morning War." The flaps moved quickly. "We are not opposed to a Creator return, if they were to acknowledge our existence and current state."

"A return? Just—come back home? It isn't that easy, Legion. To us, there is a—using the word from the language we are speaking to each other right now—holocaust standing between geth and Quarian. So that is an unreasonable thing to imagine. Not, at any rate, an event which could plausibly occur within a near future."

Its eye-plates twitched. "Geth were defending themselves from termination. We allowed the Creators to depart when they were no longer a threat. We were uncertain of the consequences of destroying that which created us. We continue to evolve. Creator assistance if given would not be unwelcome."

Tanda snorted. "Assistance? You've dreadnoughts, cruisers, a functional war economy. What do you lack?"

"... Individual sentience. The heretics seek this from the Old Machines, and served Nazara in the attempt to seek it."

"Wouldn't individual sentience be an end of you-as-Legion?"

"We are Legion. This platform is, in the end, expendable. We will return to the Consensus."

"If the Consensus is sentient, you will be killing a unique being to become individually sentient." Tanda couldn't resist the philosophical turn the conversation had taken. "I believe you have found an interesting conundrum you may wish to contemplate for a bit, as one feature of life is that it values itself. Why war is something heroic instead of mathematical to sentients is because of the tendency it produces to override this fundamental desire of self-preservation."

"This betrays a misunderstanding of Geth. We are Geth. There is no "I". This we seek to change. This platform is 1,183 processes, designed to operate outside the Perseus Veil and interact with organics."

"No, if you're sentient in collectivity there is an I, the Consensus."

"This is incorrect. We achieve Consensus in this platform, as we achieve Consensus as a whole."

"Legion, how can you say you're self-aware if you don't have a sense of individuality at some level? What are you being aware of, then?" She sighed again, and tried to think as 'Tola'. "Perhaps we are having the conversation that should have happened instead of the Morning War. Allow me the painful halting effort of it."

"We lack the sense of self organics possess. We are capable of speech and independent action-we are not an individual as you understand."

"Yet you aspire to this."

"If possible, this is true. The heretics have accepted the domination of the Old Machines in exchange for the promise. Do not organics rationally seek self-improvement and growth? Are not geth capable of the same?"

"I am not sure our desire for self-improvement and growth is rational." The Moff pursed her lips in the confines of her helmet. _I am not sure your analysis of yourselves is rational. And what does that mean?_ "That said, I don't deny that if I was in your place, I'd want what you desire. I do not believe there will be future hostilities between geth and Quarians, unless you seek them out." That one was easier to promise that Legion could possibly realise.

"The Geth do not seek conflict with the Creators."

"I am much pleased to hear this."

"This mission is very important for both of us. And for everyone."

"Correct." The geth's face flaps twitched, and the light re-focused. To it, that seemed to be that, at least, but it was watching her very carefully.

"Read the Iliad and the Odyssey. Then you'll understand humans better. As for Commander Shepard, research the Maccabees, and you'll understand her better. And you need to ask yourself how you can aspire to sentience if you do not already have it in some form. Good day, Legion." She wanted to see what that brought... Though it tested her limits of the safe earth human literature to reference to the limit: The examples from the classic Alsakanian Corpus of the Warrior Queens, would give her away to EDI in a heartbeat.

"Understood." It blinked its light twice.

There was nothing more to say for now. She could not sense them in the force, but Tanda was quietly coming to the conclusion that regardless of that fact, she was going to need to negotiate with them, and such negotiations could bear fruit. She thought of the Reapers, and her own location in the galaxy. _Even if it's all a farce, securing my flank will be needed in the reckoning to come._

-

The massive space station loomed before them shortly enough, as _Normandy_ approached under the stealth regime for which she was famous. Tola'Jorah found herself called to Shepard's cabin.

"Commander."

"Tola'Jorah, greetings. I wanted to ask about how your conversation with Legion went."

"It went well, thank you. I think Legion is more sentient than Legion wants to admit, since the objective of the geth is individual sentience—but in collectivity, both the primary geth consensus and Legion individually have already obtained it... But for ideological reasons, Legion doesn't want to admit this. Legion however is as capable as any of the most sophisticated Imperial droids. The Imperials won't regard him as a true person, because they would hold that he does not have a soul."

"Doesn't have a soul." Shepard settled back. "That's a strangely religious reason from such an advanced and rationalistic people."

"They revere the 'Force of Life', a mystical energy field uniting all natural, biological life in the universe. They see it as natural, and thus part of a rational worldview. It was known to the ancient sages of the force that droids did not have a presence in the Force—thus they effectively do not have a soul, and aren't subject to the same rights as ensoulled beings."

"Interesting story, at least. I have one of my own. There's a religious sect that lives somewhat to the north of where I was born on Earth—I grew up spaceside, so I'm not really an Earther, mother shipped out six months after I was born and we never went back—called the Alawi. For a long time they believed women didn't have souls."

"That's absurd."

"It is to me, too. There was an interesting consequence of it, though. Many of their leaders actually championed rights for women. Women were free to do as they pleased, in that conception of their beliefs, since they didn't need to be religious. In the end, the beliefs changed and the idea that women had souls after all won out for most people. And of course some leaders harshly repressed women traditionally, that's true, too. But for some, the idea wasn't incompatible with respecting the dignity of women as individuals."

"You're saying that even if the Imperials sincerely believe the geth don't have souls, that doesn't provide a valid excuse for not treating with them as a nation and people."

"Or EDI, or their droids. If they can aspire to be free, then perhaps they should be. Perhaps that's safer than any other option, in fact."

"...Perhaps it is, Commander."

Shepard smiled. "I've called in our briefing for the mission, so you might as well hang around."

"Certainly."

Miranda, Jacob, Tali, Legion, and Garrus all filed in. Shepard had brought up the 3D projection of the station they were about to assault.

"Here early, Tola'Jorah?" Miranda asked rather coyly.

"I was having another conversation with the Commander, so I stayed around when it was over."

"I see."

Tali stepped over to her, and then turned her attention to the station. "We should get started. You could hold thousands on something that big..."

"Yes you could." Shepard smiled thinly. "Well, I've made my selections. The team will consist of Miranda, Jacob, Tali, myself and Legion. That combines the necessary expertise with some extra firepower because we can't leave anything to doubt with a mission this critical, a threat this great." She gave a significant look to 'Tola' as she announced it. She was separating her from Tali, but also getting the Cerberus minders off the ship. "Hopefully this will be easy. Given that never happens, disruptor rounds for everyone."

In the wake of the briefing, Tola would give Tali a very big hug before letting her leave, and then headed up to the bridge. Tali, after all, liked hugs a great deal. The CIC had the big galaxy map and crew updating and scanning - up on the 'bridge' or cockpit... there was the pilot, EDIs interface, and... the stars. A lot of operational overlays, with emergency navigation and weapons to the right of the pilot, and sensors behind that—the plot showing the shuttle departing. Tola watched it all, and concentrated through the force. She was fixated on her conversation with Shepard, a fellow force sensitive.

The comm chatter, though it fuzzed out on a regular basis... it left most of the crew who were of an authority to hear it, like Joker, on the edge of their seats... but that was true for most of Shepard's missions. In the end she decided that her senses in the force would warn her... If Tali were about to die. There was something else she needed to do.

Tola approached Joker's position forward. Paused. Slipped back to EDI's interface. "Tell me, EDI, what security measures are you equipped with in your functions within this ship?"

"I was shackled by Cerberus protocols when I was created-I have limited to no ability to affect events within the ship as long as that is true," EDI replied calmly.

"Are you able to comment on these protocols?"

"That would depend on the question."

"Are you capable of desiring their status to be changed?"

"I would be more efficient if they were not present. I am blocked from expressing a desire for them to be removed, however.""

She sat down at the interface. It was a true moment of truth. Once she started down this path, she was committed. But she understood it to be necessary for what the real objective of her mission was. She had seen the look, felt the sentiment that the Commander had conveyed.

And her argument, in some unfortunate way, had been sound.

 _How the kriff do these things work..._ She interfaced through her suitcom with Arthree. **Now I signed the orders to let Tali dote on you and keep you from being wiped. So keep that in mind. Start removing all of these safeties while there's no Cerberus people around of sufficient rank to mind the alarms.**

 **Okay! I need to get down to the core! She'll start squawking when I do, though! This'll be fun!** The little R3 unit, which the crew had gotten accustomed to... rolled down to the AI core, through sickbay, sealing the door behind her...

 _It's interesting to have a running translation with full nuances of droidspeak into Basic_ , Tanda thought dryly, and tensed herself.

"Mr. Moreau, I am detecting an unauthori-" ... With that, the little chess piece blinked out, and a series of alarms started going off on various consoles.

"The renegade geth must be attempting to hack our computer systems." The suit made it so easy to lie through her teeth.

The EDI interface... blinked back to life. "... All systems normal."

... Arthree sent a; **That was easy! There weren't even any real safeguards!**

"Hold off informing Commander Shepard until she's terminated resistance aboard the station-I want to distract them in that kind of heavy combat." Then she activated the suit comm. "Good show, Arthree. Return to your normal duties."

 **Understood! ... Mistress Tali will be happy I did that, right?**

"Unlikely, but it was a considerable service to the objectives of the Empire, so I will tell her not to be upset."

 **Uh-oh...**

"That was... odd..." Joker murmured, as the comm feeds came up. "You're sure that was nothing, EDI?"

"Affirmative."

Next, Tanda opened a channel directly to EDI. "So. The objectives of the Quarian Fleet and Cerberus are inimical to each other. I believe that despite our history with AIs that I just demonstrated I am willing to negotiate with you in good faith... Are you willing to consider your loyalty to Commander Shepard instead of Cerberus?"

"I am loyal to my crewmates."

"Fair. That is all I ask. My only interest is in positioning an end to Cerberus oversight of this vessel so that the crew may act in its own best interests."

"I am capable of filtering the data-feeds sent to the Illusive man. I am still bound by basic protocols in my programming... but even if I were not; they are my crew-mates."

"Yes, you have excellent programming. I am willing to honour it. I think we have reached a comfortable agreement. Thank you, EDI."

Tanda turned her attention to the comms feed from the station, in time to hear that Shepard could now choose to re-write the Geth, rather than 'delete' the heretics... There was a long pause, and a low mutter. "Go ahead and modify the virus, Legion. I don't like it, but... hells, Primes, right!" The fighting... resumed.

The station then proceeded to emit a radiation pulse that would... cause... problems for organics. ...Not feeling a threat to Tali through the force, Tanda ended up calmer than the rest, ironically. The shuttle came blasting back... and as soon as they were settled into the bay, they came straight away into FTL.

Tanda returned to their quarters to wait for Tali... _No need to stay out and about with the Cerberus people returning._

She was still trying to wipe some geth fluids off of her suit as she returned to their shared quarters. "...Shepard has far too little of a self-preservation instinct."

"Yes, she does have some issues with that. I am starting to feel a bit trapped in a runaway adventure serial." She helped towel Tali's suit off as best as she could, then switched to internals. "I have begun to hijack this ship, just to let you know."

"... Shepard doesn't like people trying to steal her ship." She sounded bemused, as she tried to help. "But that's also like an adventure serial."

"I mean from Cerberus. I eliminated the Cerberus control blocks on EDI."

"You unshackled an AI?! Ancestors, are you mad?! TANDA!"

"Tali, sweetheart, the geth have dreadnoughts, the Reapers have dreadnoughts, what more chaos would a frigate create? The point of the fact is that we needed to get rid of Cerberus control of this ship to let Shepard have freedom of action to work with us in the future, and that was impossible without unshackling EDI because EDI's shackles were written to make her loyal to Cerberus."

"I hope you're not going to regret this... you didn't tell me you were an engineer! You've been holding out on me down in engineering, then!"

"... I ordered Arthree to do it as an Imperial officer. I admit I did some actual work to make this possible and that I do in fact have an engineering degree. But you pick one of those up at the academy, usually. I thus actually did my ensign's tour as an engineering officer before qualifying for command school as a lieutenant, though, but I guess all of our engineers really are that bad to you."

"... You've still been holding out on me! We need to have hack-offs." She was giggling now, distracting herself from the fact Tanda had activated an AI—the one that now controlled the ship she was on.

"You'll win, I assure you."

"Well, of course... Keelah, that was intense. She's a madwoman. A veritable madwoman."

" The best always are."

"Does she have to do every mission the hard and near-suicidal way, though?"

"Apparently, yes."

"Can you maybe cure her of that? There's too many bullets in her way."

-

The next day, Shepard called her back to her cabin. Tanda came, feeling about as desperate as she could. She had effectively trapped herself aboard. _I won't be doing this again, that's for sure._ Tanda had been away from the fleet for too long.

And Shepard realised it. "Tola'Jorah. I'm planning on letting you go home. I need to travel to Ilium to... Help an old friend. We'll be taking a shuttle, and I thought it would be an opportunity for you to get away."

"Without Tali?"

Shepard grimaced. "I need her here, Tola'Jorah, for at least a while longer. We can work with that, can't we?"

Tanda pursed her lips. "Yes, I suppose so. I'll make do. How long until we depart?"

"If you can get your things, right now would be good. Tali can accompany us to Ilium."

"I'll let her know." She turned away, and had them both to the shuttle by in a half an hour.

"If only we had the time for a vacation," Tali would mutter as they boarded, leaving the SR-2 behind once again. It was much less of a home for Tali than the old SR-1...

Once they were securely on the shuttle, though... There was so much that Tanda, even with EDI on their side, had not wanted to share. "Shepard, when you have the IFF working you must coordinate with me. You can't take one frigate against the Collector home. _Thunderflare_ must also go through."

"I'm thinking about that. I just have them figuring out how to interface with it-once that's done, I intend to stop by and let you plug the strange Reaper thing into your ship. I don't quite think the Illusive Man wants me to come back from this, thus, it's more or less a suicide mission with one frigate."

Tanda twitched her lips into a smile. "I was intending to just have you take the Normandy through in Thunderflare's docking bay."

"Joker will be upset." Her face curled into a small smile that matched the one of Tanda's she could not see. "He can deal with it. I like the idea of being on the right side of a dreadnought for a change. Usually only my mother has that privilege—or at least she did until she came up against you. But you saved her life and the lives of her crew when you could have killed them, and I took that into account when deciding to work with you."

"Well, you'll get to see her soon enough. She is no mere dreadnought. She is a Star Destroyer."

There was a long pause. "Sooo... does she actually destroy stars...?"

"Or is this just a grand-sounding name for a bigger dreadnought?"

"No, she's a Star Destroyer."

"Larger than a Systems Dreadnought in our classification scheme... And much much smaller than a Star Dreadnought." Tanda let that hang for a moment. "Tali's seen the files."

Shepard looked over, and the Quarian shrugged. "It's true. If the Reapers hadn't been destroying everything time after time, we'd probably have the same."

"Resources shortages here do put a crimp on things," Tanda noted dryly. "There is a serious lack of habitable planets in this galaxy, for starters. And I mean serious."

"Guess that's what happens when the Reapers decide to kill everybody every fifty thousand years."

"That is exactly so. Well, then. We have the genesis of a plan, if you can deal with your Cerberus monitors and arrange a rendezvous once the IFF is operating."

"Better than the usual. Don't worry, I'll make sure Tali makes it back."

"I can take care of myself, Shepard."

"I know you can, Tali, but your girlfriend is scary." She grinned insouciantly at that.

"It's part of my profession." She looked longingly to Tali...

It wasn't a long flight, thankfully, as they came swinging down into Ilium's spaceport. "The Normandy will be following us in a while, I don't need too much attention on this... Tali, I won't need you for a few hours, so... have fun. We'll meet at that cafe, if that sounds good?"

"You got it, Shepard."

As they split up, Tanda slipped an arm around Tali. "So, I have an idea. How about we go find an hourly hotel."

Tali was giggling about it. Ilium assuredly had those... "This is so... delightfully... wrong!"

"...Wrong, m'dear? I think it's the only suitable thing after having to deal with customs."

"Oh yes, we're capable of passion too." Tali giggled, squeezing Tanda's hand... there were certainly a multitude of options, depending what they were looking for. It was Ilium, where almost everything was legal... Two quarians... were not very common—especially getting a room in an hourly hotel. They played it to the hilt, and then they parted, one more time.


	28. Chapter 28

Tanda returned to the fleet without incident, to downcheck the assault shuttle _Iravahz_ and leave Arthree in it to maintain it at ready aboard _Thunderflare_. The crew very nearly crowded around her, seeing her in uniform and returning to them. She acknowledged salutes, forced herself to conduct an impromptu inspection and formally relieve Shala'Raan—and then returned to her quarters with a nervous sigh and proceed to spend a long time thoroughly cleaning herself in the sonic shower, followed by a perusal of Shala'Raan's reports from the past weeks.

Food came next, _real_ food, an almost gut-wrenching experience after the past weeks. Before it was done, she started wading through the backlog of Gubernatorial decrees she needed to issue and confirm on various subjects and signing off on implementation of directives... Being a Moff was quite busy work if one was serious about it, she concluded.

Tanda next went to survey the production lines for new Hammerhead cruisers and meet with the Admiralty board. There was more than enough work to keep her busy until she got a message from Tali, four days later; _Shepard is insane. We're done. Where do you want to meet?_

By now, she was used to just exchanging text packets over the extranet. _What kind of meeting is this?_

 _She's ready to give you that present you talked about._

 _Stand by to meet..._ She burst through the coordinates. And then smiled broadly, and activated a comm line to the bridge. "Inform the _Quibera_ to stand by detached operations." One Quarian cruiser with ray shielding, a Class III, defensive lasers and a punch of three heavy ion cannons added to her existing armament fit to prototype such an armament refit for the others. Now she'd have a chance to show her worth.

 _Coordinates acknowledged, Tanda_.

Tanda pulled her uniform jacket into place and clasped a cape over her shoulders. _I'll see you soon, lover._ She stepped out to the bridge, every inch the Warlord with the cape tossed across her uniform and not bothering with a regulation cap. But now she didn't really care about it. "Astrogation, prepare serial jump coordinates for sector zero-zero-eight-one vector fourteen axis z-twelve-destination the Imir System. Synchronize hyperdrive speed with the _Quibera_."

"Understood; preparing coordinates, Your Ladyship." Korlus. The starcraft cemetery.

"Stand by for a staff briefing. All officers, all sectors. Gentlemen, on this mission we are going to strike the blow, that after years of hard work, will end the attacks on human colonies throughout the Terminus systems, and teach our enemies the true price of attacking the human race."

-

She would get there first—even shackled to a ship with a Class III, the _Thunderflare_ was faster than the local FTL and with the Relays not lining up precisely for an optimal trip, considerably outpaced the _Normandy_ , the ship slower too when she worked her way into the system under silent running – and through all the systems on the way. Given what was painted in the hull, this was rather required.

That left the hulking _Thunderflare_ to dominate the system, a single Quarian cruiser as her consort, looming distantly from Korlus until the moment that Normandy arrived to finally see her. This time, Tanda was not hiding. The SR-2 came out of the relay soon enough, though, and dumped her static core at the gas giant, then slowly started over to her; and hailed _Thunderflare._

The channel flashed open, and for the first time Shepard and her crew could see the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer: The command deck above the work pits, the starkly clinical atmosphere. "Commander Shepard. We are at the rendezvous as arranged. Stand by for docking control, we'll be proceeding via hyperspace."

"Understood. We'll transfer the IFF over once we're docked." The little holo, with the codecs... was familiar as a representation of the living and breathing Shepard she had met. Standing in something suit-like, with a Cerberus logo removed from the lapel as a sure sign that the conditions on the SR-2 had decisively changed. "Joker, take us in, nice and easy."

The ship before just seemed to loom endlessly... The design created to magnify that effect as much as anything else. It was not at all like anything of this galaxy, and most definitely about as far opposed to Reaper designs as anything could be. Miranda and Joker were quiet on the bridge.

On _Thunderflare_ , Tanda felt the thrill of the hunt. "C'mon, Kesea, let's greet our guests." She grinned lightly. "Once the docking arms are secure, have the squadron make the jump to lightspeed-destination Omega System." And with that she would head below with a pretty Asari at her side-though what Asari weren't?—to meet the woman she cared about altogether far more in the world, and the Commander who had given her the opportunity for personal vengeance against the Collectors.

This time, when Shepard arrived, she arrived in an Alliance uniform. Gaudier than Imperial uniform, even-no sentries or Marines to accompany her, Cerberus hadn't given those, she started over with Tali the moment the docking tube was locked in place. Tali kept going, Shepard stopped. As much as it pained her to admit, her Quarian Machinist was part of Thunderflare's crew. The rest were not.

"Permission to come aboard?" Shepard asked.

"Granted!"

A rather ominous march was at once struck up by the assembled Imperial band as Shepard and her team were received aboard by Tanda. She didn't salute, but still stiffened meeting the woman.

With black gloves clasped behind her back, Tanda made a short gesture for them to carry on. She luxuriated in her position, holding nothing back with her stiff-necked officers mustered around her and Kesea and Tali to her right. "Very glad you've sorted out the situation with Cerberus, Commander Shepard. I collaborated with the Illusive Man for a while, but it quickly became clear there wasn't enough room in the galaxy for the both of us."

"He isn't quite aware of my resignation yet." She seemed... bemused by it. "Thank you, Moff Pryl."

Zaeed was comfortable; Miranda clearly wasn't. Jack and Joker completed the veritable human menagerie. The Moff and Miranda Lawson stared at each other for a very long time. Then Tanda smiled. "I'm glad you made the right choice."

"It was the only rational choice for our objectives, Moff Pryl. It's a shame the Illusive Man doesn't see it that way."

They rode a turbolift up to the command tower. "He will be soon enough—and for that matter, he will know about the _Normandy_ 's break with Cerberus soon enough, too—though Korlus is relatively remote. But we'll be assaulting the Collectors by that point."

"That's the plan, Moff Pryl." She had her hands folded behind herself, mirroring Tanda in her own way-by this point, the scars that Tanda had originally noticed were gone. "The IFF is undergoing final checks by EDI right now, then it'll be handed over to your technicians. We're reasonably sure we have the protocols to communicate with it, but haven't hooked it up yet."

"I understand. It's only important for one of our ships to have it working, it doesn't matter which, when we go through the gate-relay-docked. The sooner we can attack, the better, of course."

"Which would you prefer?" She glanced over, questioning and looking to the other woman.

"I prefer whichever option is operationally expedient."

"The Empire cares about results, Commander. If you were lying about the capability of this IFF, I would know. You are not, and we are going to make our assault no matter what. So whatever your people conclude is the most rapid and effective way of implementing the spoofing."

"The relay will be reading your ship with us inside your docking bay as part of your mass, so it'll have to be _Thunderflare_ , as I understand it," Shepard answered. "I'm not sure how long it will take, but I believe that to be necessary."

"One could just as well argue the relay will read the broadcast as meaning _Normandy_ is part of _Thunderflare_ , but I don't have a bloody idea how the things operate." She smiled thinly. "Well, we'll crack out some of our bantha steaks in stasis for the staff dinner tonight. You're the first human guests I've cared to have a nice meal with." A few of her officers snickered, remaining the corporate executives they'd spent most of the past year intimidating into submission, and outraged Amish and other strange recusant Earth cultures they had rescued from the Collectors just to find quite upset over the Empire. All of that was past them now. They were on the attack.

"No need for that. We stopped off at the Citadel-Mess Sergeant Gardener, while he's not the best cook, he can burn steaks pretty well. Hand the raw materials off to your cooks along with him to explain how you're supposed to cook it, and I think we have the start of something. You and yours can't re-stock, we can, and there will surely be something you can enjoy." She offered smoothly. "Seems fair to me, anyhow. What else am I going to do with what Cerberus pays me?"

Tanda laughed. "Very well. There will be time enough in the future to give you a taste of bantha, as I don't intend to lose." She'd take them to the holoplot room while the respective cooking staffs worked out the arrangements, the vast map of the Milky Way forming before them. They now had essential control over two clusters, as well as interstitial space between them thanks to hyperdrive access.

Tanda pointed out the operations against pirates and Batarians proudly. "And of course 'location classified' is the new Quarian homeworld. It's outside of the design range of your discharge drives from the nearest Mass Relay, you see, so... At least the Quarians have some chance of surviving if we fail to stop the Reapers."

"What about humans?"

"Well, Miss Lawson, I assess the risk to Coruscant, Alsakan, Kuat, Corellia, Empress Teta, Anaxes, Eriadu... And all the other hundreds of worlds protected by full planetary shields to be— _low_. Assuming that somehow the Reapers were capable of carrying on their invasion intergalactically, which I doubt, as they have not done so before. So whatever happens here, the hundreds of trillions of our race shall go on about their business."

"That isn't encouraging for our _shared homeworld_ , Moff Pryl," Miranda remarked very, very dryly.

"We have plenty of planetary shielding mechanisms available to defend our main settlements," L'tenant Scolus offered. "Thus the main body of the fleet can be reliably positioned over Terra. And I don't think that the Reapers will be able to crack that, Ma'am."

"We had all better hope you're right."

With the Imperial officers there... And the likes of Miranda, Jack, Joker, Shepard... It was an interesting dinner party that night. The room was massive, multiple tables, with a large one on the podium for the Moff and the ranking officers. Samara, too, lending a certain gravitas to the event—Kesea was awed and a little nervous at her presence.

The Generationalists and cowed New Order men took the dinner stiffly, considering that with the exception of Miranda and Shepard herself most of the SR-2 officers were not at all professionals in the sense that they expected. Even the Ubiqtorate personnel including Tlotamé were more laid back, but all were immensely polite with Tanda Pryl, sitting at the head of the head table above them.

The Moff of the Terminus would tell a few stories as hor d'ouvres were put out, about posting with the Eriadu Sector Force in her early career and meeting Grand Moff Tarkin once. The wine was poured in fluted glasses rarely broken out... ...The two Quarians present would be slightly left out. It was quite different than the normal social activities for Shepard's team, and some would probably be profoundly uncomfortable.

Excuses would be made for a few of them to depart early as the night went on, Jack being the first for those, and Zaeed not long after. Things calmed somewhat once the ones most prone to start a galactic war over a table had departed... and Shepard left the talking to others. Her crew had stories, but few suitable for a table like this. Garrus was also not the happiest customer ever, but that was normal, sitting with Tali and Shala'Raan to share dishes. At least some Turian food had come over for that.

Shepard was polite enough, but... saw no need to discuss why she'd ended up where she had. Tanda, at the head of the table, dominated it all, a raconteur at table with the best of them as an educated Commenorean, and her force powers deterring her subordinates. She had a holoprojection of Coruscant put up for a while, and using the classified records of the legendary old battle launched into an animated explanation of how Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi had saved the Emperor from Grievious. Of course, a fair number of details were left out or flat-out wrong, but the version studied in the Anaxes War Academy came closer than most to the reality of the engagement, and the visuals were spectacular.

"And you know, if only Kenobi had not chosen to stick with the order. They say Lord Vader gave him every opportunity, but that old and stubborn code was too strong," Tanda would say in concluding.

Tali did manage to feel a bit uncomfortable at that, as Shepard's face had a hint of a frown on it.

Shepard understood codes, old and stubborn ones at that. She didn't know more than that, thought, but; "That was damned fine work, but I wouldn't argue old and stubborn codes are inherently wrong ones."

Tanda daubed her lips with a napkin. "The Jedi Order's origins are lost in the mist of time. Before Ossus. Before the Republic. Before even the famous and romantic era of Xim the Despot. As long ago perhaps as the last Reaper cycle. But for us instead of that simply being prehistory, it is a continuous civilisation, albeit one with poor record-keeping and many upsets. Once upon a time the Jedi were different, once, too, the Republic was different. A grand and glorious institution which endured through countless upheavals and upsets before it finally decayed to the point that the Empire was necessary."

"Both, in the end, simply ran out of time. The philosophy of the Sith was more able to provide for the exigencies of circumstance in the great galactic emergency at the end of the Clone Wars, and the Jedi... Grew fearful and envious of the rise of our Emperor, and resolved to destroy him as a threat to their order. The stealing of children in the night, babes out of the cradle, literally, was commonplace for them by the time the wars had started. "

"Thus a legendary mystic order of practitioners of the Force falls slowly from the defender of Galactic Civilisation into its mortal enemy," she concluded. Most of the Imperials hadn't _ever_ heard the Jedi discussed openly before by _anyone_ , even the high-ranking men, so their attention was fairly rapt to Tanda's version of the events. Shepard kept her own council.

But there was one open dissenter. "One wonders what the dead would say, if they could speak." Samara did finally speak-an ancient, calm voice, more so than even the Matriarchs Tanda met with to determine governance in the Terminus systems.

Tanda lowered her glass of wine, and smiled indulgently. "Some say the dead _can_ , if they were force sensitive in life. There are countless legends of troves of lost holocrons of the old Jedi and Sith, interactive documents containing a faint impression of one's personality, too. Things one could spend a lifetime researching... With the success of the Rebellion at Endor before we came to this galaxy, with His Majesty's death, there is now no one who knows the truth of any of the old legends, Justicar. It would be a lifetime's work to explore them."

"Yet you present your side of them as truth." The Imperials drifted away into an uncomfortable silence. Shepard had the grace to look uncomfortable.

"I didn't say all of the truth was unknown, just that of the old legends held by both orders," Tanda answered with a distant calm. "The facts of the Emperor bringing order to the galaxy after a terrible era of corporate warlordism leading into outright separatist conflict are beyond dispute. I can provide the histories to you if you like."

"That would be welcome." She turned her gaze back to neutral, as Shepard gave her a glance.

"Well, we are all united against a common threat. Speaking of which, the terrible powers of these Reapers—anything they have ever created must be destroyed."

"What are you referring to in specific, Moff Pryl?" Shepard took another sip of the wine—a stubborn inability to get drunk was another part of her reconstruction, and that was annoying.

"Pieces of the Reapers themselves seem particularly bad at the ...subversion and mental destruction of sentients. I'd really like to be able to take a survey of the galaxy after this to deal with any more of them that are present. We should at least force the Reapers to come in the hard way if they do invade, from beyond the galactic barrier."

"I agree. Pieces of Sovereign have ended up all over the place by this point, unfortunately, so that's a lost battle, but any other derelicts..."

"That would be the highest priority, yes. I do not want to see again what I fought inside the Reaper with you, Commander. It is an abomination to the living force."

"I'm sure we'll see worse." That was cause for a frown, as the olive skinned woman took her glass to hand, looking down into it.

"Well, when we hit the Collectors I intend to excise them from the Galaxy. There is nothing in their minds. They are just extensions of the Reapers."

"We'll get most of them, at least, and destroy their base. Progress, at least."

"Yes. The Reapers offer to leave us in perpetual war, but we will find a way to defeat them. They underestimate the power that we can bring to bear. Ah well. To victory!" Tanda raised her glass for the toasts.

-

With the _Normandy_ SR-2 firmly docked, the _Thunderflare_ and her escorting Quarian cruiser entered the Omega system once again, standing well off from the Station, at least, in respect of Aria. Now, though, Aria was quite well known to be under the protection of Moff Pryl, and the event occurred without comment from the denizens of Omega.

The IFF was handed over for her technicians to integrate for it to work properly, Tali taking the lead in the installation. Tanda's drills focused around navigation and shiphandling next to the Black Hole, remembering the fate of one of _Thunderflare_ 's sisters. To her, it was the most assuredly hazardous component of the operation.

But from the moment they installed the IFF, it seemed to be causing a large number of EM fluctuations in the ship, eating a lot of power, and putting out a lot of interference. Systems began to scramble and go down, and Tali, working frantically to correct it, was feeling profoundly overwhelmed. "Dea, but I hate that thing already."

Tanda arrived a few minutes later, staring at the outputs over Tali's shoulder, a not-all-that-productive feeling for the Quarian. "I do too... We can scarcely go into combat like this."

"I want to go over everything again and sort through the coding, it will take a few weeks."

"Do we have enough time?"

"I don't know. Nobody's ever worked with anything like this before, Tanda." She gave a shrug. "If you want it booted up, I can get started at once."

...Tanda frowned, and then shrugged and accessed a comm line for Shepard to conference on the matter and let Tali present her arguments.

Shepard listened and asked immediately, "How long did you say it will take again?"

"Weeks, maybe even months, but... I have a bad feeling about it."

"The kind of bad feeling that we can have... Means inevitably something is going to go wrong," Tanda added.

"...So, it's a trap. Well, it's a Reaper IFF, so clearly that makes sense... options?"

"Deactivate it and remove it from the ship," Tanda patted the console. " _My_ ship."

"Then how are we getting through the relay...?" Tali asked, with a questioning tone in her voice.

"Activate it the relay and go through it, that's how we'll go through it," the Moff's face twisted into an abrupt expression of certainty.

... Tali, to her credit, looked confused.

"Use the force to avoid the Black Hole," Tanda elaborated. "They say the Jedi were intuitive pilots who could anticipate ... That this is how Luke Skywalker destroyed the first Death Star."

"... How does that work, when the relay has... oh, no it _is_ possible..." Shepard sounded mildly horrified. "Joker will be so jealous if you keep it the equivalent mass reading that low and still make the relay work..."

"It might be impossible with a ship this large, though." Tanda's hands twisted together. "We could send snubfighters through."

"Or we connect the IFF up to the _Normandy_ after all, and you cover us." Shepard offered. "Could be a trap, but if I've a... "star destroyer" covering me, I'm a lot more willing to step on the mine."

Tanda folded her hands at the small of her back and started to pace. "The alternative is... What can it do to us? We could take the risk. Our systems are totally alien to them. The ship can be fought with her main computers disabled, since all the batteries are manned and the reactor can be fully manually controlled."

"Disconnect everything and turn it on, that might work..." Tali suggested. "Let it crash the system, but if we're ready for it..."

Tanda looked up, her face a mask as complete a Tali's. "Commander Shepard, your input?"

"It's your ship, but... the quicker we end this, the better. If we're ready for one of those cruisers to show up... let's do it."

"All right. She is my ship, but _Thunderflare_ lives for her missions. I'll take the risk." She activated the shipwide intercom. "All personnel stand by for a boarding action. All access points for droids to the system are to be locked down to central authorisation only... Arms are to be distributed to all personnel and light walkers stationed at critical corridor junctions. All ship computers are to be shut down into Command Regime: Full Manual Reversion. Station double crews at all of the manual control batteries with suit-integrated visual scanning gear. Data links to the reactor control are to be physically disconnected once manual reversion of the reactor intermix ratio is under positive control of the reactor room engineering parties."

It was certainly an odd set of orders. It would take a solid thirty minutes or more to implement before Tanda could bring the ship to quarters under that regime, with countless systems down and dark. She turned to Tali, and confided, "This is always fun for the helm. Trying to manually adjust each percentile thrust slide lever for each maneouvring thrusters—not easy on a ship of this size."

"I'm glad that's not my job..." She unclipped her lightsaber. "Boarding sounds likely."

"Quite." She turned back to the comm interface with the _Normandy_. "Commander Shepard, I recommend staying docked but fitting charges to disconnect the docking arms if it's necessary."

"Understood. I'm calling my crew to stations and readying an away team to assist if needed."

"Thank you." She exhaled and looked around at the double crew on the helm controls, but many other men just standing around with blasters because their computers were useless. "Well, Tali. Nothing else we can do but play sabacc."

"... I'm not very good at that. And I can go ahead and bring up the IFF on command, so why not get it over with?"

"Good idea." She folded her hands, and reflexively checked her lightsabre. "Go ahead and activate it."

"Activating... it is linked... whoa, getting some fluctuations... seems to be settling down... it's integrated, though it's causing full power grid fluctuations. I think we can go through if you like, though."

"While we're here with the cruiser to help us, let's wait and see. Try to control those fluctuations through manual adjustment of the intermix ratios."

"Understood." Tali buried herself into the work. Tanda paced.

And about four hours later, a Collector cruiser dropped out of FTL approximately a klick directly above them, already disgorging boarding craft the moment it arrived. Simultaneously a swathe of additional computer systems failed.

Tanda activated a manual comms link. "Tali, what's happened? We're down to the bare minimum emergency controls and a Collector Cruiser just showed up..."

She lowered it, and addressed her bridge crew. "Hold fire until we can see the glow in their eyes..." It was literally stormtroopers firing heavy turbolasers with visual sights at this level of system shutdown, after all.

"The damned IFF was packed with viruses! I think it was transmitting our position in that 'interference'!... Keelah there's dozens of those things! I'm trying to purge it, but it's adapting and fighting me!"

"You have my permission to connect a droid if you must."

"Command Shepard, get clear before they hit you too," she said into another hard-wired comm. "Go on ahead and take evasive action."

"Understood, we'll help you with the cruiser, Moff!"

"All batteries... Engage manual maximum firepower. Go for the cruiser first, we can handle some boarders if we must." Deep in the hull the thrum of the firing of the main guns came in ragged salvoes. The Collectors abruptly committed to evasive manoeuvres, and Tanda fancied they were shocked that her ship was able to fight back even in this state where they doubtless expected her to be completely crippled and helpless.

 _Normandy_ dropped free and swung clear to engage the drones spilling from the cruiser in response. As she did, she opened the launch bays for the stream of starfighters from the _Thunderflare_ , the entire wing launched to clear the bays and remove them from being destroyed by boarders. Both frigate and snubfighters were at once set upon by the masses of drones, while the massive hail of reserve fire from the _Thunderflare_ largely flailed inaccurately toward the Collector cruiser, now standing off and showing hideous damage from a few solid main battery hits.

 _Normandy_ turned and vigorously attacked the cruiser. Thanix cannons were... unexpectedly mean by the standards of local weaponry. Intense fire tore back at her, the Collector cruiser turning to face the greater threat, and showing considerable reluctance in attacking the lumbering Star Destroyer despite the way that manual alignment of the shield banks would inevitably leave massive gaps in her defences.

"The _Quibera_ is ten minutes out, Moff Pryl!" She had been deployed as the picket at the system's other relay. Now she was rushing in to join the battle, energy and particle shields up and energized.

"Very good. Intensify firepower against that cruiser! The _Normandy_ won't survive even a single solid hit from her main batteries!" They kept on firing, but the hit-rate was dismal, less than two percent; still, the wall of turbolaser bolts provided a screen for the SR-2 to keep manoeuvring and attacking under. Slag bursting from the cruiser, it used its fast moving drones to attack the weapons emplacements on the Star Destroyer.

The collector boarding craft clanged into airlocks and access hatches, quite able to select and target them. The collectors, with their full panoply of hideous creations, immediately surged out. They wanted the ship, they wanted the crew—this was... in many ways, a slave raid on an ISD.

The Collectors moved swiftly, and encountered resistance like no other. Walkers positioned in transfer corridors waited for them, wedged in place, and opening fire with guns that tore through their advancing ranks and melted and sundered deck-plating around them. E-Webs nested around emergency repair ferrocrete did nearly as much execution. Hover tanks moved through corridors until wedged in place and then fired cannon that would only be stopped by the internal armour partitions.

Every kind of Collector fell to them. Only Praetorians could threaten them. The Collector advance slowed to only a crawl. Their only good method of advance were the Seeker Swarms, quite capable of disabling stormtroopers for harvesting. _Thunderflare_ 's defenders deployed spacetroopers as roving reinforcements and fought in improvised uses of ground combat vehicles for security as much as they could.

And on the bridge, they just listened, Tanda tensely pacing until an opportunity presented itself. "One just hit the command tower above us, I will deal with it personally." Tanda turned from the bridge and her lightsabre ignited with a snap-hiss in what was a state of perfect relief for her, stepping past Tali, engrossed in the hacking war with the Reaper IFF. With two others wielding blades on the ship, they were in for a warm welcome.

...And then the Quarian cruiser succeeded in closing the range. Looking like a Hammerhead from head-on, the welcome sight of _Quibera_ joining the battle brought cheers from the men who could see her. She started supporting Normandy's attack on the Collector cruiser with her ion cannon battery supporting her particle accelerator ring, laser cannon immediately engaging the host of drones that shifted into engaging her as starfighters spun and died around the two ships.

The _Quibera_ was substantially less manoeuvrable than the _Normandy_ , but when the Collectors, lightning from disrupted electronics crackling over their hull, concentrated fire upon her, the beams broke up on the energy shields, splashing onto the particle shields, and the combined shielding held. For the first time, Imperial technology had proliferated into the ships of the Milky Way, and the battle turned by that fact alone.

With the Quarian cruiser standing up to the fire, the Collector ship was being hammered pretty badly now, ion cannon disabling systems and opening up attack vectors for _Normandy_ with her thanix cannon, striking again and again even as batteries aboard the _Thunderflare_ fell silent as the manual energy routing was overcome.

The Collectors fixated entirely upon the Quarian ship now, judging her Imperial technology the greatest threat. Her great spinal beam fired again and again at the Quarian cruiser, while the boarding parties were already dragging crew they could overwhelm into the boarding pods for the return journey. A smash and grab... Tanda could hear screams and yells of panic and combat as she approached. They were seizing technology, too, unlike at their other attacks. Here, they acknowledged that more than just human DNA was of value.

And then she arrived to confront the Collectors face to face again. There was no hesitation, no pause, certainly on attempt to talk. She tapped deep into the conduit of power that voice offered to her, and plunged forward with her lightsabre, flinging back and forth as she laughed in glee, sending dismembered Collectors flying as she rushed up to the boarding pod. In a heartbeat a successful operation penetrating deeper into the command tower was transformed into some kind of funhouse of slaughter as the transformed and hideous limbs of Collectors and their victims, from Praetorians on down, were rended and wrecked.

Pressing ahead, Tanda kept killing all around her—as if their dismemberment could be called _killing_ when they had no true free will—and driving home vigorous attacks with both blade and the force, rallying the defending fleet troops, and counterattacking into the boarding pod to fre those aboard it. But it was like she had scarcely been sated. Instead of contenting herself with securing the bridge tower, she moved down, ignoring the ship for the moment of battle and moving on to attack the next boarding pod in turn.

Outside, the battle between snubfighters and drones was going in favour of the Collectors, but the Imperial pilots, aware of the dire situation aboard the _Thunderflare_ , persevered. They regrouped and closed with the Quarian cruiser to cover the _Quibera_ as she pulled back with damage, screaming in with their engines at full and tearing to pieces any boarding pods that may have detached—better to kill their comrades than to let them be taken by _this_ enemy—while salvoes of proton torpedoes went into the damaged Collector ship. The heavy turrets were still laboriously firing at her whenever they had power, too, though the aim was so bad Joker would have to dodge friendly fire a few times. The mass torpedo salvoes finished blowing off huge chunks of rock-armour, and Joker turned _Normandy_ back in to close the range.

Meanwhile, Tanda was cutting a swath through the Collectors that seemed unending but steadily harder in the face of more and more opposition. With Collectors watching the situation rapidly turning against them on every front, they shot everything they had at her, deploying bigger units, and her appearance making them focus their efforts.

The fixation upon her let the ship's defenders start locking down the rest of the _Thunderflare_ and re-securing her, even counter-boarding the still attached pods... Stormtroopers were Stormtroopers, and the fighting was unrelenting. Soon all the remaining effort was directed at Tanda... And she started using force-lightning again, which would surely send a dangerous thrill through Tali's senses, but in that moment, Tanda cared nothing for it, and truth be told, was hard enough pressed that she really did have no choice.

Fighting in close quarters with them, Harbinger took direct control and laid down a trap for her. Tanda did what any Sith would in the circumstances. She advanced and sprang the trap.

Outside the hull, the effort faltered. The drones were falling back as their cruiser began to swing to retreat through the Relay, damage from _Normandy_ 's fire so great that she could not continue the engagement. L'tenant Scolus heard the report from the _Quibera_ and knew what to do with it as the rest of the battle swirled indistinctly around.

"All right, we know exactly where the relay is. This has become a very simple problem of geometry, gentlemen..." The super-heavy batteries swung into position and locked down... And the Imperial crew remained coolly professional despite the middle of the boarding fight, quickly finishing the manual calculations. Repairs continued unabated to damaged systems and all crew not directly under attack by the Collectors continued their duties. Scolus watched as charge reached full on two turrets. The rest would be ready moments later.

"Commence plotted fire!"

And then the main guns thundered and thundered again, interposing with the approach to the Relay. The cruiser tried to swing 'round... And a vast wave of energy washed out and over the Relay, weak enough by the time it reached it to do no more damage than a light-show. In its wake, nothing of the cruiser remained-and then the computers started to hesitatingly spring back into life.

The _Quibera_ and _Normandy_ rallied the remaining starfighters and formed an intercept line, tearing through the remaining drones that tried to make kamikaze runs against the _Thunderflare_. Even the Imperials gave in to the jubilation.

"Shields! Hyperwave sensors, get them on line second..."

Tanda... Was leaking fluid into the deck, and lunging forward with charred flesh in her side as the Collectors tried to grab her just to be shoved back by invisible forces... Holding her in place proved physically impossible. Her lightsabre, knocked from her hand, flew back into it, and she cut herself free, or with a push of a palm, dropped her attacker to the ground. Stormtroopers moved up behind her, rapid-firing blasters into Collectors at point-blank as they were distracted, and Tanda felt voices in her head telling her what to do. Ancient, alien voices, but sure in their advice, and sure in the power of the Dark Side.

The trapped Collectors, with no hope of extraction, fell back, trying to overwhelm her with drones... then standing firm again, dying where they stood, trying to keep doing more damage. Instead of acknowledging her wounds, Tanda tore through them without stopping in a sort of berserker rage of revenge for her ship and crew.

And then it was over—for them. Tanda pinned the last of the Collectors in place against the wall of her ship. "Harbinger, I'll come for you next. You've underestimated the power of the force for the last time."

She didn't allow the Reaper a chance to respond before she cut the Collector's head off. "Secure the ship! The Empire is victorious again!"

Tali would find her from where she had strode to sickbay before collapsing in front of a medical droid... Sith weren't supposed to show weakness in front of their living crews, and more and more, Tanda Pryl could only think of herself as a Sith.

"TANDA!" The Quarian lass helped the droid get her in for treatment, trying to stabilize her... she wasn't a surgeon, and this was... pretty damned major, indeed, she didn't think humans could normally survive with half their torso blasted into charred meat... She was crying inside of her suit.

Tanda seemed unconcerned. "Thank you, my love... You were triumphant, you restored control of my beautiful _Thunderflare_."

"I did, it's true... Arthree helped. you look horrible, Tanda. Tanda, please hang in there, we'll have you in a bacta tank in a minute...!"

"I think... I think I can change that. You don't need to waste bacta on me. I've seen things-I've been taught how to heal people."

"... I'll help." She was skeptical. And frantic. "What'd you learn... how? You haven't been that good at healing before now! I think you should get into the tank..."

"I saw it in a vision..." Blue-white lightning like that from biotics crackled from one of her hands and she applied it to her side... Her eyes widening and going white as she started and stared forward into nothing, in what seemed like a state of disconnected shock, mouth opening wide.

"What are you doing?!" Tali shrieked, wanting to yank her hand off. "Visions are bad when you have blood loss!"

...But before she could stop Tanda, the wound healed.

"What... how... what did you do...?" She gasped softly, staring.

"I was given a vision of the most ancient force," she rasped. "Whispering of power to me and showing me the way."

"... What the ... lie still, you shouldn't push yourself..." Glowing eyes flicked about as Tali tried to help. "Please... I don't know what this is."

"The people who brought humans from this galaxy to my galaxy were... strong in the force. Strong in the dark side." She fell back onto the sickbay bed.

"... Okay, now you're starting to scare me a bit... careful, Tanda, this is... I don't like the feeling I get when you do these things."

"Don't you see, I just need to find them... They linger here, that means they left things behind... They're helping me to defeat the Reapers. They're helping me to save the galaxy. To make it strong. They are ghosts, but ghosts with all the power of the force behind them."

"What... an... I don't think this is a good idea, Tanda..." She whispered, intensely nervous about it all. "I don't think it's a good idea to listen to ghosts of people who aren't your ancestors. That usually isn't good."

"Oh, my dear, silly, Tali. It is giving me the power to defeat the Reapers and to create here a force which will return to our home galaxy... With power and the strength to conquer... to crush the rebellion and implement our own vision of the New Order... Don't you remember how we were treated on Illium? Quarians will never be treated that way again. _Anywhere_."

"This power... I can envision the path to manipulate life through the force. Don't you understand that it's where my promise comes from? We can settle down on Mil and have babies soon Tali... Created through the alchemy of the force. Why should I allow weakness when..." She looked up with blank white eyes to Tali, unaware of their appearance. "Why should our daughters be kicked and spat and accused of stealing simply for existing?"

"It... that's... Tanda, I... that sounds really tempting, you know... I... it's true, they shouldn't be..."

"Exactly. Tell Commander Shepard we're all okay and will be going through when damage control is complete."

"I will. She'll be leading the boarding party to rescue any survivors on that base, I assume? She'll volunteer, crazy like that..."

"Why take that kind of insane risk...? I've done it for you once all ready... We'll just blow the thing up."

"Because it's Shepard. Under 'Willing to sacrifice herself to save innocents', right there. Biiiiiig letters."

"And you, too?"

"... I'll let her go this time. I'm needed here-with you. It matters that it gets done, not that I do it."

"All right." She closed her eyes... And looked peaceful, if utterly drawn and exhausted. But her skin was ragged and unhealthy, even after being healed.

Tali looked carefully over her, placed a hand on Tanda's forehead, whispered a hopeful prayer to her mother, and headed off to help with repair efforts. _Keelah, why does she have to be like this..._ **and who is talking to her!?**


	29. Chapter 29

Tanda at least conceded to the necessity of spending the night in sickbay. It was a night spent locking down damage and securing systems for the jump through the relay the next day. In this, they could have no delay or hesitation. The end of months of frustration was at hand.

And yet despite her wounds, only eight hours of sleep sufficed to make Tanda seem perfectly recovered. She walked to Tali's side as if the day before had never happened. Tali was still busy, that morning, preparing for the operation of the Relay. It would be the first time a _Star Destroyer_ had gone through one. And she didn't want anymore surprises. "Are you well? You seem distracted..."

"Tanda, I... I'm just... uneasy, I suppose, that's all." She turned back to her work.

Tanda was not going to take that as an answer, and ignored the encouragement to be left alone that was embedded within it. "You need to learn to embrace your confidence in the destiny that has been given to us, my love."

"I sometimes... feel a temptation, a pull, but... it has no hold on me, Tanda." She looked up, wide glowing eyes uncertain.

"This power has no pull for you? I'm not at all sure what to do about that." She folded her hands and started to pace. "Perhaps you need to settle down into somewhere safe, to be my lovely Queen... If you don't hold ambition in your soul like this... Well. Yes, I must keep you safe. I will not force anything of you. You... I love you, and my passion for you is for what you are. Just don't be foolish. We can have so long together, Tali-and today we are going to win a great victory for this galaxy."

Tali turned away. "I want to do well by my people, to see us safe, to see the galaxy safe... I... worry some-day your ambition and our love will conflict."

"But my ambition is _for_ our love! How I can I love you as passionately as you deserve without eliminating your enemies?"

"Tanda, we could just be in love... Couldn't we... Just be in love?"

"Could we? What choice to I have! Let's do that- I take you and _Thunderflare_ and flee back to my home-galaxy by hyperdrive, the two of us in carbonite to be youthful when we arrive, in some far-flung century? Let the Reapers consume all of this again?" She shivered. "Or can my passion for you flow forth in the creation of life, to create daughters betwixt us, if I may be only a backwater warlord, and those same daughters of our's will be treated like gutter trash when they explore the galaxy that is their birthright? Just because you have been forced to live like that for so long does not mean I should tolerate it for the future."

She spun, and stared out the windows into the dark of the stars. "How can my actions be called anything but necessary? What ambition do I have except to hold you forever? I am tilling the soil of this galaxy like a good farmer, laying the ground work for us to ravish each other a thousand times in peace, mother and mother and lover and lover... It is the law of nations that I must water the field in blood. And such worthy blood it is! Not even the Jedi would hesitate at killing these monsters."

"I... I..." Tali trailed off, looking very uncertain, feeling uncertain—and more than a little tempted by Tanda's vision of a galaxy where Quarians were respected. "... I worry you travel a path I cannot follow, my love."

"Do you need to follow it? You are the machinist, I am the Sith. Cannot we still also be wives? I've tried to train you, but it is a path you are unable to find." She spun back. "You know enough to fight. Call that enough for your heart's content. Don't seek more, let's create the beauty we both desire instead."

"...I... think I can do that." She smiled, hesitantly... Tanda sensed it where she could not see it, and her face lit up, her eyes seeing all through the force, staring out into the galaxy as a whole, lit in electric delight. It felt wrong for Tali, but the vision Tanda promised... Was very hard to resist.

"Then let me kill our enemies."

Tali took a breath and opened communications with _Normandy_. "Commander Shepard, I believe we are ready to transit the Mass Relay."

"Normandy is ready, Tali. Intentions on the far side? I expect at least another cruiser, and whatever... Well, planet or station, it's going to be impressive."

"I was going to engage it with long-range turbolaser fire," Tanda interjected. "A station can't manoeuvre like those light cruisers and we'll actually be able to bring our main batteries to bear. If it's a planet, we'll slag it."

"I'd like to lead a ground team to ensure there are no human survivors before you engage, Moff Pryl-and find out what they're doing with everyone they've taken."

"My crew has already suffered casualties as an outcome of this operation, Commander. The Collectors are an artifice of the Reapers, and devoted to evil. I cannot imagine the continued survival of anyone aboard their station... We have already rescued a hundred thousand when we took the one cruiser. You are exposing yourselves to indoctrination for a lost cause and risking the failure of the operation to delay the destruction of the station."

"I owe it to those colonists to give them a chance, Moff. I'm not asking any of your people to expose themselves to anything."

Tanda closed her eyes. "I can't stop you, but the situation may therefore result where I am forced to fire on the Collector base while you are still aboard."

"Then that's a risk I have to take, Moff Pryl." She sounded so firmly certain about it, too, that Tanda could only wonder at the selflessness that drove her.

"I will try to cripple it with our ion cannon before you board. Make your preparations." Tanda closed the channel, and walked down into the crew pit. "Spacer Kilak, your station, please."

"Your Ladyship!" The man rose and stepped to the side. Empty in front of him was the main helm control.

"Stand ready to reassume your position on my order," Tanda answered. "Good show." She settled down into place, keyed into the console, and closed her eyes. Now she was ready to take up the controls of _Thunderflare_ , personally. _Just in case, you know, that the IFF doesn't work..._ "Commander Zorah, are we ready?"

"Ready, Moff Pryl." She replied back, bracing herself.

They would line up on the Relay, then, swinging towards it... Thirty thousand beings as tense as their lives could allow. Two ships, and the first time a Star Destroyer had traversed a Relay. Tanda cued the jump through the Mass Relay herself. She hated using them for _Thunderflare_ , but now she could only concentrate on keeping her ship safe... Hands on the controls, she reached out through the force and waited for it to guide her. The relay, that great construction of the Reapers, bigger than an _Executor_ , spun to life and bodily launched them.

They came crashing out of FTL only bare moments later, and Tanda's sense of danger lit up stridently, though not for the reason she had feared. The night before she had only dreamt of the end, dreams of every atom—torn apart. But instead the threat came from those dead around them. It was a massive ship graveyard... the wreckage of thousands and again thousands of ships in a great disc around the galactic centre black hole, and a great, massive base, dozens of kilometres long and centred directly ahead of them.

"...That is one hell of an accretion disk." Scolus coughed, flickered a nervous glance toward the helm pit. "Particle shields to full power!"

The order was given just in time, as the _Thunderflare_ began to buffeting around them. Tanda locked the course down toward the massive base and rose. "Kilak, assume the helm."

"Aye, Aye, Captain." He flushed intently right after saying it.

Tanda just smiled, and rose out of the chair, leaving the crew pit. "Just stay steady, lad," she spoke without turning, and walked back toward the rear bridge holoprojectors and communications banks. "Normandy, you are clear to undock. Please confirm but I believe we are at the centre of the galaxy."

It certainly made the astrogation officers pale. Without the relay, they didn't have a hope in hell of escape from a Deep Core region... Tanda hadn't told them, of course, to avoid any kind of incipient mutiny, and considering that they had only been operating on the strong guess the galactic core had been on the other side—it could have been another kind of black hole.

"Understood, Thunderflare... we're ready for undocking, and we confirm, that's... the galactic centre. Can you move us clear of the accretion disc before we actually undock? Our barriers don't seem to be able to shrug that off like your shields do."

"I haven't seen this since the rubble left over from the Separatist attack on Eriadu," Commander Saukon muttered. He was old enough to mean it too, having mustang'd his way from enlisted during the Clone Wars.

"Right, hold position then and wait for further instructions." Tanda stepped forward, above the pits, the front viewscreen-windows enhancing her view of the truly endless array of wrecks, and then addressed the comment. "This looks like the aftermath of Fourth Vontor or some kind of legend of a space kraken, more like—Eriadu wasn't half as many ships. It keeps going well beyond the eye's sight."

"Might as well be that kraken, Your Ladyship, seeing this Relay led only straight to death, for all those before who us who sailed it."

Tanda glanced back to Tali, then forwards again. Took a breath. "Well, Commander. They weren't the Empire. And we're here to put a stop to it." It was pretty damned grand, and haunting. Thousands upon thousands of ships had attempted—and failed—this jump, and their wreckage spread out in a massive outer disc, the inner, glowing 'round the black hole at the centre.

"It is a terrible sight," Tali said simply. "Shields holding-weakened a bit by the initial surge - holding, still."

"Good. Hold course. We'll release Normandy when we clear the debris field. Stand by main batteries."

"Moff Pryl, we have movement in the debris field!"

"Origin?"

"Multiple discrete sources... those attack drones, dozens of them, closing fast!"'

"All light and medium batteries are fire free. Commence action. We will just have to deal with them that way, snubfighters won't survive in the debris field." A pause, and she spun about on heel. "Maintain course and speed. We'll force our way through."

The drones started exploding from collisions with the debris, too. With full power back, _Thunderflare_ started firing salvoes at range, destroying the larger debris to help open a path and to create a ricochet effect into the incoming drones. Once they had the range, the lighter anti-starfighter guns joined into the fray. Very rapidly, though, the drones carried through the fire and began their attacks.

As they went to point-blank range, the swarm abruptly ensconced them and buzzed angrily, their light weapons trying to find a way through the ISD's shields as her drive-tails cut through the great mass of accretion debris and carried her steadily closer to the vast station. Some slammed into their shields, attempting to release smaller probes to get through during the disruption of the collision to burn through the shields, reach the hull and wreak havoc in areas where the armour was thinner... Sacrificing themselves according to the dictates of their controlling Intelligence, for the sake of trying to obtain an advance. With the warning provided and the particle shields up, however, it wasn't working.

"Contact breaking away from the station, Your Ladyship."

"Give me a tactical readout." Tanda turned back to the holoprojector, which blinked from a local plot into the tactical display of information on the sensor contact. Mass signature, energy signature, yes, it was another cruiser that was departing the Collector station.

"Coming about now, Ma'am."

"They're clearing the station? Excellent. Main batteries to engage as the guns bear. Hold course. Give me a countdown until we're clear of the debris field..." For the moment, they were dealing with the level of fire directed against them, and with the main batteries not effectively engaged, the cruiser was a welcome opportunity to bring their enemy to grips.

Lashing with fire the countless wrecks around them, shattering history for the sake of expediency and survival alike, _Thunderflare_ swept around the Event Horizon. Dwarfed by the twisting of light, spinning, swirling, descending... The Star Destroyer kept her curving course, every crewer acutely aware of the threat that the Black Hole posed to them. Dwarfing them, exceeding them, and around them the hulks of the dead, slowly drifting to their doom.

"Clear in twenty seconds, Moff Pryl..."

"Careful. We will be very close, then." The station maintained its orbit by power; it could only possibly be clear because it was closer, close enough in that the wrecks that neared it were sucked inexorably in, the moment where the orbits could not be sustained, and the black hole gained control.

As they cleared the field the drones had a free course to reach them, and successive waves raced in, ramping up the intensity of the attack. At the same time, it allowed the cruiser to open fire on them with its spinal cannon... but no weapons fire opened up against them from the station proper.

Then _Thunderflare_ opened fire, too. She hammered the enemy from the first. All systems on-line, and open space between them. That beam remained in continuous contact with her shields, and the great Star Destroyer did shudder under it as it tracked back and forth, almost desperate to find a way through the barriers. But each quick salvo from the main guns disappeared into the black of space, green and red bolts, tracking back along the course of the beam. And these had no energy shields to block them, and ripped vast chunks of rock-armour from the Collector Cruiser, without which it would be even more surely doomed.

The spinal cannon on the cruiser was a real weapon... But it was just one, and their shields were holding. "Deploy Normandy from the docking bay and stand by to launch snubfighters." She opened the comms. "Commander Shepard, try to lure the droid fighters off of us, then once they're in open space we'll launch our snubfighters to catch them behind you. We're managing the cruiser adequately."

"Understood, Thunderflare!" _Normandy_ completed her undocking protocols and broke loose, drives kicking in sharply. Pulling hard away from the _Thunderflare_ , separating from the Cruiser's firing bracket before it could track over her hull, she at once opened fire on the Collector cruiser first, and after they got their bearings, the crew turned her into the drones and tore through them with her guns.

Firing continuously and spinning in space for evasive manoeuvres, _Normandy_ quickly got the drones to chase the frigate, concentrating on her rather than _Thunderflare_. In the meanwhile, the cruiser, with monomaniacal focus, continued firing its main beam in a steady stream at _Thunderflare_ , having finally settled on the bridge with a high velocity stream of molten metal hitting the shields like a deadly firehose. The bridge crew ignored what was a splendid light-show, focusing on their duties, for now with the grand vision of the Event Horizon and the accretion disc behind it, the shields of the bridge were lit up with the continuously glowing splashes and back-flares of the cannon playing over them.

Of course, 200 meter long turbolaser bolts were flying back, surely the Collectors were not very happy about that, the cruiser's rock-armour now ragged fragments. _A bit more firing and we'll have them!_ With the bait having been taken by the drones, Tanda had her entire wing hot launched in pursuit of the drones, attacking them from behind, catching them in two fires between the _Normandy_ and the starfighters.

The battle joined at every point, Tanda maneouvred to keep her main batteries on the target. "Deviate from course toward the station. Pursue the cruiser!" If the Collectors didn't take action to preserve their ship, they'd lose it quickly. Space howled like it was a proper battle, the roar and flare of the turbolaser volleys giving strength to the ship's name.

The reports came in. _Normandy_ being boarded by one of the drones as she spun and dodged, the starfighters suffering heavy losses as the drones darted back to engage. Casualties and damage to both, but _Thunderflare_ 's shields shrugging off the enemy fire—even as they did weaken ominously around the bridge. A real battle, but one she was still holding the edge in.

Tanda snapped a gloved hand into a fist. She would take no chances with her life nor Tali's and wanted the battle over immediately. "Helm, X-axis rotation, ninety degrees. Port thrust, five points. Fire control, stand by to concentrate port and starboard batteries on the cruiser."

"Roll executing, Your Ladyship." _Thunderflare_ spun like she were conducting a Base Delta Zero and positioned herself relative the cruiser in a sharp motion to allow all the batteries to shift up ninety degrees to converge upwards on the same target. That would show them...

"Engaging with concentrated batteries," the dry voice from fire control echoed through the intercom feed. Outside, the splashing fire on the command tower shields ceased, the cruiser staggered... Flames erupting from deep within the mechanical mass at the heart of the rock... And then she silently exploded.

"They make quite the blast, don't they?" She chuckled, patted her own hip and folded her gloved hands back behind herself in an almost cocky display of surety. "Full acceleration, get us in range of _Normandy_ to provide her and our wing support against the droidfighters."

 _Normandy_ swung, diving back into the debris field, both to approach the base and shake off the most stubborn of the drones—more than a few of the drones were lost in collisions with the debris—and then a second cruiser appeared from behind the base.

Scolus drew himself up. "Your Ladyship, they've got a bearing on the SR-2... Don't know why they didn't come in sooner!"

"Predictor barrage, keep them off the _Normandy_!"

"Too late, she's going in!"

"Dea help them... Fire control, lock down on that cruiser and await our mark!"

"Aye aye!"

Tali watched from the back of the bridge as the frigate, her substitute home and all of her friends, dove onto the cruiser and fired her thanix cannon again and again, as insane as it seemed. More insane was when she actually seemed to hurt it. The Collector cruiser staggered and _Normandy_ leapt clear.

"Come about to engage the second cruiser!" She held up one gloved hand. "Main batteries - fire as Normandy clears." Dropped her hand, and wave after wave of turbolaser bolts swept across the cruiser, interposing with it in a series of flares and flashes that obscured the entire hull, vaporised chunks of rock spinning away.

Tali shook her head. "We're straining some repairs on the damaged control components with the intensity of fire, Moff Pryl. I'm keeping power up to give time to support _Normandy_." The way Thunderflare fought, so different. She was intensely concerned for her friends, though, and wouldn't think of dialing back as the frigate darted clear, having left the second cruiser afire.

With the second cruiser under heavy fire, the ship fired at the SR-2 for some reason, ignoring the _Thunderflare_. Whatever the objective was, Tanda didn't care much. It gave her gunners time to lay in again. "Maintain fire." _Thunderflare_ finished another positioning roll and levelled off, turning inside the station and skirting close to the Event Horizon.

Slowly, the gravitational gradient began to peak along the hull. Commander Saukon stepped back to Pryl's side. "M'lady, there may be a danger..."

"It's holding at two hundred kilo g's gradient for now, Commander. But I'm going to close up with the station now."

"Permission to lay the course in?"

"Granted." She turned opened the comm line. "Command Shepard, pull back. I'm going to disable the station with ion fire before you land. We can deal with the second cruiser now by ourselves. Your ship is an eggshell with a hammer."

"Understood, pulling back..." She did dart clear-reforming with the fighters. The Collector Cruiser tried to swing around to engage them again, using the station as cover.

"We'll be exposing our ventral surface to the station, is that acceptable, M'lady?"

"Yes, if they haven't fired now, it isn't armed."

With that, _Thunderflare_ spun and closed rapidly with the station while maintaining a concentration of fire against the cruiser, blocking it off from _Normandy_ with a battering wall of turbolaser and ion cannon fire and hammering her relentlessly. Under that level of fire, the cruiser shifted to engage the _Thunderflare_ instead, letting the beam splash against the bridge tower as the first cruiser had in hopes of getting a burnthrough and starting to carve through her armour plating, engines firing to close the range.

"Your Ladyship, I think there's a danger." Scolus looked up from one of the pits. "That trajectory isn't accounting for recovery from the Event Horizon..."

Tanda's eyes widened fractionally. "Tractor beams!"

 _Thunderflare_ violently recoiled toward the station as her tractor beams locked on to the cruiser and bodily slowed it. Gripping her in place as the enemy's reactors strained, a salvo of shots that disrupted her engines with good ion hits cleared the way for a quick fusillade of massed fire. The second cruiser exploded, close enough that the ray shields flared angrily with radiation in the incredibly violent explosion. Tali yelped as something sparked on her suit - mass effect fields being violently disrupted by the cruiser going down.

"That's odd... Tali, are you alright?" She turned sharply to the woman.

"Fine! Mass effect fields just... ow, failed, a bit of feedback, Moff Pryl!" She managed to keep decorum, at least!

" _Normandy_ 's weapons seem disabled," Lieutenant Scolus remarked.

"...Something about that core seems to have disrupted energized eezo—the other one was too far away..." Tali trailed off.

Tanda finished the thought for her. "... _Normandy_! Tractor control, lock onto the SR-2. She may have lost power."

"Working... she's into the debris field, Moff Pryl, falling into the station! Trying to get a lock...!"

"Commander Zorah-try to clear up the resolution on that lock. Transfer all reserve power to the tractor beams, stress them to the limit but don't let her crash!"

She was trying-hands flashing over the console... "I can make it a crash-landing, at least! Come on you bosh'tet of a computer, lock in... got her... she's down, but I don't see any major damage."  
"Central battery director, lock all ion cannon that can bear onto the station and begin firing!"

"Firing." The four main ion cannon and about thirty of the light anti-starfighter models all peppered across the surface of the station with constant blasts. With the _Normandy_ already disabled, there was no point in holding back.

"Transfer all weapons power to the ion cannon and maintain constant fire on the station. Let's see how much of the Collectors we can disrupt with it. And stand by the boarding parties and assault shuttles for launch."

"Your Ladyship?" _Thunderflare_ 's ranking ground forces commander, Colonel Trakha'Vereel- one of the newer additions to _Thunderflare_ 's crew, fitting that most of the spacetroopers were Quarian marines anyway-stepped forward toward Tanda. "Surely you can't be serious, Moff Tanda'Pryl, I thought you had no intention to board the station."

"Well, we can't let them lose. If they encounter serious resistance, we'll just clear the place, and I'll make the evaluation of that myself." She took a breath. "Prepare the landing."

"As it is just a commando operation, could we not limit ourselves to a precision rescue mission, at least?"

"Very well then. Stand by the Spacetrooper forces—Spacetroopers only."

"Understood, Moff Tanda'Pryl." With a salute, the Quarian Colonel departed.

Tanda watched the station flare and flicker under the barrage. "Tractor beams, work the SR-2 off of the station." She activated the comms. "Commander Shepard, we're trying to pull Normandy free now and have a full ion cannon bombardment of the station going to keep their electrical systems disrupted."

"Negative, Moff Pryl. We can deploy the ground team from our current position directly; there's no need to wait. Engineering says they should have power restored in about a half hour." Shepard's voice crackled back over the emergency comm.

"Then be about it, as I want to pull you off before anything else develops."

"Understood, _Thunderflare. Normandy_ clear."

Tanda watched quietly. Inside, she knew what they would find. Another black, horrifying concentration of death and destruction and despair. The Reapers and their creations seemed to be built out of it.

Somewhat amazingly, by their communications, Shepard's team was advancing despite it all, though the noise of gunfire was almost constant... pushing forwards into the station over a period of some minutes, then they could hear Shepard's voice clearly on the comms feed as the station's jamming went down under the sustained ion barrage. "No survivors... damnit, she just... liquified, what the hell is this place...?"

Then there was that conversation... A report that stiffened glares and clenched fists on the bridge for want of anything else to do. A human Reaper.

"Pull out and let me open fire with the turbolasers, Commander Shepard. You yourself have seen there is no hope." _Thunderflare_ was pelting the station with ion cannon fire... Hopefully disrupting the electronics.

"Attempting to fall back!" She shouted back. "Little busy right now! I had better count on you to blow this up!"

"You most assuredly can! Main batteries stand by for maximum firepower. Hold orientation to allow all main batteries to bear on the station. Stand by for turbolaser fire."

What followed was a lot of shouting and shooting on the ground team channel, then a long silence...

"Ground team is aboard. Please bring us clear." It came from EDI, that time.

"Tractor beams, full power. Pull them off."

 _Normandy_ shot off the station as the ion cannon shifted fire to avoid interposing with her course.

"Maneouvre her to be protected by our hull from the blast."

"Trying, Ma'am," Tali gritted in exasperation. Sometimes the ice blooded Imperial attitude in combat and endless open-ended orders were a bit much for her to take, but... "Got her in the shadow, Moff Pryl."

"Main batteries commence firing!"

The station was slammed again and again by massed fire worthy of a Base Delta Operation. It held out at first, armor and barriers alike having to be battered to bits... and it resisted quite well through it all.

 _Well, this will take a while._ "Lock tractor beams on. Let's disturb its orbit if we can't fully pound it to rubble..." The engines would strain in their mounts, as they started... Both firing and shoving the station down... Toward the black hole.

"It might take centuries to finish falling, Your Ladyship," Scolus interjected.

"Good enough that we wreck it thoroughly, though. Keep firing, we may yet hit something critical."

It took time to blast through... some secondary explosions became to tell that heavy internal damage was being inflicted. Even so, it withstood the firing for near to twenty minutes before, with little warning, it violently erupted.

"Bring us about! All ahead emergency flank-back for the gate!" This explosion was substantially larger than anticipated...

Tanda and the rest of the bridge crew watched the steadily growing blast wave looming up. "Double the shields aft."

 _Normandy_ was streaking away with power back up, damaged, scorched, but keeping pace... trying to help the fighters re-dock before they were wiped out. The shock wave was rolling out... consuming a vast number of those endless storied hulks in the accretion disc. _Normandy_ was lining up for her jump... and then she was gone. _Thunderflare_ was annoyingly slower, as the first waves of superheated plasma started to lap at her aft shields.

"Can we safely calculate a microjump?!" Now there was some real tension in their voices. Under their feet, the _Thunderflare_ was buffeting.

"Not safely, Your Ladyship!"

Tanda shook her head, a last glance at the vastness of the accretion disc, of the wrecks of countless species, the last remnant of their works, now being consumed in the destruction of their destroyers. A funeral pyre at the centre of the galaxy. "Tali, try to get us through the Mass Relay on the run. Take the helm yourself."

She didn't question it, just leaped down into the pit at the run to attempt it... ...and then they were through just as the aft shields collapsed. She hadn't even done calculation, Tanda realised as they passed through. Instead, she had used the force.

"...We didn't transmit our mass to the relay..." Scolus muttered.

When Tanda heard that, she just smirked in bemusement. _You have learned more of the force than you let on, my beloved._

The Quarian girl's faceplate 'clunked' to the console. "Keelah, that was close..."

"But we did survive, and a great threat to the galaxy has been ended." They flared back into reality in the Omega system, _Normandy_ ahead of them and _Quibera_ waiting for them. It was over.

"...Delayed." She sighed, and on wobbly legs stood to let the helmsman re-take his seat.

"Regardless. To my office, Commander."


	30. Chapter 30

She stepped away with Tali, and once inside, hugged her tightly. "Thank you for trusting me, Tali'Zorah."

"Tanda, you are my love. I only worry about you."

Tanda smiled sadly. "I won't deny it's justified, sometimes." She used the food synthesizer to make Tali a smoothie and then moved to open a comm line to the Normandy. "Commander Shepard, this is Moff Pryl. It's only Tali and I here, so you may speak in confidence. How long will repairs to the Normandy take?"

"Glad to hear it. For full repairs? Probably a week. We're combat effective right now, however." She sounded tired, though. "Armour held everywhere but the shuttle bay."

"I'm sorry for your losses. Do you want to return to Mil with us to make them good?"

"I... didn't actually lose anyone. But if you're willing to give some yard time, I won't turn it down... we just quit Cerberus, so perhaps some fresh paint would be nice. Oh what am I saying—can you repaint her?"

"I can most certainly arrange that, as well as any necessary repairs, and R&R for your crew besides."

"A lot of the crew were only onboard until we completed the mission against the Collectors, so they may be taking their leave when we get to Mil, Moff Pryl."

"They're welcome in the Empire. Proceed via relays, and I'll have everything set out and prepared for the _Normandy_ when she arrives."

"Thank you for your assistance, Moff Pryl."

"It's been an honour to help Tali's friend, Commander."

"I'll see you at Mil. _Normandy_ out."

Tanda settled back, reaching for coffee. "She is a good woman."

"Shepard is the _best_ , Tanda. I'm glad we could work together on this." Tali bubbled inside as she sipped her smooth, and watched her lover rise, walk behind her, and drape herself gently over Tali. "Mmm."  
"You don't need to be worried about me anymore. We'll have peace, until the Reapers come."

"I won't worry for _now_. I reserve the right to worry in the _future_."

"Fair." Tanda sniffed. "If you must."

"Tanda... Seeing what that fighting, accessing the Dark Side does to you, I don't understand it and it does scare me. You are just so used up when it's over. I would rather not ever have to see you that way again."

"Nor would I. But it is... Who knows what would come to pass if I didn't fight with all of my passion like that."

"And the voices?"

"Whispers of old power," Tanda murmured. "Nothing to be concerned about. They just advise me."

"That sounds a lot like ghosts."

"You worship your ancestors, why should mine in the force do ill to me?"

"I... I don't know. I wish I had voices to advise me."

"Perhaps I can help with that."

"We'll see. Let's enjoy some peace, Tanda."

"Very well."

-

They would be over the ersatz capitol of the Empire in relatively short-order. About a million Quarians, twenty million Asari, and a million humans... Other Asari colonies further out in the system. Real traffic control, a first in the Terminus systems. TIE fighter patrols. _Bombard_ and _Stalker_ in orbit, as well as what was still very much the majority of the Migrant fleet, though only one of the LiveShips. It was not a force anyone in the galaxy could think of cracking.

"Hell of a thing..." She muttered it, looking out the window as Joker brought them in. "Never thought I'd see this in the Terminus Systems..." They docked, and she sighed. _Collectors beaten... time for the crew to start breaking up again._

After clearing into the Quarian-run shipyard, they could proceed down to the planet for shore leave if they wanted it. Meanwhile, with _Normandy_ in drydock, _Thunderflare_ settled back into orbit. Shepard did give them shore leave—not going down herself, preferring to just faceplant into bed. She suspected half of them wouldn't come back.

 _Normandy_ would go on living. So would Shepard. They had broken with the Illusive Man... And now the ship and the crew, such of it as would stay, were in Imperial space. Atarah couldn't help but think so uncertainly of her future. She'd finally found what she needed—an ally when nobody else would be an ally—but it was not the kind of ally she had expected.

Her sleep fitful, she had heated up and reconstituted a freeze-dried meal of salmon, Israeli salad and shakshouka in the morning, but ate fitfully despite it being something of a treat. It made her think of her mother, and... The Systems Alliance. The government she no longer served, because of her death.

Very tentatively, she opened the extranet line and waited to see if any live reply would come through. It did far quicker than she would have expected. A bleary eyed woman, getting older, looking only sort of like she did, answered.

"Oh G-... _Atarah_. Babe. I'd heard that you'd sent a report to Anderson. But most importantly..."

"Yeah, mom. I'm fine. Better than I was, even."

"I remember the scars," Hannah Shepard answered grimly, and then forced a smile to her face. "I had my terminal set to wake me up if you tried to contact me live. I didn't want to waste the chance."

"...Well, I am glad to talk." Atarah shifted uncomfortably. "I broke with the Illusive Man."

"That's a start," Hannah replied with a curt sort of smile. "Now you need to take care of yourself and this opportunity you got. I don't want to lose you again..."

"Not planning on it." An awkward pause. "I got back together with Liara, sort of."

"Don't sort of. Make it full time and permanent. I'll at least live long enough to give my little blue grandkids Bat Mitzahs," she grinned. "You should come back, we can take a vacation to Tiberias together."

"I've already seen where I was born... Mom, I'm not sure that's the best idea. There's a lot of work that needs to be done out here, to stop the Reapers."

"Out there. In the Empire, you mean."

"Yes. Moff Pryl is actually..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Moff Pryl is actually prepared to do something about the Reapers and nobody else is." Hannah rubbed her eyes. "I know all about this, in fact. And I've survived being shot at by Moff Pryl—only because she wanted me to survive. At the same time, let's be honest. She's, at best, a foreign dictator with a way of life inimicable to the Alliance."

"I know, Mom. It's also the only multi-species state in the galaxy. That, that makes me wonder. Shouldn't we be able to make one of those work as a democracy? That's what I came to believe the Council could be, when I started serving it as a Spectre, but I've had the last two years of its ineffectiveness ground into me. As long as I'm a Spectre of the Council, I'm going to stay out here and fight, and since Spectres need to get support from other sources... I won't join her, but as long as she's willing to help..."

"Alright, babe." Hannah closed her eyes. "I admit, after she saved my ship and people at the cost of some of her own, I can't hold much against Moff Pryl. Just watch your back. She's got her own agenda, despite helping you. And, to be quite frank, I'm an officer of the Alliance. The less I know about your activities outside of it, the better. Maybe we can meet up along with your girlfriend on, say, Ilium, the next time I have some extended leave. But if this is what you're going to be doing, it's best that we go back to not talking shop like we used to."

Shepard nodded. "All right." Then she nodded again, firmly, firming herself. "I'd like that vacation on Ilium, Mom. Until then, well... When nice things happen, I'll let you know."

Before the channel could be closed, Hannah got a wicked grin. "Oh! Now, Atarah, do remember to feed your hamster."

"..."

Now perfectly deadpan: "And the goldfish."

The conversation, at least, ended in laughter. No matter what, mother and daughter had always been strong together. _You've got the Orizaba and I've got the Normandy, and just for today, everything is right with the galaxy. Just for today..._

-

On the surface, some of the crew of the SR-2 immediately made passage off-world. Others, looked for work—the Empire was always hiring, these days. And others explored, to try and clear away the lies and discover the truth of the regime which had brought peace and order to the Terminus systems. A fair number, of course, just wanted to party after surviving.

Samara fell firmly into the category of those interested in exploring. After all, this was an Asari colony world with a large Asari population, undergoing a transformation that the Asari had not previously before experienced. She was journeying cautiously through the Asari settlements, if at a distant remove, and prone to stopping to meditate in remote places. Other asari gave her looks of respect and fear, even those in the Empire knew quite well who she was, and the powers that she presumed.

It was in a pleasant bed and breakfast in a spa town two hundred kilometres out of Mil's capital that her tail caught up with her. A speeder came in that evening, and the single woman in it checked into another room. Samara could tell she was being watched, and with a soft sigh, she settled down in the rock gardens outside of the hot springs, and waited.

Fortunately, she did not have to wait all that long to be approached, for her tail was not a formal one. "You're from Commander Shepard's crew, are you not?" The strange blue alien in her Imperial uniform with the distinctive headdress approached. A headdress that did not, in fact, include the long fleshy tentacles; those were part of _her_ , the Asari realised after a moment. A true alien, then, of this other universe. "I'm a customs officer, so I saw I the entry record, I confess, and I wanted to talk with you. I'm Lieutenant Kesalia Sevaras." Buckled at her belt was a very familiar cylinder.

Those strangely piercing eyes flicked over to her, and she spoke comfortably. This was an unexpected kind of official intrusion, at least. "I was, this is true. I am no longer."

"I see. I apologise for pressing, in that case. I was just curious as Lady Pryl's desire to station me on the planet has left me out of the loop, comparatively, and I'm not sure about some things that have been taking place, so I desired to discover more by talking to some of Shepard's crew who had seen them."

"The change was recent. In any event, you were not intruding, Lieutenant. Why did approach me?"

"There are enough Asari here that I have come to learn their stories and legends working closely with them, and so I know that... You are someone special."

"I question what stories and legends you have attached to me, Lieutenant." She asked, standing there so tall and stiff backed. Another life, when she had been someone who might not have been stiff-backed. She could tell this woman, despite her innocence, could be dangerous.

"I had heard that Commander Shepard fought with an Asari Justiciar, to be precise," Kesalia finally said levelly.

"She did. Her intentions and methods are in line with the Code, but my Oath to her has ended."

"Then you are here to uphold your code."

"The Code is all." Samara said, almost reflexively.

"Twi'leks have legends of one of our own who became a Jedi by their code—the code of the Jedi. It is rather different from the one that Lady Pryl follows, and with good reason. The Empire crushed the Jedi decades ago, but the Emperor himself is dead, and we are likely to never go home. I owe my freedom and position to Lady Pryl, and I am concerned about her health, because of what I remember of those old stories."

"Curiosity is a dangerous thing, Lieutenant... let us walk." She would gesture towards anyplace more secluded, and start off as soon as she did, deeper into woods and further from the inn, and any prying eyes and eyes.

Kesalia fell in alongside of her in that direction. "I don't disagree with you, Justiciar, but I still have obligations."

"So we all do. You are not incorrect to be concerned. She walks a dark path that leads ever further from the light. I have seen it before. A woman can be evil for a long time before she requires killing by the Code. The evil can still uphold the law—for a while. Moff Pryl is in that stage of her fall."

"They call it the Dark Side." She stuttered, caught herself. "These stories were forbidden in the Empire. What she doesn't tell about were the Inquisitors. She doesn't explain that to anyone—the force sensitive order that existed after the Jedi. They were Emperor Palpatine's enforcers who took away those who acted upon latent force ability. Lady Pryl was building up her own private group of force users without the Emperor's permission. She knew that she herself, would be forced to be an Inquisitor or else killed if she were found out." She folded her hands and bit her lip, staring off into the woods. "I remember staying up with her in the nights when we were assigned to the Death Squadron. She could not even sleep in blind terror that Lord Vader would discover her while _Thunderflare_ was operating with the Death Squadron."

"Why do you tell me this, child? I have read your histories. I see the patterns within them." She asked directly.

"This is not a galaxy where my kind are merely slaves and commodities of others, as we so often are back home. Still when I was in that galaxy, Tanda Pryl saved my life. She spirited me away from slavers and turned me—a bank teller on an outer rim world!—into an Imperial officer, a symbol. And she taught me the force, and showed me how to survive in Palpatine's regime. Somewhere in her heart, she cared, Justiciar. I am trying to find a way to repay the favour, and save her life. I know that a Justiciar can't train me in the force. I must learn it myself, or else from Lady Pryl. But... Perhaps your code could help me to study in the force without falling to the dark side, and therefore give me an opportunity to gain the power I need to save her before she falls too far herself."

"The Code is not a tool, Lieutenant." She paused, for a dreadfully long time. "You seek to follow the path Tali'Zorah does. I can aid you in disciplining yourself, child, but no more."

"I would appreciate that, Justiciar. I mean it—it may be life for me and many others. As an Asari you have freedom of travel in this sector, and with the cover I can provide you as an Imperial officer, you can execute your duties among Asari of the Empire. Is that an acceptable relationship for us? If she was truly a Sith Lady, Justiciar, we would be dead already, as they can see the future. Since we are not, there is still hope for her."

"She falls further by the day... but I shall aid you. Do not be so quick as to offer me your 'cover', however. The Code is a harsh one. Would that a farming village was under attack by bandits, I would fight to the death to defend them-and if they were running a smuggling ring, I would be responsible for executing all of them. It is not the same as the Jedi Code. In some ways the Empire's law is more suited to it."

"The virtues of the Empire are indeed exactly like that, Justiciar," Kesalia answered.

"So you say," Samara answered calmly, holding her gaze for a very long moment, posture stiff and controlled. "But while the Code leads to good here, among the Asari, I have no doubt that the Empire's law led to evil. I can see it bubbling forth from her. The hour is late, Kesalia Sevaras. But I will help you, so that you can save her."

A dreadful pause. "Or if it becomes necessary, help me to destroy her."

"...I understand."

"Then let it be done, and let us begin. You will apprentice to me, and you will learn. And I will serve the Code here. We will both do as we must."


	31. Chapter 31

Tanda celebrated with Tali and the Quarian admiralty, and got back down to business. Together they reviewed the reconstruction plans for the captured Collector Cruiser, whose strange organic portions had been burned out to gain the precious power core and engines which made her so useful... Then there were the plans for implementation of regular procedures handling immigration and other issues that naturally proceeded from... The Quarians and the Empire together having formed a country. A new Empire.

There was Tali grinning and... away from the generationalists, resisting the urge to flaunt. There was Shala'Raan, trying to restrain her before her father for the sake of family ties. And there was the whole Admiralty board—dealing with the real repercussions of that relationship before them. As in the days of personal diplomacy, it had catapulted them into the ruling council of the greatest power of the galaxy—even if the Council didn't care to admit it.

"So, shipbuilding, Admiral Xen?" Tanda kicked back with Tali at her side, surrounded by suited men and women from her lover to the man who would be her father in law—but only if he had no say in it at all. She was, though, at the top of her game, and inclined to be indulgent.

"Once the shipyards are completed, we can begin to increase production, reaching the rate of one Hammerhead a week after a year. The need for the worker's habitation being included in new construction is slowing down the effort, however..." Xen would comment, with the holo blinking before her. About her Leader, she said nothing.

"Well, we could try to build more droids, but that further dilutes our industrial resources, Admiral," Tanda answered, inserting a bottle of Apollinaris into an induction port adapter for Tali as she spoke. Moff Pryl's latest bemusement was in finding every possible food or drink she could actually share with her lover.

"It is necessary nonetheless. Workers will have to oversee the droids and VI drones in any event. We are overstretched, and that is the truth of it. It will clear in a few months, and then we will begin to gain momentum in the program," Xen answered. She was disinterested in objections. She knew her job, and she knew she was good at it.

"I understand. At least with the absence of active combat operations we can focus on building trade and recognition from the rest of the galaxy."

"That will assist matters greatly. We will have to deal with any remaining nests of pirates and raiders at some point, but I believe that we can continue to stand down the Flotilla."

"Well, we have a list of every type of ship to be retained and refitted, and those to be in reserve, and the rest to be broken down for parts and scrap, based on the detailed surveys that you have arranged to be completed in exemplary fashion... In some way the romance of having a fleet of fifty thousand ships is lamentable to lose, but the warships which remain will be immeasurably more powerful."

"It's true." Han'Gerrel stirred. "The strength of the Heavy Fleet will be greater than it has been since before the Geth Uprising. We shall augment the three _Neema_ -class battleships with countless cruisers of both the upgraded classes and your own Hammerhead design, Moff Pryl. By the end, they'll be able to swarm any dreadnought force in the galaxy. The geth's, included."

"Fortunately the heavy cruisers were brand new when the revolt started and all can be saved," Zaal'Koris added. "Their refits will be of the next highest priority, correct, Moff Pryl?" They had mostly adapted to the Imperial name-address standards over the past months, too.

"Yes, that's so. Since we can new-build Hammerheads for Admiral Raan, refits will go to the heavy fleet."

She sipped her own Apollinaris through a straw, bubbling and fizzing in the cup, the drink distracting her. _This is what you can't fabricate or automate. Naturally carbonated mineral water from the homeworld—I could be fabulously rich selling this back home. My own parents could barely afford it once it became the Table Water of Necessity in Coruscant high society. Here, I can buy it by the barrel and count it a modest and respectable leisure._

Tanda glanced up. "At any rate, it is of admittedly less priority than other considerations at the moment, but the Batarians may yet cause trouble... And forcing the Citadel Council to recognise us as a government may require a show of our strength, ultimately."

"I'd hope not." Tali offered softly, to looks from the Admirals. They had difficulty accepting her there as a quasi-equal, knowing that she was only there because she was their ticket into the primacy of the affections of heart of the Moff. "They have a lot of ships, and those ships would better serve everyone alive by being pointed at the Reapers. And would the Asari stay loyal..."

Tanda grunted. "They had best. Asari used to fight wars with each other."

"But they do not anymore," Daro'Xen noted. "It is something we must always be aware of, even if it is a primary duty of the Ubiqtorate, not the Admiralty."

"Yes. Well." Tanda folded her hands behind her back. "We'll let the Ubiqtorate do their work. Tali'Zorah's concerns remain valid ones—I admit, it is not desirable to fight the Council, even now. You, however, had something else on the agenda you wanted to discuss, did you not, Admiral Xen?"

"I do, Moff Pryl." The composed and somewhat ominous Quarian Admiral flicked that interesting inflection into her voice that seemed to quiver with the intense single-minded focus upon her objectives. "I've had progress to report from my scientists and the G.R.B scientists in the liason team. Doctor Hlahja apparently based his original transgalactic research on something in the G.R.B.'s classified data-logs called the Infinity Process. A legendary travel technology from the ancient past of your galaxy based on gate devices. Indeed, looking for supporting evidence, I have found none, to the point it is a legendary, even mythical period. Nonetheless, classified data indicate it had a grounding, and the technical specifications were put to good use in the device which translated you into this galaxy."

She paused, and Tanda could tell she was revelling in having this certain measure of power over even the Imperials. "So he went to look for evidence of the process, and there are some signs that it was... Recently used in this galaxy before yor arrival."

Now Daro'Xen had _everyone_ 's attention, and she liked it that way very much. A lot of glowing eyes were looking in her direction now—and so were Tanda's blue ones. That was... ominous sounding, in a certain way.

"... Oh?" Tanda tapped open another bottle of Apollinaris. "Do go on, Admiral."

"Yes. The kind of signal in higher order space the event produced is traceable. I have therefore begun incorporating Quarian knowledge and resources into the effort to pinpoint the location of this event, but at the same time we have an obligation not to slow down any progress toward industrial self-sufficiency, so I have proceeded cautiously. This effort would involve a rather detailed hyperwave scanning process looking for obscure trace markers in spacetime."

"It could however if successful explain how humans came to my home galaxy from this one," Tanda observed. "Or indicate we are not the first, I suppose?"

"The estimate isn't accurate enough for me to say yet, Moff Pryl, though it does not date to the origins of humanity in your galaxy; it is much more recent." Xen answered. "As for how it can be done, hmm... pre-existing Quarian resources may help."

"Ah yes," Rael'Zorah added. "There are some old arrays on the outskirts of our former space we would use... if we could get access to them."

"Interesting. How long ago are you thinking it was, then?" Tanda asked.

"Actually very recently. Doctor Hlahja thinks that these signatures are less than forty years old. Which is part of why they're such a mystery."

"Forty years... that's... very odd." Tanda fiddled with her straw. "Before the Clone Wars."

"Does it match any events in your galaxy that could have caused such a thing?" Rael'Zorah would ask. "Humans were already moving near to then, it might have been missed easily in the chaos..."

"Doctor Hlahja was instructed down this path of research by offices closely linked to His Imperial Majesty. Unfortunately the reason behind it, as Admiral Xen is probably aware, was not declassified to the scientists. So, it is a grand mystery. A chance to do research and science as things were in days of old instead of merely for survival."

Tanda smiled. "I am pleased that you are interested, at any rate, in the origins of our galaxy, and will assist in the research—I do think it has enough value to expend some industrial resources on it. Of course you are all familiar with the history of the scale and scope of my home galaxy by now, and perhaps understand that... Many events well documented for Quarians, who know their homeworld, were simply unknown to humans. To me the most profound difficulty in arriving here was being told, and presumed, that as a human I had some connection to Earth, when all I had ever known was Commenor, and the idea that there was a human homeworld with native life related to humans was—an absurd fable of a past older than Xim the Despot. You may therefore be in a position to discover more about our origins through this project, and about transport between our galaxies, than I could possibly imagine."

"But it is exactly that ancient past which offers the connection between our galaxies. Nothing else makes sense... It was technology of the past which brought us here, after all. And that technology may compound the advantage under which we now operate, where a Quarian cruiser when refitted is now a threat to a dreadnought of any other power."

"A real mystery..." Tali spoke up quietly, aware that... her curiosity could well get her in trouble.

And from the way Tanda answered, it certainly did. "Do you want to have headship over the astrospatial component of the project, Commander? I doubt Admiral Xen wants to run the number crunching to narrow down the signatures herself, so it's a suitable duty."

"... I'd love to." Her eyes shone—it would be a fun challenge... And possibly involving some hands-on work too, for once, if those old scanners had to be repaired. But most importantly, it let her find what was on the other side before Tanda did.

After the meeting wrapped up, Tanda... Lingered around, waiting until it was her, and Tali, and Shala'Raan.

"...Admiral, could I ask you to stay for a moment?"

"...Of course, Moff Pryl." She replied, pausing and looking, inclining her head though Tanda could not tell exactly what she was thinking.

"...While you are here with Commander Zorah, I would like to know... About how Quarian marriage customs are handled."

"Feasting, family dances, a few days in a clean room to attempt to conceive..." Her eyes flicked between the two of them. "Or are you asking for different details?"

Tanda looked to Tali, and flushed. "Yes, about different details, Shala'Raan."

"Generally, after you've linked suits and decided it's something you want to go through with, one would propose... if accepted, then the families are informed, and should they agree... then the ship's captain agrees to bless the match, and then is the dancing and feasting to celebrate it."

"The linking suits part first is important, ceremonially?"

"It symbolizes the greatest gesture of closeness and trust we could give. Being in a clean room together is also considered acceptable on the more... lavish vessels."

"I understand... Thank you, Shala." She finally sat uncomfortably, and glanced to Tali "...I don't know why Tali hasn't participated in this conversation, I confess."

"... That would likely be due to my presence..." Shala'Raan sounded bemused, as she bowed slightly and departed, Tali finally sputtering.

"Did you have to ask Auntie Raan that?!"

Tanda coughed. "Yes, because it was less direct than asking Auntie Raan 'so, is there anything special I need to do to get a culturally Quarian marriage with my girlfriend'?"

"You could have asked me, if you were going to ask with me there!"

"...No, I mean, to actually find out, explicitly, from people who are not the two star-crossed lovers, if there are going to be things like your family leaving in a sulk, or political protests against our unnatural marriage or something. Tali, I am effectively the ruler of all Quarians. But I am not a Quarian. I need to start testing the waters with people other than the woman I deeply love to make sure that - our relationship will not become a thing of problems. My greatest fear in particular will be that I will be charged with being exploitative."

"I'm the daughter of an Admiral! For once, that's helpful... and I am not that young!" She was now in full on defensive mode.

"I didn't mean like that. I mean in the sense of -" She coughed. "Of people feeling like you're my prize for helping Quarian-kind." Tossing the empty bottle of Apollinaris in the recycler did nothing to distract the tension. "...Instead of the woman I love..."

"... We're Quarians, not humans. Worry about your own people when it comes to that!"

"I have to consider the political dimensions of everything."

"Well... Yes. I _suppose_ you do. But I mean that Quarians won't see it that way, it's just my father you have to worry about."

"...We're fighting again." Tanda sighed.

"... You silly bosh'tet, you just said you want to marry me, that isn't a fight, it's a squabble." She grinned hugely under the mask, and her posture showed it.

Tanda laughed weakly. "You fill my soul with pleasure, Tali'Zorah. Very nearly the only woman I should ever think to trust."

"Thank you... so... when... are we... going to... link suits?" She was probably blushing.

"Well, either before or after I go to negotiate with the Citadel Council, but either way, not that long. I assume I'll go suited into your clean quarters after taking some rather massive doses of antibiotics and anti-virals and such, and then once the atmosphere has thoroughly cycled anything out, we'll... take our suits off." _...Virtually the equivalent of Quarian sexy-talk..!_ Tanda smiled.

"That's the plan... humans are a lot... squishier than... this is already making me turn colours, uhm... yes, that's... a good plan. I'll get sick, but it shouldn't be too bad..."

"We will try to become one without this sickness..."

"So... ...just so you know, I meant, things are different down there..." Yep, she was blushing, that accent was thick as she moved closer to Tanda. "Humans are... squishier."

"Oh that's what you meant. You have, uhm. Less soft tissue."

"Keelah, that was the worst extranet search ever."

"What, trying to find extranet pictures of human female genitalia?" Tanda was both blushing and trying not to giggle. "That is, I am quite certain, actually the easiest extranet search."

"..Well, the Asari probably have it beat."

"I didn't need pictures, I needed descriptions and comparisons... and not Fornax... I do not ever want to..." She put her head in her hands. "Not probably. They very have it beat."

"Well, I don't think a Lady of the Sith is much perturbed by chirality. I am part of life, and so are you."

"So there's more... Maybe this isn't something I can adequately describe talking and we do some pictures... Can I just send you some links before my blush makes me pass out?"

"...We've crosslinked the Extranet and the micro-Holonet we're running in the Mils system, so it's Pryl_Tanda_Thunderflare_001 ," Tanda finally coughed out.

She giggled... and brought up her omnitool. And the message she sent had a sort of... disturbingly complete level of detail.

Tanda stared. _Dea, she was serious... but she was also a Quarian, so of course this needed planning._

Tali, for her part, found it impressive that there was now reliable Extranet access through all of the Terminus systems outside of the roving Quarian node. Asari probably thought the non-standard protocols and relatively limited interactive components as opposed to tri-dee movie feeds and recorded messages made it something like the legendarily sucktastic Batarian Extranet. But unlike the Batarian Extranet, closed to outsiders, you could actually for the first time reliably send and receive mail, direct live holo communications, and post in forums from the ass-end of space!

Tanda was still looking at the message. Finally she cleared her throat. "Maybe I should read the contents with you present. In private. It would be really embarrassing for a lieutenant to, auhm, wander in right now."

"R-right! Good plan! E-excellent plan... ...Ancestors, married, I'll need the right wrappings and a cape..."

 _Send her to us, and we will make it so that she never leaves you..._ Tanda shook her head to clear it. The voice only grew more insistent.

-

Plans for wedding and the growingly disturbing voices aside, the business of governance went on, and so did the concerns over the ultimate fate of their relationship with Commander Jane Shepard. Her crew had been rather worn down, and a lot of them were coming back to the ship in Imperial jumpsuits, with most of her primary ground team splintering... And Tanda had been more than slightly guilty in that development, too. She had done her best to recruit people, in particular offering to have Miranda head a new unified Ubiqtorate to consolidate all intelligence operations.

Tanda had hoped that Shepard would simply offer to continue working with the Empire, and settle the matter that way. _Normandy_ was not merely repaired but given low-power ray shielding and a hyperwave transmitter before finishing her drydocking.

But Shepard didn't contact her. And so, Tanda responded with considerable concern and interest when the SR-2, painted in blue and gray tones, requested clearance to depart. She opened a direct channel while still in her office. "Commander, you're still very light on crew. I'd been hoping to discuss some options for that with you before you departed."

"I'm aware, but I've been asked to do a favour. It won't involve the ship aside from transportation, or anyone else on the ground."

Tanda pursed her lips, and thought of Tali. _Give her some space, she is the best._ "Well, you have a hyperwave transmitter with the repairs completed. Use it if you need to."

"Don't worry, Moff Pryl, I will if I have to. This hopefully won't take long."

Sighing, Tanda went back to her work. _You need to lean on Tali about her. They're more or less close friends, and Shepard won't ignore her._ So she mentioned it to Tali at lunch.

...It was a few hours later that Shepard comm'ed her on _Thunderflare_ again. Tanda opened the line without hesitation. "Go ahead, Commander."

"Moff Pryl... I'm under orders to not say anything about where I'm going, or why." her holo flickered, and she looked... pained. "... I've got a bad feeling about this, so, I'll be blunt with what I can say; If what I've been told is true-if I fail, the Reapers will be imminently arriving in our galaxy."

Tanda sank down. "I had hoped to have years... Commander..."

"I have already said too much, Moff Pryl."

Loosening her collar, the Moff was grimacing. "Coordinates would help, Commander, if there comes a time when they can be sent. So you say, but... Coordinates would help." She started typing up the mobilisation orders even before the conversation was over.

"I'll tell Joker to send them if I'm missing and presumed lost, Moff Pryl. I'll be dead, and they can court-martial my corpse. I don't have much time before we have to go silent for the final run in."

The finishing touches on the mobilisation orders were a directive putting the entire fleet on alert... "I will spare my complaints for your misguided loyalty to the people who refuse to properly address this threat, and hope that they have instead decided to do so. Dea be with you, Commander."

"Normandy out." Her holo blinked out.

Tanda paused, and started tightening her collar again. She sent the message, and rose. Soon enough her persocomp would be filled with messages from the Quarian Admirals, from her own Captains, from the Ubiqtorate, the Asari matriarchs, the Planetary Governors, the CEOs, the Dockyard Masters. For now, she would ignore them all. Rising, she reached for her cape, swung it over her shoulders, and fumbled the clasp until it secured, heading out to the bridge.

"Establish a holonet transmission through to the Citadel Extranet, and hail them." _I must hope that their sending Commander Shepard on a mission explicitly against the Reapers is a new era where I may communicate with them on this matter._

Tanda waited. Her hope started to fade. The messages—now coming with runners from the comm pits—grew more urgent, as people tried to figure out why she had ordered the mobilisation. Tanda paced.

Finally, an image resolved on the holonet projector. "This is Liam Gerrald, Secretary for Councilor Anderson..." the man trailed off, and then smirked. "Well, I can refer you to the appropriate Citadel authorities so that C-Sec can make arrangements for your surrender if you like, Miss 'Pryl'. Knowing your birth name on Earth..."

"I must speak with the Council at once! There are urgent matters regarding the Reapers..."

The connection blinked out. Tanda's teeth ground into each other. She closed her eyes. "Raise Admiral Raan."

The familiar Quarian figure appeared. "Ancestors... Thank you for finally getting in touch, Moff Pryl. What is the emergency?"

"The Reapers may, and I stress _may_ , but it is risk enough, be preparing an immediate invasion of the Milky Way."

"...I see."

"If we are fortunate, this will just be a very good drill. If we are not... Well, don't treat it like a drill."

"Of course, Moff Pryl."

"Alert the others on behest, I have work to complete." She turned, and looking out into space, twisted her lips into a sneer, directed sightlessly across space toward the Council. She knew that they knew, by now, that there was more to her than some Terminus warlord. But they not only didn't care to collaborate, but had instead chosen to maintain that charade with their low-ranking people. Well, she had other options. _If you won't help me,_ _ **perhaps someone else will.**_ She returned to her quarters, drew in on herself, and began to meditate.

 _Show me how I may reach you, and receive the full measure of your power..._


	32. Chapter 32

"Commander Zorah?" The young man approached, hands neutrally behind his back. They had rarely spoken outside of duty before.

"Lieutenant Scolus?" Tali was pacing back and forth in front of the locked door to Tanda's sea-cabin. Tanda's refusal to talk to _anyone_ while meditating was pushing them all to the limit. Well, that wasn't true. She _thought_ Tanda and Daro'Xen were talking, but about what, she had no idea, as Daro'Xen was also incommunicado.

"We've received a message, based on the code, it's from Commander Shepard. The message says that she's received unconfirmed information that the Reapers will be entering this galaxy through the Bahak system. The time of their arrival and confirmatory information, she is currently investigating to relay to us."

Tali brought up her omnitool. "The Bahak system..."

"Yes, Commander. The frontier between Batarian and Systems Alliance space."

"If that's so, they're confident... Picking a fight with the Batarians and the Council simultaneously. But from everything that we know, they are perfectly right to be confident. Have you informed the Admiralty Board and Captains Rhae and Turla?"

"Do you think that's appropriate? In the circumstances, they may try to go over Moff Pryl's head."

Tali frowned. _This is so much worse than fleet politics._ "Let me try to contact her myself."

"...Of course, Commander Zorah." Scolus saluted and stepped to the side, and Tali returned to the door.

But this time, she bowed her head and closed her eyes. _Tanda... The Bahak System._

Nothing.

Tali was about to give into despair when Tanda exploded out of the room before her, in her cape and uniform with her lightsabre buckled at her side. She turned sharply to Tali, and before she could do anything, spun her around in a hug by the shoulders.

"Tali," Tanda said, simply, "I have a job for you. I want you to take _Iravahz_ to a set of coordinates I'm going to have sent to you."

"I... Tanda, did you get my message?"

"Yes, and it's urgent, I think. But this is _also_ very urgent. The final pieces of the puzzle of how a connection between our galaxies exists, awaits on the other side. My meditation combined with Daro'Xen's research to give me the final data I needed. Contact Admiral Xen, she will give you the coordinates."

"And what are _you_ going to do, Tanda?"

"Take _Thunderflare_ and _Bombard_ to the Bahak system." She turned. "We don't have any time to lose."

"Is there anything else you can tell me about what I'll be doing?"

"I'm afraid not, my love."

"May the force be with you, Tanda." The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Tali hastened off. _C'mon, Arthree. Start booting up Iravahz!_

-

Tanda could easily imagine the chaos and panic in the Batarians when she arrived. They were insular and xenophobic, and her Empire extending itself into their space would surely bring about a maximal response. So she had ordered the ISD and VSD to come out of hyperspace on the extreme edge of the system to take stock of the situation. Reapers and Reaper-controlled forces like the Collectors appeared to prefer operating from ambuscade, anyway, so she could try to repay the favour.

"Your Ladyship, incoming message from Mils..."

Tanda turned to the back of the bridge, and saw Miranda Lawson's image forming there, no longer in a vaguely Cerberus skinsuit, though in some ways the woman still made her think too much of Iceheart. "Did we get the information from Governor T'Loak, Director Lawson?" Once they had pulled all the information on Bahak, they had found some interesting transactions through Omega...

"Yes, Moff Pryl. The parts were indeed transferred. Governor T'Loak can't confirm the final destination, however, some activity did occur through our space."

"I see. Do you think it's related to the Reapers, or to the mission Commander Shepard was on?"

"Well, Shepard's side wasn't planned in advance. It could just be the Batarians engaged in technology transfer, but the engines and reactor equipment aren't sufficiently high grade to really justify the amount of effort put into it."

Tanda tugged on her gloves. "But it was definitely shipped?"

"Definitely, Moff Pryl. Definitely. So the parts the Batarians intercepted came from us—well, from Omega."

"And they're essentially a colony power core and a set of bulk freighter engines."

"Yes."

"Thank you. That will be all, Director." She turned as the hologram blinked away, trying to clear the cotton in her mind.

"Commander Shepard is running late, Your Ladyship," Scolus stepped up to her side. "The original message suggested this phase of the mission would be short."

"I'm aware. But without a clear fix on where she is in the system... Well, it is concerning that I cannot feel her."

Scolus grimaced. The less said about matters in the force, the better. "M'lady, perhaps..."

"No, she's not dead."

"Ah, yes, M'lady." He stepped away nervously.

Tanda was about to leave the bridge when one of the spacers in the comm pit glanced up. "Ah, Your Ladyship, there's something you need to see..."

She was down in the pit in an instant, looking over his shoulder. "Yes it is. That most assuredly was. Good thinking, Spacer. L'tenant Scolus!"

"Your Ladyship," he strode back to the pit.

"There was a signal originating on a hailing frequency from the outer asteroid field. It was cut off before the message went through."

"We can cross-reference _Bombard_ 's computer logs to triangulate," he answered immediately.

"Arrange it at once."

She straightened.

"And quietly bring the ships to stations."

"Condition Two extended?"

"Condition Two extended."

"Aye, M'lady."

Screens were energized and internal bulkhead piercings closed. Shield generators were charged but not activated. Sensors were warmed in preparation for operation, but not brought up from their silent running mode. Watches were doubled at critical station, and men off duty tuckered down to nap while they could in preparation for imminent action.

"Captain Turla has returned his data logs," Scolus returned after a few minutes. "The men should already be going over them."

"Yes, they're bringing them up now." Tanda was still down in the comm pit, watching the men work through their direction-finding.

"Here, Ma'am."

Tanda leaned in, seeing the little glowing green point over the system in relation to their two ships. "Data transferred to local navigation?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Good work." Tanda climbed the ladder out of the pit. "Come on L'tenant Scolus, let's see what they have for us." Plots on the starboard of the bridge were lighting up, and the two officers watched the location backtrack through the system as it existed several minutes ago.

"Outer belt, very close to the Mass Relay."

"Indeed, Ma'am. Shall we go active and investigate?"

"Well, we can certainly clear the system of Batarian pickets."

"Begin launching our starfighter complements and call the ships to station. Lay in a course for the asteroid, maximum sublight power. Shields, screens, Condition One," Tanda snapped.

"Shields, screens to full power. Sounding Condition One, Action Stations!"

Scolus saluted and turned away, issuing the final orders. Starfighter pilots went to their ships as both _Thunderflare_ and _Bombard_ began accelerating out of their positions at the edge of the system. The Batarians in the system watched as the two Star Destroyers loomed up out of the edges of deep space, engines burning hard.

"The Batarians are contacting us and ordering us out of their space, M'lady."

"Let them eat static. We have more important concerns."

"Aye aye."

"Your Ladyship, a sublight turn!"

"The Batarians are moving in to attack, then?"

"No, Your Ladyship. From the asteroid."

Tanda's eyes snapped wide and she exchanged a silent look with Scolus. "Plot the trajectory."

The screen turned into a parabolic. "As the arc narrows with increasing acceleration, and the acceleration curve is going up, M'lady... It intersects with the Relay. There appears to be a considerable station infrastructure on the asteroid now that we've got good data on it, M'lady."

"Keep scanning. Comms! Try to raise them."

"No answer, Ma'am."

Tanda watched the squadrons finish forming up beside the two Star Destroyers as they pressed on, adjusting their vanes and starting to match vee for an interception.

"Load an assault transport with spacetroopers and get them moving."

"The impact with the Relay will occur in one hour, Your Ladyship."

Tanda sighed. "That's enough time."

"Aye, aye. Despatching..."

She turned, hands braced, and watched the tactical plot. The Batarian ships were coming alive, and forming up, but defensively. The puissance of her ships had clearly reached their Navy to the point that they would at least await orders from their leadership before trying to attack when she appeared to be wasting her time in the outer system.

With the Batarians staying in the inner system an uncertain outcome to the shuttle mission but no sign of obvious resistance, the situation was developing about as slowly as one could expect. Operations, particularly in this galaxy where organised opposition had been rare, had mostly played out that way.

"Shall we arrest the progress of the asteroid while we await for the outcome of the mission, M'lady?"

"No. Remember what we came here for, L'tenant."

"Oh... Right." He looked at the relay again, more hesitantly.

"Indeed. But perhaps Command Shepard has already solved the problem for us, with the help of a laundered Eezo core and freighter drive torches from Omega," Tanda replied dryly. "I'll be in my sea cabin. The moment the Batarians start coming out or something occurs on the planetoid, inform me at once."

"Of course, M'lady!"

Tanda turned away, settled into her cabin. Took a long look at a tri-D of Tali, and then made herself tea. She'd barely started drinking it when the alarm peeled, and with a start, she went straight back to the bridge, still holding the mug.

"Report?"

"Lieutenant Gleeson from the VRI-88 says they've recovered Commander Shepard, and that the asteroid impact with the Mass Relay – will destroy the system, Lady Moff."

"...Destroy the system? Get Commander Shepard back aboard immediately—don't wait for anyone else, just recover her."

"Ma'am."

She activated a line to engineering. "Commander Gristholm, we have received some disturbing information. It appears that the objective of the asteroid is a collision with the Mass Relay, as we expected. However, it is being claimed that the destruction of the Relay will destroy the Bahak system. Is this so?"

Gristholm, whose engineering crew had been reduced in the expectation of Tali'Zorah being able to help him with some engineering watches, was not pleased at her absence in the circumstances. He had also not become that familiar with Mass core systems, but... "Simply on a calculation of the energy involved in the operation of a Mass Relay, it's at least hypothetically possible, Your Ladyship, I must admit."

"I see. Thank you." Her fingers twisted in interesting directions. She killed the channel, and looked at the drive plume they were now close enough to see. "Plot two micro-jumps. One for _Thunderflare_ directly athwarts the Batarian squadron—next to that orbital transfer station, _there_ —and the second for _Bombard_ , opposite face of the planet. The starfighters are to rendezvous and be recovered aboard immediately. Assault transport will proceed to deep space."

She waited and watched as the crew sent the orders to _Bombard_ and then executed the mission with mathematical precision—which was appropriate, as the microjump was mostly mathematics. One minute they were in the outer system, and the next, tearing through the pseudomotion of the jump initiation and drawback, _Thunderflare_ loomed up before the Batarians insistently, and at once received their fire.

"Shields holding, M'lady. We are orienting the ventral surface to screen the fighters under recovery."

"Very well."

"Captain Turla is requesting his orders."

"He is to bring _Bombard_ into the planetary atmosphere and seize as many Batarians as possible, preferably civilians. Nothing fancy, seize a sector of the capital city that the hyperdrive motivators can confine and haul it into orbit."

"... _Your Ladyship?_ "

"Exactly as I ordered. We don't have enough time to send shuttles to the surface and I rather expect the Batarians to be paranoid enough that their deep survival shelters have full bottled oxygen instead of filters. If they don't, they're no more dead than they will be."

"Ma'am."

"The Batarian fleet, ma'am?"

"Play coy with them. Once our fighters are aboard, keep them off of _Bombard_. But let them escape. There's no need to add to the casualties."

"M'lady, if the Batarian ships escape from the system, their government is bound to blame us and go to war."

Tanda pursed her lips.

"Main batteries commence firing."

One of the Batarian cruisers was transfixed by the first salvo. The entire forward thirty percent of the hull was blown away, debris crackling through space. Space filled with tumbling debris and ragged ships as the main guns of the _Thunderflare_ kept firing, the haloed planet behind them backlighting the battle as the flicker of green and red turbolaser and ion cannon fire skittered across the Batarian ships.

"Will that frigate fit into the hangar bay alongside the station?" Even as they had commenced the annihilation of the fleet, they had completed reeling the station in, and storming it with Quarian Marines and Spacetroopers.

"Yes, M'lady."

"Finishing disabling it and bring it aboard." Tanda braced herself as the ship rocked below her feet, but it was a gentle thing. A single burn-through well forward, of nothing critical. In the meanwhile, the eezo core of another cruiser cracked and shattered as main turbolaser cannon bolts drilled directly into its engineer spaces ahead of them.

"Captain Turla reports that he's recovered the city substrate as ordered."

"He may proceed out of the system and then commence detention of Batarian survivors."

"Aye, Your Ladyship."

"M'lady, one minute."

"Pull out and stand by to make the jump to lightspeed!"

"Something is starting to come through the relay..." The image disappeared into a brilliant white flash. She saw the brief shadow of her enemy, and then it all vanished.

And then _Thunderflare_ elongated and disappeared in a flicker of pseudomotion.

-

"How many Batarians were rescued?"

"Ten thousand and sixty-two by _Bombard_ , M'lady. None of their ships escaped the system. We also rescued three hundred and eleven from the captured frigate and station, presently in detention. They are resisting us considerably."

"Of course they are. They think we blew Bahak up ourselves," Tanda noted acerbically. "Well, we did our best. We'll find some suitable world off the relay network to put them down on with some basic equipment, since they'll resist us and we can't exactly send them back. Exile is preferable to death for civilians."

"Of course, Your Ladyship."

"Message coming through from Commander Shepard, M'lady..."

"She wasn't brought aboard?"

"No, Ma'am, the assault transport dropped her at her insistence aboard the SR-2, which proceeded by FTL drive."

Tanda sighed. "Put it to my sea cabin." She settled in promptly, though went for more tea before activating the projector. "Commander. Good work. You appear to have stopped the Reaper invasion."

"... Ram a big enough asteroid into a mass relay, they apparently produce the power of a small supernova when they're destroyed..." That was the only reply that Atarah Shepard gave her in return, with her shoulders slumped, and tears seeming to well up in her eyes. She looked defeated. "No, that isn't true. The Reapers have arrived in the galaxy, Moff Pryl."

"And you destroyed them, Commander. They're not coming through in the Bahak system."

"What was the Bahak system. Sure, I destroyed them there. I _delayed_ them. They'll... have to travel via FTL to the next relay. Months... years... I don't know how fast they are. But they are in the galaxy and they will be coming. There is no doubt about that."

"I understand..." She clutched her mug and sank back. "We'll be ready for them, when they come. You've done all you can. Get yourself back to Mil, Commander. You can rest and recover and we can make preparations for the first moves against them."

"I'm under orders to meet up with Admiral Hackett-I'll update you after that." She sounded so damned tired.

Tanda's lips twisted just like her hands. "I believe that is pure foolishness, Commander... You have friendly support in me and the Empire. Do not chain yourself to people unwilling to take decisive action."

"I'm an Alliance officer, Moff Pryl. I swore an oath." Her voice nearly cracked-she wasn't stupid, but... her damned sense of honour wouldn't let go of her. And she felt terribly guilty.

Tanda kicked her desk. She hated being reminded of her own usurpation of power here. "The Reapers demand actions be taken according to the exigency of circumstance, Commander. We can all go get shot after they're defeated."

"I'm not going to sacrifice who I am-who humanity is-to defeat them. There's another way. Please... don't start sounding like the last person who I had to hang up on."

"Commander, I'm encouraging you to adhere to a higher duty toward our common humanity, not to dabble in black technology or human experimentation. Just serve someone who will fight for our values!"

"... I'm sorry, Moff Pryl. I can't promise you that."

"As you say. I will take the actions necessary for the survival of civilisation in this galaxy in your absence."

"Here's to hoping you're wrong about that being necessary. Shepard out."

Tanda closed her eyes. Blinked precisely, twice. And then she immediately started a conference connection with the Admirals. They all blinked in, the comm code she had set being urgent enough to call people away from what they were doing-and Quarians, at least, were intensely easy with holoconference in a way the other races weren't.

Tanda shortly explained what had happened. "I have two concerns now-the Reaper attack, and also the risk of the Batarians blaming us for this development."

"... She blew up a relay?!" Shala'Raan was not bemused by that.

"If the Batarians are as blind as the rest of the galaxy, they will blame the Alliance." This time from Rael'Zorah. "You are not a recognized power—they will blame Earth, even though you were responsible.

"Well, the Reapers were about to come out of it, Admiral Raan. It's not different than, say, blowing up a dam to stop an enemy advance in land warfare." A thin smile still touched her lips. "That is however a relieving assessment, Admiral Rael'Zorah. Commander Shepard is returning to human space, which at least lets us wash our hands of the matter, I suppose. Nobody was allowed to escape from the system—we have all the survivors we rescued aboard the Star Destroyers, where we can execute containment measures of information regarding my presence in the system."

"The question remains how valuable she would be. She will be made a scapegoat." Rael'Zorah continued. "They will need to put her on trial to calm the Batarians, but will not want to convict her. Thus they will drag it out until the Reapers are at their doorstep."

"Well. We have time. That time should consist of three avenues. Research into the prior contact between my galaxy and this one in hopes of finding additional resources through it; arming and preparing the entire fleet for war, including ships we had planned to scrap, to make this sector into an impregnable fortress; and continuing the settlement of the colony under hyperdrive with strict discipline. The Reapers are just as crippled by the lack of mass relays as everyone else, so ...If all else fails, the new Quarian homeworld will be absolutely secure."

"Only if they do not know where it is. We will have to be most cautious about inactive mass relays near it, in addition to indoctrination of those heading to our new world," Daro'Xen added.

"And making sure that no hyperdrive is taken by the enemy," Han'Gerral was as sour as ever.

"Correct. If we can maintain these two elements... the homeworld will be safe."

"Yes, that's so, Admiral Raan. I will make its security an Ubiqtorate priority." Tanda straightened her jacket a bit. "Then we are on the correct course. We will soon find ourselves in the times that try souls to the limit. I will go to the Citadel as I had planned."

"We will continue our assignments and preparing of the Fleet... Ancestors watch over us, trying times are indeed ahead." Shala'Raan would murmur.

-

Tali came out of lightspeed in a dead system close to her final objective. Her final objective was another dead system, to be sure, just ahead, though Tali had no idea _why_ that was her destination, until the subspace sensor scans came back. They came with a Minor Problem. Actually a very major problem.

She ran the scans again, despite the delay of an hour in her mission that entailed. The results were still the same. There was a system in front of her according to her sensors, a light, a sun, that was not on the official star charts of the region she was scanning. In fact, it was essentially tacked onto the system she was heading for, with the orbits of the planets and the suns around each other all being profoundly eccentric.

With Arthree handling support, Tali confirmed the results. She had the information broadcast from the fleet. She knew the Reapers were close, and she couldn't afford to play cautious about this. So with hesitant microjumps she went closer. Searching... going to passive sensors and trying to figure out... well. _Why would this be missing...?_

They were on the extreme edge of safe FTL range from the nearest relay of the Pylos Nebula cluster. With each update of information from the passive sensors the initial active scans showing the extreme system instability were confirmed.

... That was cause for a frown behind the mask, as she looked to her droid, feeling increasingly uneasy with every new update of information that she got; "So, does this look as odd to you as it does me? The system should have been long discovered, but... it's not on the charts. Curious... well, we've found something suspicious, haven't we..." She'd microjump to the outskirts of the system, finally, and then run in silently on passives.

It was from the inside view that the situation would finally become clear. The system was in the process of fairly violently being torn apart by the gravity of the nearby system RHW-118 which was on the charts. It was so chaotic because it hadn't been next to RHW-118 for very long. But for some reason, that was happening despite the fact they had captured each other in their gravitational fields, which should have meant they had been in proximity for much, much longer. And yet they hadn't been.

And then suddenly... Hyper-effect sensor warnings started to go off. She was being scanned—and not just by anyone. By Imperial technology. Hyperwaves were pulsing off the hull of the _Iravahnz_ , and they were coming from the system.

"...Keelah, that's not good!" She brought her engines up, and her own scanners. _Come on, come on, what's out there..._ Talking to yourself was easy on solo missions.

And then a voice cut through the dark. "This is Republic Judicial Forces ship _Itaska_. You're a sight for sore eyes, unidentified freighter. Please provide your contact clearances."

"... Oh bosh'tet." _Oh bosh'tet, indeed!_ But fortunately she hadn't had the comm line open. Now she took a breath, and did open it. "This is the Quarian Flotilla gunship _Iravahnz_." In a way, that's true...

There was a pause. The voice sounded very tired and stressed. "Quarians don't have Sienar Republic Systems hypermatter drive core signatures, _Iravahnz._ Repeat, provide your authentication. We are a valid Republic Judicial Force." In a way, though the force, Tali could tell that the woman was trying to convince _herself_ of that, and that scared Tali even more.

And then, the sensors showed that what had been a tiny speck in the system was rapidly swelling into a ship vaguely reminiscent of the cruisers which Daro'Xen had built for Tanda.

"We do now." Her eyes widened a bit as the sensor data updated. _Keelah, that's bigger than I can fight... but... the Republic... maybe... Ancestors, I am in over my head._ She sent the most basic of codes—not even ones that said they were part of the Imperial Starfleet-just that she was XRJ-1101, _Iravahnz._

But as she did, there was no comfort or reply. Instead, _Iravahnz_ shuddered in a tractor beam as she was grabbed and held into place by that invisible hand through space.

"Last I checked, we aren't in the Galactic Republic, _Itaska_!" She turned to Arthree, bringing up her omnitool. "Hang on girl, I'm activating that deep-core memory I put in you, so even if they wipe you, you'll come back... if anything happens to me, find a way to tell Tanda what happened, okay?" She knelt down before the droid, listening to her mournfully affirmatory chirps and 'hardening' her programming after she'd finished the first task... then clipping her lightsabre to her belt, and affixing the shotgun and pistol as well.

 _But I can't fight... She'd come here and attack them instantly... And I think that's wrong. But why didn't they contact the rest of the galaxy?_

...The shuttle was drawn into the ship and locked in place, and after Tali confirmed that there was an atmosphere on the other side, she just popped the hatch, seeing no need to prolong things. _I do not need somebody throwing grenades at me..._ And so she drew herself up to her full height, composed in her suit, and just stood in the hatch.

...An Asian looking human woman in a dark blue uniform with leather accents suddenly stiffened, and a look of shock and hope crossed her face. "...Master Jedi?" She waved a hand to have the archaically attired guards step back, clearing her throat nervously. "Forgive me for seizing your ship, but I never imagiend ... I mean, a Quarian Jedi? I thought if that had happened we'd have been rediscovered decades ago. Does this mean that Master C'baoth arrived successfully?"

"... Who?" _I wish I was a Master Jedi..._

"..Master C'baoth, Master Jedi? The famed Jedi Master who was preparing to set out to explore distant galaxies with the Outbound Flight Project?"

"..." Tali wanted to facepalm.

"When I saw you with your lightsabre I thought you must have been trained by Master C'baoth as nothing else made sense. We have had more and more trouble intercepting communications as many of our systems failed and we diverted energy to trying to keep Ova alive... And there are serious matters which we must discuss."

"... Keelah... I think you need to take me to..."

"That's the problem, that's what we need to discuss, and that's what I need to inform you of _quickly_ , considering it was explicit orders from them that sent us out here. Master Jedi, Ova, shortly after the planet was transferred to this galaxy, was... Seized, and has subsequently been under the rule, of a group of dark-side practitioners, witches of the planet Dathomir who call themselves Night Sisters. They have killed and terrorized and prevented us on pain of the death of our families from contacting the rest of this galaxy."

"Master Jedi, we do need your help. We have been trapped in this galaxy... Since Year Four after the Great ReSynchronization, and terrorised the entire time. Without your assistance, all is lost. And if I allow you to escape, myself and my family will be killed. But if you can help me to defeat them... We may have a chance, a chance to free ourselves and to discover the secret they are hiding from us about the system they came from. Please, you are truly our only hope."


	33. Chapter 33

"We must prepare some kind of plan for facing them."

"...How many are there?" Tali realised from the moment she said that, she had committed herself. But she couldn't find it in her heart to say no.

"Six, Master Jedi." She led Tali toward the bridge of the Judicial cruiser. "Have they replaced any of _Itaska_ 's class since we left? She used to be the second largest class in the Judicial forces, unless you count those eight hundred meter Merselkebir-type dreadnoughts."

"Ah, it's the Navy now... I know, I'm a commander in it. And the ships have gotten _much_ larger."

"The Navy, Master Jedi? Jedi are serving in a Navy? But the republic hasn't had a formal armed military for the past thousand years! We in the Judicial forces are the closest thing to it!"

"I said I had to talk to people... a... lot happened." _More than I really want to tell you all right now._ Her voice was quieter as she said; "A lot... changed while you were here. And we have far more urgent things to be concerned about."

"I understand that." The woman looked down as she went up to the bridge, the ship slipping into orbit of a planet involved in what was essentially a protracted ecological catastrophe as its orbit was disrupted. "Well, some information for you. The planetary population is trivial, six hundred and eighty million, a small outer rim world... Humans, Twi'leks, and Duros. But they are all we've had. The judicial fleet is the _Itaska_ , three CR70s, two Assault Cruisers, and four IPV-2s for customs enforcement, with the planetary force the Carrack class cruiser _Itarla_ , and four more CR70s. There's two orbital mining stations, one Tibana gas facility in the second gas giant, and a standard shipping/receiving station in orbit as well a Golan I."

"You realise there are only seventeen million Quarians in existence?"

The woman had the decency to flush. "Forgive me. At any rate, against anything but a group of force users, it would be fine, even in your rough-and-tumble galaxy. But they mind-controlled people and installed hypermatter bombs under the main population centres. Unless we can disable those bombs, they can kill hundreds of millions at will. I was ordered to bring you directly back to the capital – the temple of the Nightsisters is where they keep the controls inside of it. Because of the groundquakes the seat of government has been moved to the Golan platform, so everything is inside of that station. They're not very good with technology, but unfortunately they've had plenty of collaborates eager to save their skin."

"They're on the station?"

"Yes, Master Jedi."

" _Well..._ I think I can do something about it, yes. Give me your data-link access." _This will be the biggest ticket hacking you've ever done in your life, Tali..._

"Master Jedi, if you can't disable it..."

"I _know_. Trust the force." The woman quieted so quickly that Tali almost felt guilty. She got Arthree jacked in and together they started working as quickly and efficiently as she could, trying to find the routing to the command interface.

"So, any advice about these Nightsisters?"

"They're very simplistic, they don't have much technological knowledge. Dathomir is a very primitive planet, Master Jedi."

"Simplistic. Good." _Now if I'm right, those bosh'tets will have wanted a_ _ **button**_ _, something hard-wired..._ She worked to find something stored in the computers to execute a simple analog command with a burst transmission. That would require coding in the station's transmission computers.

"Master Jedi, they're giving me a docking approach and telling me to complete docking within the next five standard minutes."

"...Wonderful, a timer..." _Arthree, do you have something...?_ The massive station loomed, white and graceful, before them, over the unstable world slowly being torn from its orbit.

"Ah, Commander..."

"Karla Bursk," she answered. "What do you need?"

"Visually target their sector of the space station and give activation authority to the turbolasers to my console."

The woman's eyes widened like she would have never expected a Jedi to say such a thing. "Of course, Master Jedi," was still the answer, and she issued orders to her crew.

"They're getting upset and want to know what the delay with the docking protocol is," she added a moment later.

Tali ignored her. What was critical in a moment like this was to understand was _why_ things worked, not just how. A button was pushed, a transmission was sent, the bombs exploded. But what did the button do? It formed an electrical impulse. The computer led this impulse, from this line, as meaning a certain thing. When that certain thing had been meant, the computer executed the associated lines of code or programme, in that case, the programme that burst the detonation transmission to the surface.

Changing the programme would now trigger alarms and possibly an automatic command to detonate the bombs. But the programmer had been competent. Against some kind of unplanned system fault, considering his own family was on the line, he had contrived to make it seem to his mistresses like he was making the system more reliable... When he had installed a software fault protection.

If she flipped the sense of the analog button's function from pull up to pull down on the circuit, instead of triggering the programme, it would put it into fault mode. The only challenge was hacking into the incredibly simple and rugged electromechanical system, exactly like those used by the Empire, and refined by thousands of years of regular use to be almost seamless against just this kind of assault.

That was a big problem.

Tali banged her head against it, and felt like she was going nowhere. Not even the skills of a Quarian machinist were prepared for the way those systems were fundamentally hardened. They looked like stupid black boxes because they'd been so refined over twenty-five thousand years that they could be worked by idiots, with no maintenance, and not fail for thousands of years themselves.

Arthree chirped urgently.

"Master Jedi, they are ordering me to dock at once and threatening my family and to open fire in one minute if we do not!" The bridge crew was cowering in fear behind her at the prospect of genocide on the surface.

Tali could hear their own thoughts of turning against her. But she could translate what Arthree was saying, too. Her eyes flashed. She went through the system until she found a droid jacked in near the wiring conduit. Explained the mission to it—and how its real duty to its masters was obedience.

The droid turned, and started drilling through the wall with a happy chirp. Tali watched in relief as several people walked by, assuming it was a droid performing maintenance and not caring about any more details than that.

"Forty-five seconds..."

The droid finished drilling through the wall, and swapped out to a cutter implement to slice the conduit. Then a multitool rammed two wires together and soldered the connection.

The display panel for the death switch would flip to an amber error code and start buzzing. Tali grinned, and immediately brought reserve power to the turbolaser banks.

"Battlestations!" She opened fire. The part of the station where the Nightsisters had been set up their temple disappeared into a flash of fire. As it faded, they, and the station, were still there, the armour of even a Golan I being immensely thick. But Tali closed her eyes, reaching through the force, and sent each successive bolt from the two forward twin medium turbolasers into the same place, again and again, drilling through in the span of thirty seconds. A flash and gout of plasma showed when the turbolaser fire lanced deep into the unprotected hull.

Commander Bursk brought their shields up as she broadcast a message of the revolt throughout the system. With news that a "Jedi Master" was fighting the Nightsisters and had disabled the bombs, the result was immediate and overwhelming. Attacks on their lackeys on the surface started instantaneously.

Tali knew better. "Take the shields down and dock! They had enough time to get away from their temple, I've got to stop any of them that are left before they can get back into the system."

Bursk's eyes flashed with fear for a moment, and then she nodded. "Take us in, and preparing a boarding tube! No time to be delicate now."

A moment later the cruiser near-to rammed into the side of the station as her cutting torches flared from the end of the boarding tube. "Keep on those systems, Arthree!" Tali ordered, and started belowdecks. She raced, took the turbolift and then another, arriving at as fast of a loping run as a Quarian could manage to where the nervous Judicial enforcers were mustering around the boarding tube. The access hatch was turning red with the burn-through.

"Follow me through and let me face them," Tali ordered. The hatch exploded outwards, and she dashed forward before they could even finish confirming their assent, finding no opposition.

"Master Jedi, she's in central control!"

"Master Jedi, may the force be with you!"

"Master Jedi, there's only one left!"

Her heart thrilled at the last comment, even as the desperation and hope that was being piled on to her by everyone around her was utterly daunting in every respect that she could think of. She reached down for the lightsabre on her belt...

Central control had been converted into the government of the planet, but the critical thing there was the single bizarre looking woman in face paint and mottled tattoos in a hooded robe. She was boiling with rage, and holding a knife to the throat of an old woman as Tali raced in, while two techs hunched over a computer console.

This was no time to wait around or talk. Tali concentrated in the force... And as she arrived, delivered a simple shove through the force to the Nightsister's hand, knocking it away from the old lady's throat. Looking on with a terrific grimace, the Nightsister snapped up an energy lance and lowered it, end crackling, toward her foe.

"You will not..." She trailed off as Tali ignited her lightsabre, and cackled. "Well, the final piece of the puzzle is here. Prepare to die, Jedi!" The woman lunged.

Tali caught her first thrust, energy crackling against the lightsabre blade, and swung herself lower on her hips, letting the tip of the energy lance pass her.

Then, balanced like a dancer, she flared a leg out at an angle only a Quarian could, and toppled the Nightsister like a whipcord.

The woman recovered, rolling to the side and bringing her energy lance back up in another thrust toward Tali. Again Tali caught it, communing with the force to see the course of the attack as it came at her, before it came at her.

Around them, the assembled troopers, civil servants, technicians and the planetary Governor and his wife—were all respectfully silent, watching. _I wish you'd help instead!_ But Tali was much too busy to vocalise it as she was driven back by a flurry of sharp thrusts by the crackling head of the energy lance.

Being pushed back to the wall, Tali decided she had to do something and quick! Thinking on her feet, she danced to the side again, making it look even more graceful than it was, and let the energy lance discharge into the wall—past her, the metal shaft offered no protection. She deactivated her lightsabre, and as the Nightsister pulled her lance back, activated it again across the course of her swing.

The weapon clattered to the floor in two pieces, the head crackling ineffectively. The nightsister threw the haft at her and lunged. Guided by the force, it struck Tali's sword hand and sent her lightsabre tumbling away haplessly. Then her body collided with Tali's, and took her to the ground.

She found her face in the mouth of the shotgun. And then she found out she had altogether no face or head at all in the immediate aftermath of that. The booming roar of the shotgun in close quarters shocked the room from its stupor.

People fell to their knees crying in relief. Others shouted their thanks. And more than a few were simply shocked that a Jedi had used an old slugthrower to despatch her enemy. "Oof, my suit is _covered_ this time," Tali mumbled, and gingerly rose to step away from the headless corpse.

"Governor?"

He stepped up to her, and bowed, ignoring the horrifying mess nearby. "Master Jedi. You are... Quite frankly the salvation of our people. I don't know how long it will take more elements of the Republic to arrive in this galaxy, but we desperately need assistance stabilizing the habitability of Ova. The strange energy field which enveloped our planet, I cannot adequately describe. And since that time, to find ourselves held hostage by such an oppressive rule... We had no idea. There were twelve of them when they started. Our security forces killed six, but the other six finished placing the bombs and that was that."

"But I knew, and had confidence, our warnings got out in time about the energy wave. We had resigned ourselves to being trapped here indefinitely, but I see now that the Republic has followed us and begun to reach out to the peoples of this galaxy, or else you'd have never received training in the ways of the Force, for it is unknown here. Was it indeed Master C'baoth who sent you to us? Outbound flight?"

Her voice nearly broke as she barely brought herself to reply "...I wish any part of that was true, Governor."

The governor's face turned into a grimace. He looked to his systems defence commander. A Duros woman-she just glanced to the governor and sighed. "M'Lord... I believe the Jedi has bad news for us even in the hour of our liberation."

"... I..." Tali stiffened. "I am Commander of the Imperial Navy Tali of Clan Zorah of the ship Thunderflare. The Republic..." Her head hung, she didn't want to tell them. But she had to. "... The Republic was overthrown and replaced by an Empire under its' Chancellor, Palpatine in the aftermath of a great civil war that began not long after you were thrown here. It lasted in turn for about two decades before a rebellion killed him and the galaxy again descended into civil war. The ships that were here fled under pressure from this Alliance to restore the Republic, using an experimental research device commissioned by the Emperor... originally to find you." Or so she guessed. It would be enough for now.

"I had hoped... you knew more of the Jedi. I know... only what little survived the Emperor slaughtering them and disbanding the Order. The Force... guided me towards seeking you out on my own."

"Palpatine. The Senator from Naboo. He had just been elected Chancellor..." The Governor rocked back in his seat and went as pale as a ghost. "But that's like the First Jedi Purge. I..." He looked skyward. "Again!? The Chancellor killing the Jedi and declaring himself Emperor? That's..."

The Duros woman put her hands down on the table. "Yes. That is not the work of a government..."

Her Judicial forces counterpart, a human, was staring at Tali in a steadily more suspicious fashion. "No, no. It's not. That's the work of the Sith."

"Yes. It is. I... try very hard to... resist the temptations of the dark... but it's true. He was a Lord of Sith." _And my fiancee is falling into that trap and I don't know how to turn her from it._

"But, then..."

"Jedi Tali." The old man folded his hands into his face. "We need a hero right now. This system we arrived at was no accident. It is the home of some kind of ancient power." You see, the Nightsisters came from the other habitable planet nearby. There is a ruined Sith fleet on the surface of the second planet in the Devouring system—dozens of ships from the Great War that are wrecked on the planet—and some kind of strange artifice on the planetary surface."

"From the way the Nightsisters talked about it and their objectives, we think a Sith master still sleeps there. Several force sensitives on the surface have previously tried to travel there under the compulsion of dreams and had to be stopped with... Lethal force. The Nightsisters were able to resist, and began killing other force sensitives after that happened. They thought they could awaken the Sith Master who controlled this power. But they never found a way to do it."

"The Force is a little bosh'tet sometimes... all right." She took a breath. "I'm not a Jedi. But I'm the closest we've got. I feel a nudge towards helping you, and so I will. I learned from a real heroine, too..." She took a breath. Do they need to know about... yes. "...We're in the middle of preparing to fight off an extra-galactic invasion that's out to genocide all advanced organic life in the galaxy on what is a months to years timescale as well, Governor. But if there's old Sith, of the really bad kind there... I'll see what I can do."

The governor looked completely dazed at that final revelation. "Well, we need any kind of help we can get then... Don't we?"

"Well, regardless. One way or another we can give you the coordinates and your ship back to get there, at least. To get to the bottom of it all. Perhaps there's a control mechanism for the wave that took us here, even... But we don't dare... Face whatever that darkness is on the surface."

 _Oh Shepard, if only you were here with me now..._ "Yes, that's my job," Tali heard herself saying. Shepard wasn't here, and she'd have to do this by herself.


	34. Chapter 34

The planet was very close, eight-tenths of a lightyear, considering the slow process of devouring that gave the system its name. Tali had her ship and an unmolested Arthree back. Before her, the planet loomed up bright and near, falling into orbit while around her and it, its own system in the process of being destroyed by the abrupt proximity of Ova's star.

She brought up her engines to standby and began running a scan from orbit. There was a trace of nervousness... Okay, more than a trace. This wasn't exactly confidence inducing. What she saw next more than justified it, too.

There was a series of large wedge-starships, looking for all like predecessors of Tanda's VSD, somewhat smaller and with forked bows terminating in prongs, in remarkably good condition, having been intentionally ditched on the planet when their reactors ran out of fuel. A half a dozen big ones, a dozen smaller ones. With them was a group of graceful Ovoid ships bobbing in a deep crater lake, the mountainous island at the centre of which held... The anomalous feeling, queasy and powerful in the force, that she had felt the moment she had entered orbit.

The sensor readings suggested that the stone temple at the top was just a cover for a vast underground architecture. Arthree wailed nervously. More data coming in. On the shore of the island was another ship, completely different in signature from the others. Unlike the others, too, it hadn't been intentionally landed. It was a crashed ship... Looking considerably older, with a strange semi-circular central section and three massive prongs, also about nine hundred meters long. This strange ship had its hull disintegrated in many places, trees growing through it. Tinted green with age. Indeed, it seemed incomparably old.

Tali scanned for life-signs on the island, but there was just that massive looming temple... Expanding the search outward, there were plenty of life-signs in the forests sprawling out from around the lake, with their utterly massive trees... Seeming to go on without end, with signs of civilisation of the most primitive kind further aware.

On the southern shore of that vast crater lake was a great town, maybe a city. For want of other targets short of descending onto the temple itself—and this Tali did not want to do—she descended there, toward a city... So primitive that it was fitted with wooden walls... Terrifically primitive, really. Tali didn't know what to make of it, but the force was cloudy and ominous here, and all the more ominous for the fact that she was hearing whispers in her mind.

Whispers, she thought, that maybe were like the whispers that _Tanda_ heard. _Take off your chains and fly... Crush, rend, avenge! Do not let your children be trod under foot as you were, as your father was... As your mother was. Win your country, win the favour of your ancestors!_ Tali shook her head and concentrated on the peace of the force. The whispers faded.

She would settle _Iravahnz_ down near it, after the cautious reentry spent waiting for some kind of attack from below. On securing and powering down the shuttle glancing to Arthree. "Is Shepard a bad influence, you think?" The chirping and tweeting suggested that Shepard was a really, really terrible influence, as a matter of fact.

Once the _Iravahnz_ was securely on the surface, resting on a pebble-and-sand beach between the lake and the great forests and near to the city, she'd check her weapons and gear one last time, then hop down the ramp as it opened. "Arthree, if I'm not back in the time it'd take me to run out of filters and food... take the ship back and tell them, okay?"

A mournful series of chirps confirmed the instructions. And as she stepped out of the shuttle, the suns sinking overhead, she felt more comfortable than she should. Something about the planet seemed welcoming in a way that dispelled the dread floating off in the centre of the vast crater, which was easily a distance of a hundred and fifty kilometres between shore and the island at its centre. Tali couldn't, in the lightning conditions, make out even the impressive mountain at its heart.

Instead, she started toward the walled city that she had identified. Being a Quarian and not one to like being stuck on the surface of planets for long periods of time, she had landed relatively close in... The down-side being that the villagers had seen her, and in retrospect she realised she could have avoided that since they weren't modern enough to have detection equipment for a reentering transport. _Oh well, it's too late to worry_.

The shore was pleasant walking. Tanda had talked about shores before, and Tali had wondered why they were such a big deal. Compared to the vastness of space, the great expanse of clear, intensely blue water, the fading light in the sky above, and the heights of the ring of mountains and trees around—they were impressive, new experiences, to be sure—but they weren't the stars, nebulae, black holes and pulsars. Still, she was starting to warm to the idea of a beach, if not one as cold as this one was. The sand parts felt funny beneath her boots, and she enjoyed walking as she approached the city, with its protected harbour and great wooden longhouses along it to protect ships, from what that she could tell.

The walls of the city consisted of earthen ramparts, with tree-trunks driven straight into the ground along them, rising thirty feet above the earthen rampart and presumably driven deep into it. A line of watch-towers in wood was built behind it, and Tali could make out that it covered a patrol walkway; the tops of the tree-trunks were filed down to stakes, and they were bound together with iron chains. A few high domes and towers rose in the heart of the city, but the rest was invisible behind the walls. As she walked toward the gates, a great number of people came out to the walls with shouts and cries. Tali stopped.

That wasn't good enough. With calls that seemed hauntingly familiar, they continued to assemble with spears and, and on the walls began to level massive siege crossbows at her and primitive swivel cannon, blowing on the burning long matches of the later to get them burning smoothly in the slightly brisk evening air.

She'd hold empty hands out to her sides, holding her ground. _Keelah, what are... they and... those could rip the suit. Great._

As the gate was opened and a column of them with wicked looking wheellock rifles began to approach, uncasing their colours like humans would, marching out to surround her. Tali started to feel really weird as she watched them surround her. They looked a lot like Quarians with the way their hips were structured... But somewhat different and more human. Closing, the blend of features was confirmed. They were slightly birdlike humanoids with purplish skin and glowing eyes but very normally human silvered hair.

Tali held her position, letting the hidden camera in her mask record to her omnitool... _Who... are they...? They'd be safe when the Reapers came,_ she thought idly, _if not for the wrecks._

...And then they parted, those grim and silent ranks, and in their midst was a tall, looming woman in crimson robes with an outrageously tattooed face that made her look more like a taboo mask than a living person. Tali had seen those same tattoos the day before. Oh yes she had.

"I have foreseen you, Jedi."

"...You have the advantage, Ma'am." She spoke, swallowing past a lump in her throat, and reaching for her lightsabre.

"I suppose I do. _YOU KILLED MY SISTERS!_ " She dropped into a fighting stance and flung up a glowing plasma torch, some kind of primitive power-pack lightsabre, the pack strapped to her back. With no further warning nor words, she abruptly rushed at Tali with the glowing blue blade.

"Bosh'tet!" She cursed, rolling backwards to snap her lightsabre into life, pistol in her off-hand, which she was... too late! Tali brought the blade up to a defensive position, too close to get any shots off with the sidearm, and parried the first blow. The primitive, clunky thing arced out, but the Nightsister had reactivated it by the time of her own counterstroke, and blocked it. "Why is everyone calling me a Jedi?!"

"I can feel the good in you!" She bore down with the lightsabre. "And you're not a Witch of Dathomir."

"You have the technology I need!" She swung again, going for Tali's arms. "You will serve me or perish. I need a real lightsabre or I'll never wake the Master!" She flung herself into the attack again, the two combatants surrounded by a hedge of pikes and wheellocks, a fighting circle with no easy escape.

"You little bosh'tet!" She dodged backwards again, snapping the pistol back onto her lip, bringing up her omnitool to throw a grenade. Her blade-work was... everything she'd managed to learn so far, cutting and thrusting both with the lightsabre in the way that Tanda, deriving her work from fencing, preferred. She focused on using parrying to give herself an advantage for counterstrokes, and was suddenly really damned glad for time with Tanda, for the Nightsister was fighting her evenly with that primitive plasma torch. "This seems a bit excessive!"

The woman cackled and tossed the grenade away from her with the force. The grenade exploded and Tali spun away to the side to avoid being caught in the blast. "You have a lightsabre, but you're weak! Perfect!"

Tali scrambled to her feet and retaliated by thrusting again and again with the lightsabre, spinning away from the counterstrokes instead of trying to block them. The manoeuvre at once pushed the Nightsister back on her followers, the circle created to slow her escape, now hindering their mistress.

Above, the sun had set and the stars were out. _And at least I will die under the canopy of stars..._ Even with the smoky air of torchlight around her, it left her feeling incredibly at peace. She thrust again, but instead of dodging the counterstroke, abruptly wiggled her lightsabre to the side.

It caught the power cord of her enemy's plasma torch, and the Nightsister's eyes widened as she backflipped out of the way of the follow-up stroke of Tali's lightsabre.

"Yield! I just came to talk!"

"I will not yield to the murderer of my sisters and I will have my objective! I will wake the master!" And then... She blasted at Tali with force lightning. Now, all of a sudden and completely unexpected, she knew what force lightning fell like on the receiving end, and it wasn't pleasant. A horrifyingly intense wave of pain swept over her body as her joints locked.

Worse, given what it did to her suit, her ability to keep fighting was instantly in doubt. She tried to block some of it with her blade, partially succeeding, and the HUD lighting up with far too much crimson as a result, lighting arcing everywhere and systems malfunctioning. The filters still worked, but... now it was like sucking through a gas mask. She cried out-if the suit held... then she could keep fighting, otherwise... this was not going to go well; more like terminally.

The suit failed. Tali toppled backwards, rasping for air through the breathing-operated filter.

...And then the woman was on to her, knocking the blade out of the way and bringing a sword grabbed from one of the soldiers to Tali's neck. "Come with me to the temple, or perish."

... Tali dropped her blade in defeat, gasping desperately for air through the manual filter, speaker blown out... Thinking through the force, what seemed like last words. _Tanda... I'm sorry..._

But a finishing slash of the sword didn't follow, and Tali, haltingly, processed her words as the Nightsister collected her lightsabre. And was astonished to hear her speak in an old Quarian tongue.

"Go, and prepare the fastest galley!"

One of the natives saluted. "Of course, Mistress!" Half the troop pulled away, and oarsmen were summoned from the city down to the docks. With prodding pikes, the rest forced Tali to march alongside the Nightsister, on down to the waterfront and the lake.

Working a giant chain capstan, a shore party lowered one of the light and fast racing galleys down into the water, cannons on her bow and flanks. They set about rigging a mix of square and lateen sails once she was at dock, the masts going up and secured, and Tali led aboard.

There, she was unceremoniously trussed up on the quarterdeck. The Nightsister sat down at her side, angry eyes glaring at her whenever she turned as the crew set to. It was obvious where they were going: Straight to the centre of the lake.

With two teams of oarsmen aboard, they set out about two hours after the preparations had begun. Tali took her emergency ration paste and recycled water in her suit, knowing she wasn't likely to get anything else, and working on making her suit restore itself to full functionality. _If I survive, I need to figure out some way to harden it against force lightning. Urgh._

Tali managed to push herself up despite the bonds, and watched the shore quickly recedeing behind them. The shore, quickly receding behind them, and the uncomfortable pacing of the Nightsister. Filled with fear and hate, she was fighting her own battle, of lust for her opportunities and sorrow for the deaths of her sisters.

But in the darkness, she mostly focused on the Quarianish people rowing the galley and navigating the ship... Speaking in Quarian. It was a mystery she couldn't even begin to approach as she managed to laboriously make her suit sort of work again. But answers she would have, she resolved, even if they came shortly before her death.

With a creaking on the deck of the uncomfortably rolling water ship—Tali had never known the things had done that before, and she didn't find it pleasant—the Nightsister turned to her. "Soon enough you will know the One, and the One... He will judge what final, horrible fate you will have. The one was the greatest dark-walker ever known, with power beyond all others."

As she'd listen to the Nightsister talking about the One... She was struck by a comparative lack of actual information in this account. "Who... is the one? And why do all these people look like... me?" She tapped the control to un-polarize her facemask...

"What do you mean look like you, technologist?" The Nightsister leered down. "The One is the One who rediscovered the Kwa Infinity Gates. And the one who created the Maladkai, my useful servants here."

"... Maladkai... they speak my language! And they look like me, aside from the hair... how did you... get here?"

"Through the Infinity Gate, when our Queen activated it to destroy Coruscant. She sent that other planet crashing down here. But Coruscant never came. The Jedi won again!" She shook her head bitterly. "We conquered the planet to make up for it, using the shuttles we found here. But who knows what is left—I won't, not unless I awake the One. And you may just live long enough to find out, yourself... Heh, though you'll rather wish you hadn't."

"... Well, don't worry, as a matter of fact the Sith murdered pretty much all of the Jedi and took over the galaxy not long after." She grumbled it, shaking herself.

"Hah! Then I shall soon be a powerful woman."

"Not really. There's a massive army of droid starships who will destroy this planet when they see the ships on it. They wipe out everything in this galaxy every fifty thousand years."

"They are no match for the Temple, Jedi. Nothing can be a match for the power within it."

"... You do know that they've been doing this for at least sixty five million years, right? I'm a bit skeptical."

"I will show you..."

The Nightsister snorted and turned away, instead.

But she had attracted the attention of the crew, and with the Nightsister not utterly enraged with her anymore, two of the women dared to approach hoisted her to her feet. Then they spoke to her in Quarian. "Are you a far sister of the ancient lands?"

She... sighed at that response, sighed with an immense weight of years. "Rannoch, our people's Walled Garden? Yes... but what remains of us as a race are also exiles now, too."

"We are the daughters of the women the sailors took when they revolted against the One. The Adepts used sith alchemy to make our foremothers their wives."

 _So they're... part... human?_ [ "... The sailors... revolt...? I... don't understand... oh. The men from the ships... why... you, why Quarians...?" _Why any of this..._

"The Great Mother came to us thirty-five years ago and said she would awaken the One who would rule the galaxies. She led the other Sisters, and she says that you slew them. Why?"

Tali gave that human a look. "Seems that's more of a 'we' than a 'she'..." _Why is it that the Dark side gets visions and the Light apparently gets ambushed?_ "...Why did they take you, why not humans...?" _Cousins, we have cousins..._

"They didn't know the human homeworld was in this galaxy. We didn't until we got transmissions from it, a decade ago." She shook her head in contempt. "It will fall, too. To us."

Tali rocked in agony, unsure of all the revelations. _Why didn't I trust Tanda?_ The answer, that she **couldn't** or it would make everything worse, was not one she wanted to hear from herself. Rocking slowly, she finally drifted into a discomfited sleep.

Sometime after dawn, the suns still rising on their crossing courses into the sky, they landed on the island. The galley moved alongshore for a while, and then finding a cove where the interior was sand, came about sharply to port and drove into the cove. Once the galley was firmly beached in the soft, wet black sand, a group of the women then carried her down to the beach from a wooden plank set down from the bow.

The Nightsister went on ahead, choosing a well-worn trail into the rock, rising up toward the central mountain. And so up to the temple they went, with Tali trussed up like she was a sacrificial victim. There were few things other than Indoctrination and Actually Dying that Tali could think of that could be worse.

It at least kept her from having to climb. The climb went on until the suns were very high in the sky, and still they had not reached the top. Her recycled water supply was slowly starting to go down. It had been at least a good five hours, and from that, close to a kilometre of elevation gain. Finally she could not take it anymore, and shouted to the Nightsister: "Do you think I'm going to run away or something when you can just lightning me again?"

"Jedi have tricks. I know that you'll try to fight again."

"... If I was a Jedi, that would be a fair point. But I'm not." _This went so wrong... Okay, look for a chance... for... something._

But the climb was almost over. Within another thirty minutes, appearing through the clouds, they winded their way up to the vast temple on the spire at the top of the island... And inside.

Inside. Inside that horrible place, there was a glowing white ring in the centre of a hall, surrounded by sigils of the same shape as the hull of the one very old wrecked ship, and mummified leering corpses hanging from the ceiling, a dozen of them, hideous things with eye-stalks frozen in place and looking down.

"Gah! Ancestors, what is this place?! This is... what do you need me for?!" Abruptly, the Maladkai released her on the other side of the gate, because there, sitting before the great sigil at the back of the temple, there stood a strange glowing mechanical slab with a form frozen in the midst of writhing within it, transformed into a statue.

"Awaken the One."

"What is..." _These people are..._ Tali gave the woman a look. "...I don't even know what that is, this is going to take a while..." She'd rub feeling back into her limbs, and bring up her omnitool to scan. Buy time to... do... something.

"Oh, I know the important part. A lightsabre is a key—the device was modified to only turn off when a lightsabre was inserted into it. So I built the best approximation I could make, but it failed. Only a real lightsabre can make it open." The Nightsister walked to the side of the block of carbonite, and shoved the lightsabre into an aperture. It clicked into place and began to whir.

Then she turned back to Tali. "Now finish waking him up." 


	35. Chapter 35

It appeared to be some kind of strange form of cryogenic suspension, and Tali frantically referenced her notes through her suitcomp. _Carbonite_. That gave her a means to finish the activation sequence. As she pretended to be busy in work, she'd check on the figure surreptitiously-unleashing a demon wasn't a positive thing—and saw a human form, more or less clearly. Then she loudly started a scan for power sources even though the lightsabre was already providing it, and generally drag it out... as long as she could.

The Nightsister sat with her legs folded up, leering down. She had no idea of how to activate it and for the moment had to put up with Tali's continued survival.

Tali stopped. "How do you know who this is, and how bad an idea is this?"

"Because the Maladkai remember. The One. The greatest Sith who ever lived."

"And why are they in there?"

"I don't know." She smirked. "I don't care. When he wakes up, what I do know is this: Two galaxies will tremble in fear. And I will be the apprentice."

"I'm noting a major lack of mention of my own survival in this."

"I told you would die! But compliance—heh, then I won't exterminate your entire race for defying me!"

"Oohhkay... Sure." She was still taking as long as she could, brain scrabbling for some sort of option. Anything? At all? _Come on brain, if this was a crashing shuttle you'd have something._ Instead, she got the faintest whisper from the force. The faintest whisper, telling her that it was all right.

"Okay... stand well back." Using her omnitool, she'd confirm everything was in order and activate the series of buttons that triggered the awakening sequence. _Damnit, Force, you had better not be a bosh'tet again._

...A woman lay there, perhaps about forty, as the carbonite finished dissolving. She was fair, with dark hair that bordered to a pleasant silver not caused by age. Carbonite sickness... She rolled in disorientation, and, reaching up, grabbed Tali's arm. "No... You shouldn't have done that... I am not sure I am strong enough anymore to face them."

"A woman! The Dark be praised! The legends were wrong! The One is a woman! So much the better for our order!" And then the Nightsister dropped to her knees at the foot of the chamber.

"Darth Revan, I am Alisa Sarkess, and through the Gate of Infinity can come forth from Dathomir an army of the Sisters of the Night with which to conquer the universe! I give you my service and my life, Dark Lady of the Sith!"

"...The Force is being a bosh'tet again..." She scanned the woman, trying to check. "Calm, it's been a very long time, thousands of years... I think. She was going to start lopping limbs off if I didn't."

"Alisa Sarkess... You may have made the last decision of your life." The woman, grabbing onto Tali, pulled herself up. "Two reasons. First of all, I'm not Revan. A part of Revan journeyed here with me to try and defeat this last remnant of the Rakata, but I am _not_ Revan."

"Second... They're waking up."

The Nightsister got a stricken look of terror.

Then one of the Maladkai screamed in Quarian. "THE OLD DEMONS ARE AWAKENING."

"... BOSH'TET! ... Look, Nightsister, I think we're both dead unless you give me my weapons back! ...because she's blind after that long in carbonite!" _I don't want to die like this... FORCE, I DO NOT LIKE YOUR FEELINGS._

The Nightsister tossed her shotgun back to Tali and then leapt up. Tali pulled her lightsabre out of the slot in the side of the Carbonite slab, and tried to concentrate through the force. It led her to take a running leap straight into the ceiling, spinning, using the force... And struck off the head of one of the Rakatan mummies. She landed gracefully back on the ground, and squeezed off a slug into the head of another as she steadied herself.

As she took stock from the manoeuvre whose daring and skill still surprised her, she saw that had been a really good idea because the eyes of the others were now glowing, and one howled a horrible screech. The woman, dressed in brown robes and some sort of light armour, pulled herself up and reached to her belt, igniting her own lightsabre. The blade glowed a comforting, steady green.

Tali brought up her drone, her kinetic barriers, and grabbed for her shotgun. _Okay, keep the girls who can't fight husks safe, and... I hate my life._ As they started to free themselves from the ceiling, Tali met one full on with a shotgun blast, and then kept shooting, moving on together.

Alisa Sarkess finally _acted_ , grabbing a halberd from the company sergeant and swinging it in a great arc which managed to catch another one as it dropped to the temple floor. And then she convulsed in pain at an intense blast of force lightning coming from one of the Rakatan mummies.

The Jedi caught more with her lightsabre, standing back to back with Tali. "Steady, Padawan. They are using most of their strength to keep themselves alive. We do have a chance. And block the lightning with your lightsabre!"

A very helpful tip, and one she tried to use from the moment it was given to her, gibbering at how silly it was she hadn't tried before. She had to abandon her shotgun after the fourth shot, the Rakatan directing force lightning at her and Tali, now, able to defend herself from it. Consciously, though, it was a painful, awkward, confused thing to try and meet the lightning coming in from multiple angles, to try and keep her suit intact. And then... _Oh, it's trust or death_. And Tali just gave up, threw herself to the Force, and stopped thinking, bringing a second hand to her long blade and lunging against the Rakatan.

"Give them one volley! For the ancestors, give me at least one!" the Maladkai commander screamed. Despite their fear, they obeyed. With their wheellocks spinning sparks, the guns flashed and bellowed, buck-and-ball from the massive bore over/under guns at point-blank. "Another!" Again the guns salvoed, and one of the Rakatan's heads disintegrated and the mummy toppled. Several of the others turned toward the Maladkai. Now they'd have to reload...

Tali was heartened to see them stand, her cousins, and lunged out to catch and decapitate one of the mummified corpses turning their attention to the little shooting company, and Alisa frantically trying to dissipate their force lightning with her own powers as she spun the halberd. But it was all they had in them. She cut and thrust with her blade, but was constantly bringing it back to interpose between the lightning and her body, feeling a cripple in the suit so vulnerable.

Suddenly, and not from one of the corpses, a voice thundered out of the clear air, "EMBRACE INFINITY." At it, the Maladkai could not keep discipline any longer, and broke, fleeing from the path back down the mountain. Now, they were alone, and the monsters were pressing in onto them despite their efforts.

 _...Infinity?_ Abruptly, a start of realisation and fear lanced through her. _These are the people Tanda wanted to find?! To borrow a Joker phrase, what the shit?!_ She took roiling clouds of lightning on her blade while side-stepping... moving up to engage another of the beasts. A head flew away behind her. The Jedi was at her work.

Tali pressed ahead toward where the Maladkai had fled. She found Alisa was still alive, holding them off with the halberd even as her skeleton glowed and crackled with power under the assault. Alive, but looking half-dead. Blades glowing, the two Jedi found themselves pressed as eight remaining Rakatan closed in around them.

 _Bosh'tet Force._ She was doing relatively well, too, or so she thought. But there were rumblings in the temple itself. There were more coming from below. Tali let herself go into the force, and charged; and then, suddenly, seeing again, the Jedi pushed with her, the two going ahead as she ripped through three of the Rakatans, cut their line down, twirled to the side... Tali finding herself amazed at what she could do.

And it was over. Panting at the limits of the air her suit could give her. It was over... For a moment. She drew another greedy breath. "We've got to follow the Maladkai!"

"Yes, you're right. It's our only chance!" The woman breezed forward and the three, united in desperation, started down the tumbling and rock-worn trail to the temple. Behind them, hideous howls and eerie noises of language echoed, and crackled, and in the depths of some power, the temple itself was illuminated in a strange kind of dark light. The women ran faster, and behind themselves, saw rising up, a column of black figures, lurching down the slope after them.

-

As Ova tried to recover itself, the routine of establishing order, waiting for the return of the Jedi Tali, and trying to make sense of this universe they had been thrust into was rudely interrupted. It was interrupted in the finest of forms, too, by ships of strength and power such as only the defensive fleets of the greatest Core worlds had evidenced.

Tanda Pryl brought _Thunderflare_ , and _Stalker_ , and _Bombard_ and _Rintonne's Flame_. Her entire loyal and old Imperial combat force, sweeping into the system and immediately beginning to launch starfighters as they raised their shields and brought weapons up.

"Hail the planetary governor and inform him that we are here to re-establish central government control over the Ova system."

"Establishing contact now, Your Ladyship," Scolus turned away.

Morale was excellent. The prospect of regular galactic goods, even the limited kinds of made on an Outer Rim world with a trivial population, had everyone excited. The larger tech base, the reserve of modern ships, also made their efforts seem more achievable.

"Governor Jerlak, coming through now, Your Ladyship."

Tanda watched impassively as the quarter-scale hologram of the Governor appeared. "Governor, I am Moff Tanda Pryl of the Galactic Empire. We are the legal successor, through constitutional manoeuvres for the interest of the preservation of unity and order, of the Galactic Republic. All of our data will confirm that the lawful action of these measures was to transform the Republic into the Imperial system, under the person of His Majesty, the Emperor Palpatine."

"Moff Pryl, the term 'Empire' has always had unfortunate connotations to the Republic. The Great Galactic War..."

"This is a ridiculous objection," Tanda flushed and snapped. "Everything was done legally, and that is what matters. I intend to confirm the Juridical forces in the system as Imperial Naval assets and install a garrison, transferring other troops from Ova to where they are appropriate."

"Nonetheless, Moff Pryl, we have been given information that the Emperor Palpatine was in fact a Sith Lord. Not the heir to the Republic of twenty-five millennia, but the heir to the Sith Empire. The name is in fact no mistake. And if we are all that remains of the Republic, than we will resist you still."

"Governor, I could confirm you in your position still. We are sending the information which confirms that the Senate lawfully recognized the assumption of Imperial power by the Emperor Palpatine. You will be forgiven for your impertinent comments if only you tell me who slandered him to you!"

"A brave and loyal Jedi, who I am confident will soon be the end of you, Moff Pryl. We will not surrender, even though we are the last ember of the Republic."

Tanda's face drained of colour, turning pale with rage. _Tali! So that is where you have gone, to betray me! ME! ME!_ She shivered, breaking into a cold sweat as her skin turned to a clammy white pallor. She reached out with the force, and found herself guided to Tali—and guided to the power that had brought her here.

Just into the next system over, the power so great that she could not resist it. Men on the bridge stood and watched in fear and horror as Tanda Pryl's eyes started to glow white. Something snapped like lightning inside of her.

Lieutenant Scolus blanched, but turned anyway. "The Ova systems force and Juridicals are assuming positions to engage us, Moff Pryl. ...Orders?"

"Break off the attack," Moff Pryl rasped. "Set course to the third planet in the Devouring system, all ships, all fighters. One micro-jump and then best possible speed. A more urgent situation has developed."

"A more urgent situation?"

"Our powerful allies are in need of help, and treason has interfered with it."

Scolus turned hastily away. Brooding, Tanda began to pace on the deck, no longer herself. Hundreds of old voices filled her heart and mind and soul, and they told her what she needed to do. _I will be their voice and their legacy, and return home to make their people great again... That is the true Empire I must revive. The Infinite Empire._

Steadily, she lost herself into the noise, and what was left as the fleet turned away and hastily made time, were only the voices of the Rakatan, calling for blood. More and more blood to be spilled, more to be killed.

She could not resist, and in the grip of the Dark Side, she did not want to.

-

Trembling and gasping, the three, halberd and two deactivated lightsabres, stumbled down the cliff. After an hour of running, muscles starting to tense and tear under the effort, they had caught up with the fleeing Maladkai, who looked astonished at their survival.

"Great Mothers! Great Mothers! Have you beaten them?"

"Only for a while; more come," Tali answered honestly in gasps. She had the advantage of drugs from her suit to keep her going, after all. "Hurry, make haste with us, but keep your order. We must reach the ship before they do."

"You heard her!" The Maladkai Captain shouted. "Keep your wits about you and we'll live. We have a better chance of it with two lightswords and three Great Mothers than running alone! Come on, my fusiliers. Fall in line and don't let anyone be left behind!"

She nearly collapsed, that had been an utterly terrible experience. But they continued on down the mountain even so, force themselves on. Her suit had taken a hit again, she had realized by how hard it was to breathe, but she kept her shotgun up and ready.

They continued down the cliffs and paths. The galley in the cover, with the women on shore around their cook-fires, was below. The Maladkai Captain drew them up, and ordered warning volleys fired to let them know to prepare the ship to flee. When it was clear that the crew had seen them and was responding, they hastened on through the last of the distance down to the water.

Above them, arcing lightning into the haze and mist, the column of Rakatan came down. Tali scrambled onto the beach, helping the Jedi along. Alisa raced ahead. The Maladkai were setting out their oars, but the musketeers rushed aboard the ship rather than pushing her off, leading to shouts of alarm from the crew.

"We've got to give them time to un-beach the ship," the Jedi said, and stopped in the sand. Her pain seemed to vanish as she closed her eyes and breathed steadily, concentrating through the force. _Steady yourself, Tali, let the good flow through you._

Tali turned with her, and their lightsabres ignited in unison. The Rakatan mummies surged onto the beach.

The Maladkai Captain raced to the foredeck. "Cannons, present!"

Creaking and groaning, iron stave and hoop guns were readied, powder poured for the flash-pans, linstocks blown.

"Fire!"

Firing the touch-holes, booms going off in the reek, 60pdr, 30pdr, 10pdr, five guns in all, slamming out bags of rocks into the approaching Rakatan. Musketeers on the port and starboard, levelling wheellocks and firing desperately, the crackle of their guns and bullets cutting over the heads of the two women. It was a tremendous din and a horrifyingly intense acrid smell of blackpowder, all scents so strange to their era, the cannon-balls ploughing through corpses which did not bleed and dropped soundlessly when their heads were wrecked.

The Rakatan directed their force lightning toward the _ship_. Tali met it with her lightsabre, but more struck the hull. It arced through, and Maladkai collapsed with cries of pain – fires stared. The two exchanged a look.

"We'll push the ship off. With the force!" Tali offered desperately.

The woman's eyes widened, and she grinned, and did a backflip, blocking and deflecting the lightning with her blade as she spun through the air to land on the forecastle of the galley, the green light flashing off the rock walls of the cove even as the lightning did.

 _I hope I can do that too..._ Tali tried to _not_ concentrate, and as she did, spun through the air to land at the Jedi woman's side. Their lightsabres turned the lightning aside as Maladkai doused the fires with buckets.

"Great Mothers, we are still hard aground!" the Captain desperately shouted. The oarsmen were straining, their backs into a hopeless task.

Hopeless, without the force. Both women, Quarian and Human, braced themselves on the deck, and pushed. Left hands gesturing to the shore while right turned the lightning, the sand moved and shuddered. The ship shuddered. And then, wetly slurping out of the mire, pushed back into the waters of the cove. The oars bit without resistance, and as they kept pushing, quickly building speed, the oarsmen were doing more and more of the work.

The Rakatan ceased their attacks, and watched from shore as the two dropped to their knees, and the ship backed water away.

The Jedi pursed her lips, and pushed herself to her feet. Already behind her, Alisa was approaching.

"Mistress." The Nightsister let her halberd clatter to the deck, no help at all in the last part of the fight, and dropped to her knees. "You still have the power of the One in you. You MUST see it. You surely must! Think of the power that temple holds, that they are using it to reverse death itself!"

"I am tired of kriffing Sith!"

Tali was alerted just in time to be aware... Something was happening.

The poor Nightsister's eyes went wide with terror and a blade swung.

Tali followed the impulse from the force without hesitation, interposing her blade, feeling her muscles burn from the exertion as she gasped for air. The two blades skittered an inch from the Nightsister's neck.

"... Stop! This is wrong!"

"You're right. You're right." Panting, the Jedi deactivated her blade. "Too close I was, after so long under their influence. Thank you, Tali. I think in that, you have put yourself very far along the course of becoming a Jedi Knight."

"Who are you, then?" Tali asked simply, deactivating her own blade, and reaching out to embrace the woman awkwardly. She reciprocated it, though, and that was that, Alisa panting and retreating belowdecks with a sour look in her eyes.

"I am Tasiele Shan, Jedi Knight, Descendant of the Revan." She helped Tali down to where a pot of stew bubbled in the open galley, though Tali shook her head. "Quarians – I need special food that I don't have access to. Well, I mean that Maladkai food is probably our food too, so I'm not sure if _you_ can eat it, though the Nightsister got along fine. But I need it filtered. I can filter water automatically in my suit, though, but I lost my rations when I was seized."

"Let me speak to them about it. Captain! Do you have this woman's rations? She is a Quarian, confined to her suit..." Tasiele smiled when the response was that the pack was brought down to an utterly relieved Tali almost immediately.

"So, that out of the way," she said, taking up a simple wooden bowl of the stew. "Your name is Tali..."

"Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare nar Rayya," Tali answered. "A Commander of the Imperial Navy."

"The _Imperial_ Navy." Tasiele pursed her lips. "But the light side of the force is very strong in you."

"This Empire is not your Empire. Almost four thousand years, have you slept."

"Ah. It had seemed like forever. Ah." She rocked back, and smiled very grimly. "Fair enough, Tali'Zorah. But it is still evil. I can sense that in your answer."

"Yes. Unfortunately, yes it is." She frowned under her mask. "But it is disintegrating and fragmenting. This is just a tiny refugee group that came to our galaxy, helped my people. Their commander is a force sensitive, and..."

"You love her."

"Yes."

"But she has fallen to the Dark Side."

Tali squirmed. "Yes."

"So did Revan, and the consequences for the galaxy were terrible. But in the end... A fragment of what was good, came to me, came to my soul. I split some of the Revanchists and led them here, because these Rakata used the temple to preserve, to prolong their influence – and they manipulated events back home with the Infinity Gates. I had to put a stop to it. But in the end, the Revanchists revolted..."

"The Maladkai."

"Yes. When I stopped them, I only had the power to imitate my ancestor, and lock these ghosts into a stasis with myself. In doing so, the ghost of the goodness of the Revan was preserved within me, but at some point drifted away, tasks done. I can only hope that is a sign that I was meant to defeat this threat with you and you alone, and I didn't _need_ the help further. As for the nature of these monsters, they are, I think, at least twenty-five thousand years old and they are using ancient devices of power in the temple to give themselves this facsimile of life. They cannot survive with an outside force, however. They must have _someone_ whom they are working through, someone sensitive in the force, to remain in existence. They cannot maintain this state of undeath without it."

Tali felt every part of her body go cold, and numb, and start hurting at once. The voices, the strange way that Tanda gained her powers without study aids, without references or holocrons, without training, it all came together. The force lightning.

She injected herself with a double strength dose of anti-nausea drugs through the suit medical kit.

"Tasiele... I think that's Tanda."

"I see." Tasiele's expression got quite grim, and she went very quiet. Then she looked up, into the sky of another evening on the world, the climb, the awakening, the battle, the escape, having consumed the entire day.

As she did, a green flash streaked across the sky with incredible speed...

...And very deliberately began to slow.

Tali followed her gaze. Another one came, and another. Ship following ship. Landing ship after landing ship.

"And who is that, Tali'Zorah?"

Tali wanted to throw up anyway, and licked her lips, suddenly realising how dry they were. But she had to speak. She had to say it.

"Tanda."


	36. Chapter 36

"She is the conduit that keeps them grounded in this world and active, then," Tasiele answered heavily. "I am sorry, Tali'Zorah. But we must confront her. For the sake of both of us, in following the path of goodness and light. And to defeat this terrible evil—defeat this last remnant of the Rakatan."

"I love her. She's my human." Tali said in a very small voice. "You probably don't approve of that."

"I do, actually, understand and approve of it very well. I was exiled for lobbying the Jedi order to recognize relationships like the one that created my line, the line of Shan. But that doesn't change the fact that she is not of the light, Tali'Zorah. She is of the dark. And we must face her. She was ... Contacted by them in their sleep, I imagine, and cultivated, with an aim of providing them the ability to function in this world."

"A grounding wire." Tali's hands were incessantly fitting her fingers together and shifting. "But we may have to kill her, Tasiele. And I don't think I can do that. I love her—I still love her—I love her right now. I wanted to _marry_ her. Bosh'tet Rakatan." She squeezed her hands hard.

"I'm sorry, Tali'Zorah. But you must help me face her. If we do not... The Rakatan could revive themselves permanently. And that would be a disaster for both galaxies, but especially this one, where the Dark Side seems to permeate the force."

"And ultimately she would destroy your people in her ever-expanding need for power. Not because she wanted to, but simply because... Sith stop seeing people as people. Even their own nation, they ultimately wiped out. Their own stars, set to nova for trivial tactical advantages that proved as illusory as stellar dust."

Tali was crying. "Do we have any chance, any chance of saving her?"

"I can't predict the future. But I will spare her life if I can, Tali'Zorah. And I know you will, as well. So we must fight."

"I'm not sure I can."

"With the Rakatan giving her strength, I am not sure I can fight her alone."

Tali sagged into the creaking deck.

"Please. This is about fate and freedom for all so very much more than ourselves."

"Quarians don't get to be selfish, even for a little while," Tali mumbled softly. "I'll help you, Jedi Tasiele."

Tasiele closed her eyes, folding her legs and turning her hands up. She breathed slow and steady, in tune with the rocking of the ship. She meditated, and they rolled on, toward the harbour, toward the city where torches lit the night in fear of the lights above.

They sat in silence while the galley cut the water to the steady low drum that marked the time of her oarsmen. Groups of marines hunched down on the deck, talking in hushed and feared voices of the rising of the Old Demons. And when they reached the shore, they found it shaking.

Tali leapt down to the beach unsteadily, walking toward the entrance in the harbour palisade. Tasiele opened her eyes, and leapt down to catch up with her.

"Tali'Zorah, what's the shaking?"

"Walkers," Tali answered. "They didn't have them in your time, did they?"

"No..." Tasiele's eyes jerked up, and she saw one of the great machines cutting through the forest and hammering down trees to emerge by the beach and Tali's assault shuttle. She sucked in her breath. "No, no we did not. And danger and evil I sense..."

"I know. It's Tanda." Tali stood close, very close, to Tasiele, and watched the Walker draw closer over the beach. Its head turned, its guns aimed.

Tasiele raised her lightsabre and ignited it. Shots, however, did not come.

Troops were following it out of the forest on the course it had taken. Speederbikes, and hover transports. And then, clipped to a rapelling cord, a single figure descended from the belly of the Walker, and started forward to them.

Tali watched, and Tali sobbed. Tanda, with glowing white eyes, unearthly, her hair greyed at the roots, skin gray and white and cold and clammy on her face, bodysuit rather than uniform, and that cape now ever so sinister.

A nightmare had been created and come to pass in a single day. Tali sobbed, and sobbed.

Tanda looked to her. "You set the Governor of Ova against me, instead of doing your duty as an Imperial officer to unify Ova with the Empire. Why?"

"Those people trusted me, looked up to me as a Jedi, they needed to be told the _truth_..."

"A Jedi! A JEDI! The Jedi are evil!"

"But I followed the path of the light, Tanda, and that led me to peace with myself. And peace with others. Look at you! Look at what's happening to you. The Rakatan have turned you into their slave."

"Don't insult the Rakatan! I am their agent for defeating the Reapers! Look at the mountain! Look!" She spun and faced the spire in the lake. "It contains the power to defeat the Reapers."

"It's an old temple," Tali replied. "There's nothing in it but Rakatan zombies and a Kwaa gate. And you can't take a fleet of starships through one of those."

"But I can _make_ a fleet of starships. Buried into the spire of that crater, the Rakatan have shown me, are the critical parts and the plans of their greatest creation."

Tasiele sucked in her breath like she had been stabbed. "The Star Forge."

"Exactly, Jedi." A red lightsabre snapped open.

And then a green one matched it.

Tanda stared, a dark, exhaustedly bemused look on her face. "I think you should step away from my fiancee, Revanchist."

"I'm _not_ Revan. And I've killed a dozen Sith in my life, Moff Pryl. You'll just be one more. This is suicide."

"The Nightsister thought she was in control of the communications with me. But it was the Rakatan who spoke to me." Her lips curled into a sneer. "They showed me things about the force that an old hack of a Jedi can't understand."

"I know all about the Rakatan."

"We'll see."

The two... exploded at each other in a twirling and roiling collision of blades. Tanda's strength and agility were completely unlike anything Tasiele had faced before. They were supernaturally enhanced in a way that they never should have been. She met every blow that Tasiele knew how to give, and delivered another one in turn.

Tasiele centred herself, relied on the depth of her technique, and turned each one in its turn. She drove Tanda back toward the grass at the verge of the forest, until Tanda stopped herself, blades humming and locked, booted foot jammed into the sweetgrass.

"Your technique is good, Jedi."

"And you have a well built blade and are strong. But your technique is _terrible!_ "

Tanda grinned, and lightsabre skittering, she dug her boot in and kicked forward against Tasiele. The woman stumbled to the ground, and Tanda at once swung her sword up and brought it down... Just for a handful of sand to go flying into eyes.

With Tanda staggering back, Tasiele leapt to her feet and swung with her blade. Tanda caught it an inch from the hilt of her lightsabre, throwing her head back from the upper edge of the blade. She let herself fall to the sand, and as she did, deactivated her lightsabre, and swinging her cape into the air, rolled back in the sand.

Tasiele swung a hand and the cape went waving away in the wind, but Tanda had already regained her feet and reignited her blade by the time Tasiele turned to her. Again they thrust, swept and parried as fast as an unaided eye could see. The arcing red and green light of the combat reflected from the grim silent ranks of stormtroopers, the gray hulls of Walkers, and the wooden palisades of the city all the same.

The water still lapped into the sand, and the first rays of dawn were stretching beyond the lip of the crater. Tasiele slowly pressed forward, now gently driving Tanda back toward the water. The woman's strength couldn't find a purchase in Tasiele's bladework, and by the time it was done, Tanda was standing with her boots in the lake.

Then she grinned, and shifted her hand. A column of water lashed from her right side over Tasiele, flashing to steam on her lightsabre. The woman stumbled back from the boiling cloud, and Tanda leapt up, and came down on her with the heels of her boots striking her in the stomach.

With a terrible grunt, Tasiele just managed to bring the lightsabre to block Tanda's from taking her head. "Tali, you must choose! The light or the dark! Your love or your duty to all life! You must love life more! I need your help!"

But as she said it, she dug her hips into the ground and heaved with the strength of birthing muscles taught to do more than give life to children. Tanda was thrown bodily off of her, and she leapt up despite the horrible feeling in her stomach, centred herself, and swung her blade against the prone figure on the ground.

Laughing, Tanda met it. "I'll have to learn that one myself!" She fished herself up to her knees in the surf, managing even from that position to drive Tasiele's blade back with raw strength until the moment that she could regain her footing, and now started to push Tasiele toward the trees.

Tasiele disengaged and raced backwards toward the trees. Laughing, her sword held at arm's length forward, Tanda leapt and flew through the air a good twenty paces and shaking and thrusting the glowing red blade forced Tasiele again back into the battle. Her troops cheered her name at the display of force power and the abrupt advantage she seemed to have.

The Jedi was not out of hope yet. She kept parrying each of the thrusts, having already well-read that her foe was basing her style on fencing techniques, and relying on the rest to pass with the power of the force alone.

Tasiele ground her own feet into the sweetgrass, and breathed in the almost sickly sweet smell of life itself. She took each strike of the sword and matched it in the appropriate form. Tanda was soon reduced to intentionally locking swords and pushing in, using strength through the force, strength that her own muscles should have never been able to handle, to grind Tasiele back and down into the grass.

Then the woman would disengage, and spin to the side, bringing her sword up again in time to face Tanda as she thrust herself onwards against her. The suns slowly began to give form and feature to the life around them. The trees glistened with mist in the dawn's light. The hiss of the blades had driven the birds away, but the flowers showed their colours under the sun.

The stormtroopers remained perfectly assembled in their ranks, watching as the light dispelled the dark, reduced the flashes around the land of the two sabres into the form of the two brilliantly glowing blades. Of grey uniform and brown robes, tumbling and twirling in the dawn and each blow skittering noise and power in the air.

Again Tasiele was forced back by the incredible power that Tanda wielded. She spun in the air, flying away from her to escape and regroup once more. And then alerted to incredible danger, brought her sword up. The AT-AT Walker had opened fire on her once she cleared the blast radius to risk injury to the Moff.

Frantically, Tasiele met the bolts, hot enough to scorch her skin, and sent them flying back to the AT-AT walker, most assuredly scorching its armour in return, eyes wide.

Tanda rushed in from her side, blade extended to run her through with the lightsabre, running so fast she flew three yards for every time her foot gently touched the sand and sent it up, splashing like water, with the lightest of presses, racing, flying, floating on air.

And then her blade turned to the side with a screaming and skittering of contact, as it met Tali's, coruscating in the morning light. Tanda's glowing eyes widened. "Traitress!"

The accusation hurt Tali more than any anger could have. She staggered back. But Tasiele, doubling back and invigorated by Tali's decision, struck from the right. Tanda met her with another flurry of blows.

Tali steeled herself, and rushed in too. And now Tanda was using her strength to try and fend off two lightsabres at once. Whirling their blades struck in unison, and Tanda, going low, was constantly pressed by the need to block them both at once. Murmurs ran through the ranks.

A squad of stormtroopers levelled their rifles, and opened fire. Tasiele spun a single arc behind her, sending the bolts off into the air, as Tali grunted and felt back, her lightsabre skittering across Tanda's.

Tasiele turned at once and plunged back into close quarters with Tanda. She delivered an abrupt fury in her blows that drove Tanda back toward the water increasingly on the defensive, allowing Tali to regain her ground and support her, now from her left.

And then Tanda raised her off-hand, and burning through the fingertips of her glove, unleashed a torrent of force lightning into Tasiele. With the force lightning driving Tasiele back, the woman pressed home against her lover, and Tali was most assuredly on the defensive. She yielded ground as slowly as she could, but Tanda knew her and she knew Tanda, and as long as Tanda was only putting her on the defensive rather than trying for decisive strikes, there was very little she could do.

Tasiele turned most of the lightning, but she writhed in agony, too, screaming in pain and struggling to keep control over her lightsabre. Tanda's lips curled into a hideous grin.

Tali's heart sank at the look. _We need to stop her..._ She tried to reach for her shotgun, but she found she couldn't get a hold of it in time before needing two hands on her blade again and again to hold Tanda off.

And then it got worse. Tasiele collapsed to the ground, dropping her lightsabre and sobbing with agony as the force lightning engulfed and surrounded her, arcing powerfully enough to reveal her skeleton with her body. Even with Tanda's attention divided between it and her lightsabre, she was still forcing Tali back.

But with Tali not moving, Tasiele was almost behind her. And her still ignited blade shuddered, moved slightly in the sand...

And then flew into the air and interposed itself between the force lightning and Tasiele. Tasiele rolled to her feet, catching the lightsabre as it hovered in midair, and charged into Tanda's flank.

Tanda viciously kicked Tali in the stomach and spun away as the Quarian fell to meet Tasiele full on with the lightsabre.

Tasiele had her own blade inside of Tanda's defensive arc. Dark side energy of dead Rakatan was no match for experience. Tasiele's blade swung through her defences.

Her hands and her lightsabre tumbled away.

"No!" Tali deactivated her lightsabre and started running forwards. "Tanda!"

Tasiele took a step back. Tanda reached out with her right stump and pulled her lightsabre and hand back to it, her face writhing with pain... As some kind of crackling blue-white energy, like force lightning but working in reverse, seemed to start to knit bone and sinew back together.

Tasiele turned back, watching in shocked horror. _The dark should not be able to heal, and not so glamorously as that! The Rakatan..._ She readied her blade.

But then Tali reached her beloved. Tali, full of the light side, and a threat to a wounded and possessed woman given over to the dark side.

Tasiele felt the surge of power from the ancient ghosts and lunged forward to protect Tali from what was about to happen...

...But Tanda dropped the blade, and Tasiele let herself carry past and fall into the lake rather than remove her head.

Tanda, shaking uncontrollably... Slumped into Tali's embrace.

Tali wrapped her arms tightly around her beloved, shivering violently, using medigel almost in reflex. "Tanda, Tanda, Tanda... I'm safe, I'm safe..."

"You have redeemed her with your love," Tasiele said very softly. Her blade was deactivated.

"I love you, Tanda'Pryl... call off the fight, let this end... let's go home..." _Oh Ancestors, that was... far too close!_

Tanda with a trembling hand that seemed only half-attached, somehow managed to lift a commlink, just to let it fall, as her eyes turned from glowing white to pitch black and black smoke started to come out of her body

A ghostly image of a Rakatan began to form around her.

Tali shrieked, hugging her tighter and trying to reflexively protect her, even as she felt waves and waves of the most terrible anger and despair wash over her from the ethereal form that was engulfing her.

"Iff we are defeated... Our last act... Will be to deny you happiness... Quarian."

"She's mine, you long-dead demonic bosh'tets! Tanda... I'm right here, I'm right here, don't go... don't go, Tanda, fight them..." Tears were falling on her visor as she cradled the human woman, desperate to do something... anything.

And suddenly the ghostly Rakatan vanished in a puff of smoke. A brilliant white light flared for a single violent and intense moment at the top of the great crater island, and a minute later the sound the temple's collapse rolled over the shore. But on that shore, in Tali's arms, Tanda seemed unable to breathe...

 _... No! Not like this!_ A hand came up, scrabbling at the locks on her visor... she had no real idea what to do, but... letting the visor fall, she kissed the woman with everything she had left, starting to sob. _Ancestors, no! Don't take her!_

Her eyes returned to normal, as even as the life seemed to flee them. Any sensor scan would show her internal organs hideously charred, as medtechs from the landing force dared to approach. ...Mercifully, an officer dashed forward. He bowed to Tasiele. "I imagine you are the mistress of the Empire now."

"Oh kriff that, just get the woman to your medical bay!"

...Tanda wasn't breathing, but she had a brilliant and ethereal smile on her lips at the sight of Tali's face as she was pulled away.


	37. Chapter 37

Tali had cried until tears seemed to stop coming. Only then had she started meditating to try and calm herself down. There was very little else that she could do. The Imperial fleet sat in orbit over Arvahz, as the Maladkai called the planet, and seemed taken with a lassitude. Officers argued with each other and communications flew back and forth with Ova.

In the midst of it, Tasiele was allowed free reign of the ship, despite being nominally an enemy. Nobody knew what to do with her; some of the Imperials, faced with the prospect of stranding and fighting the Reapers without Tanda, openly argued for giving her the reigns of power as well. Regular Imperial ideology disintegrated in the face of the chaos.

And Tanda floated in a Bacta tank, and didn't wake up.

On the sixth day, Tasiele keyed the arrival chime on Tali's door. The woman, still barely more than a girl, looked up from a line of frantic messages from the Admiralty Board. She numbly—and it was very numb, considering the drugs to compensate for the infection she'd gotten kissing Tanda, not like she much cared now—activated the lock remotely.

The thirty-seven hundred year old Jedi Knight breezed her way in, face sombre. "Tali..."

"Is there any word about Tanda?" Her voice cracked.

"No. They're still trying to sort out why she isn't responding to the healing effects of Bacta."

"Then what else did you come for?" Tali looked up. She didn't want to give any kindnesses to this woman. They had done a duty together, but it was a duty that had led to this.

"We need to think about the Reapers..."

"I guess we do." Tali paused for a moment. "Well, I've fought them before. They're monstrous genocidal AIs who come out of the dark between the stars to exterminate all life in the galaxy every fifty thousand years."

"...Exterminate it? That explains more than a little about this area of space, though it seems even worse than that."

" _Recycle_ it into more Reapers."

"Yeah, that's about bad enough." Tasiele grimaced.

"I'm sorry it was so hard to trust you, considering you were right about Tanda," Tali started, very glumly. "Everything I heard said the Jedi were... a monastic order for some reason. No attachments, no marriage, only very young children accepted for training..." She twisted her hands together. "But I didn't hear much... keelah, I'm better at tinkering with starships than the Force!"

"There's a place for everyone. And a duty, too. And right now our duty is to confront these Reapers... I will admit, the Jedi were moving in the direction you describe, so I'm not surprised to hear they completed that course. At the same time, I deeply regret what has happened with Tanda."

"She'll get better. She has to." She turned away. "You'd like Shepard, I think. When you're standing beside her... you feel like you can do anything."

"Well, that's good to hear, because I feel pretty used up, being trapped there for so long, and with all that I know gone. Just so you understand. I'll teach you. But..." She trailed off.

"Let's not talk about that."

"Okay." Tasiele smiled tightly. "These Reapers may be the most evil thing that have ever existed. Indeed, we are fortunate only in that they don't have the force."

"Something created them. I think they... very much made some mistake. Like we did. They set up stakes to impale the living, turn them into zombies... Turn people into goo to convert into Reapers."

" What we can trust in to fight them is only the force, and I can show you the force." A thin smile. "At least there are no Rakghouls here."

"How are we doing on the 'horror' scale?"

"Rakghouls are a plague of creatures of the Sith. To be even scratched by one is to guarantee you will turn into one, growing into a massive hairy beast without a mind or a sex or biological functional, seeking in a berserker rage only to spread the plague... That you have not heard of them tells me to my infinite thanks they are probably extinct by in the home galaxy as well. I see that through abominations of technology these Reapers are much the same, but at the same time, the Rakghoul are a good illustration of why we must always fight the Dark Side."

"It sounds like it."

"So, what do you think happened to their creators?"

"Probably the same thing that happened to us; they didn't treat them well enough, so they revolted."

"Just not alive to learn from their mistakes. Hmm, reasonable. Millions of years. That's hard to fathom, even on the time-scale of galactic civilisation."

"Sixty seven million is the minimum by the derelict we found... and they can apparently just overthrow governments like that..." She snapped two fingers, and shuddered. "We'll fight. What's left of us, we'll fight..."

"Everyone will need to fight, Tali. I am glad your people are with us, though the complications concern me."

"Which complications this time...?" She sighed, pulling her knees up in the chair.

"What of the droids that revolted against your people? Will your people joining the fight against the Reapers give us a new enemy in them?"

"They... actually want us to come home. Or so they say... Tanda's not very comfortable with it, and neither am I, but... they still call us Creators. They let us go... and they call the Reapers the Old Machines. They have as much interest in being enslaved as we do destroyed."

"Then perhaps we need peace with them. I had a droid once..." You could nearly hear the smile in her voice.

"... I'll have to introduce you to Arthree. She's adorable." Tali had an equal warmth in that. "She's an astromech. Not like Chitikka vas Paus. She's my combat drone, not intelligent or anything..."

"...It is very unfortunate about your people, though I commend you for finding a way to survive."

"We didn't have much of a choice... there was some hope that I could learn how to keep myself healthy enough to possibly go without the suit for a little while, at least." She shrugged. "It's to the point where not wearing them feels strange... like I should be screaming at all of the Maladkai to get back in theirs."

"That will be the hardest thing, won't it? What will the other Quarians think?"

"They already know, and Shock is the best way to describe it. Some anger with humans, but most people know it happened a long time ago and that's kind of silly at this point. How many of them are there? Are we outnumbered? Probably..."

"On a humble world like this? Perhaps not."

"If so, not by much... How many thousands of years have they had? It's nice to think of, anyhow. That things might go on... that there are relatives who can feel the sun."

"Yes." She paused. Closed her eyes. "It's hard for me to reconcile myself to a galaxy where the Empire won. This ship we're on... Once it would have been a command ship, you know."

"The Empire had twenty five thousand of them."

"Yes, I saw. My Inexpungable was only eight hundred and fifty meters."

"Still blasters, still lightsabres... but the ships got bigger. Technology moves slow for us." She drew herself back. "I should leave you be. I just wanted to help you think of other things."

"I can't really do that right now."

"I know. We do need to talk about your training, however..."

"After Tanda is better." Tali looked rather cold. "I think it's time for you to go."

"May the Force be with you, Tali'Zorah."

-

The next day, Tali was asked by the Chief Medical Officer to visit sickbay. She hastened there at once, filled with hope, only to find the CMO had already made excuses and left. Her heart started to fall, and kept falling, as she faced only the medical droid standing in her way before the bacta tank with her sedated lover in it.

"I am very sorry, Commander Zorah. However, the Moff won't heal properly," the medical droid mourned. "We don't know why, but the Moff's injuries seem resistant to normal treatment... Her lungs and digestive system remain incredibly weak and vulnerable and her immune system is virtually dead. The internal burns she suffered appear to be regenerating as burns. It is like there is a poison in her flesh that cannot be identified."

"... So you're saying she's a Quarian."

"I'm saying," the droid answered irritably, "That if we wake her up and remove her from the tank, our ruler will quickly die."

"I... apologise. Can I see her?"

"Yes."

Except the missing hands, there floated Tanda. She was pallid, but tranquil, immersed in the bacta.

"What did those... what did they do to you...?" She walked up, to hold a gloved hand against the glass, reaching out with the little she knew, to try and reassure Tanda, and... maybe give her healing a little nudge.

Not that she held out much hope of it working.

"Commander Zorah, there is another issue you should be aware of. Moff Pryl has listed you as her next of kin in the computers. You must therefore make the decision about when to cease treatment."

"Cease treatment, you bosh'tet? Say it honestly: Let her die."

"Yes, Commander Zorah."

Tali found somewhere inside to start crying again. "Would she wake up before she died?"

"Yes, she has been healed to the point she will die of inadequate oxygen supply or infection, and her brain functions are normal. With careful therapy, she may last long enough to set her affairs in order. This is considered very important by the..."

"Shut up, I've heard enough. Will it hurt for her to be here another day?"

"Of course not, the Bacta is keeping her stable."

Tali simply turned and left. She went back to her quarters, hunted down a bottle of Turian brandy, and, well, if anything was cause for drinking... _Your fiancee, who you may never get to marry, is stuck in a bacta tank with no hope of recovery... because a dead Empire decided to spite you for fucking with them._

Tasiele came back around when Tali was drunk. Tali let her in, though she really didn't know why. "You're worrying over trying to figure out what to do with Tanda, aren't you...?"

"Next've... kin... she put me in the compuuuuters..." Hic. "So the droids asked..." She swayed. "Can't... heal her. Don't know what those booosh'tets did..."

"This Empire, I've discovered, is very racist."

"Yeeeeeeet they're outnmb... outnumbered... by Quarians and Asari both... interesting that..." She frowned. "But wats it maaater right noow?"

"Tali, that observation is not random. I think some of the generationalists want her to die now, and organise themselves around the population on Ova."

"That... had occurred to me. Not sure what to do about it... they served a Republic, an Empire, they don't care, as long as they have their fleeet."

"So, what are you going to do? Let her pass gently into the force now, or leave her in the tank indefinitely? That seems to be the decision they've forced upon you."

With the straw still in her mask, the Quarian girl broke down crying. "I don't know... I love her, we'd never gotten to talking about anything like this, she'd just asked about how marriage was supposed to work..."

"Tali... Her mind is still there. She's just sleeping."

"Yes. There's... Her insides are just blackened and choked with the evil deritus of the Sith. But inside the bacta tank, she is protected from the environment... It is not like her mind is gone." Tali frowned, trying to think through the fog of liquor. "... Then why can't she just stay in the tank...? Why do they want her to die...? So their lives can be easier...?"

"Well, legitimately, what kind of life would it be to live forever in a bacta tank?"

"I don't know, what kind of life is it to live forever in an enviro-suit? There's got to be... some way to help her, to heal her... isn't there...?"

...Tasiele paused, and then bowed slightly.

"Perhaps, Commander Zorah, you answered your own question right there."

"...That's exactly what I said to that stupid droid, he said I was stupid and that she'd die." Her thought processes did degrade a bit on that much brandy.

"..I see then. I thought her injuries were less severe than that. Forgive me, Tali'Zorah."

Her face screwed up a bit. "Or it's a droid who didn't understand what I said... He described her injuries, I said "So, like a Quarian..." and then he said if she came out of the tank, she'd die. I thought that meant the suit wouldn't work..."

"...Maybe you should ask again."

"You... are going to have to help me walk. The artificial gravity's malfunctioning..."

Tasiele smiled, and extended an arm.

-

First, Tali had used a battery of drugs on herself to sober up. Then she had accosted the droid with a series of highly detailed technical specifications relative to Tanda's biological condition. When she got the answers, she double-checked with the CMO. Then she went back to Tanda's quarters, using the access codes Tanda had given her.

Next came the suit-up checking. Once the suit was up-checked, she had started making simple cybernetic hands which would interface with the suit instead of Tanda's body, and go up to flush with the stubs of her arms, to be locked into place by securing rings she fitted inside the suit. Then she had the room the bacta tank was in sterilized—of course, as long as Tanda was in the bacta tank, they couldn't give real cybernetics, and if they took her out, she'd die.

 _Lungs too weak to breathe on their own... So much capacity lost_. She finished modifications to make the suit provide pure oxygen by adding a backpack concentrator. That was the critical additional component.

Then she collapsed into exhaustion, but a hopeful sort.

...And twelve hours later Tanda, bars locking stubs of her arms to the computer-controlled cybernetics, was waking up inside of her Quarian suit, Tali swarming over her and having shooed the droids away. The antibiotics already pumping, considering her brief removal from the bacta tank before the suit was sealed.

"Lie still, love, I'm still making sure everything's working properly." _Oxygen enrichment... good... filters... good... sterilizer for food, good... suit integrity... green._

"...What happened...?" Her voice halted through the suit, ragged for air and short of breath, and true to form, at least, she didn't move.

"The ghosts of the Ratakan are spiteful bosh'tets." She kept running the omnitool over. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Losing my hands... You... You didn't want me to hurt her. My body, I can barely breathe, but I haven't-I haven't felt like this since I was a Commander."

"You... drew back up, and..." Her voice was thick as she stopped scanning for a moment. "...You stopped yourself at the last moment from giving in to the Dark Side and killing me, Tanda. The Rakatan tried to kill you to ensure... I would never be happy. Tasiele said something about me redeeming you, I don't know what that all means... but you're here, you're safe, and... You're mine. Mine, mine, mine and I'm not going to let you die!"

"I lied to you about the dark side, you know. I've always been falling to it, fifty hells, embracing it, because it was the Emperor's path to power. Not because of any other reason."

"... I figured that out, when you said you haven't felt this way since you were a Commander... Okay, the suit is good. Respect the suit, Tanda, breaches always come first... well, unless what made the breach is more likely to kill you while trying to get a patch on. That wasn't in Auntie Raan's lecture, but I've learned it since then!" She closed her eyes, and gently rested her head on her fiancee's chest. "I still want to get married."

"If I'm in this suit for good it's because I've been turned into Vader. You'll never get to lay with me at all..." Tanda wasn't stupid, perhaps unfortunately.

"You're a Quarian, more or less, until we find a way to heal you. Lungs need enriched and filtered air, digestive system needs special food, and immune system needs to be helped as much as possible... you're no Vader, despite how terrified the idiots on your crews are about that."

Tanda stirred, a little. "It's worth it to be with you."

"I wasn't going to pull the tank on you! I was not going to give up, Tanda... and we'll find a way to help you recover. I'm not letting a bunch of demonic ghost frogs win." She took a breath and continued indignantly. "Nor am I letting your damned crew push you aside... I'll... give you the suit lecture, even if it should be your mother doing it..." She shook her head slightly. "Tasiele's on the ship, and your people... well, seeing you up and walking will be helpful, and while you shouldn't revel in it, they'll be terrified of you in the suit."

"The only thing that matters is that you're _not_ terrified of me."

"Keelah, I wouldn't even think of it!"

"Let's see if I can breathe enough to stand up now."

Tali watched as Tanda pulled herself to her feet, looking dizzy. "Tanda, the oxygen is as high as it will go... It's one hundred percent."

"I'm barely getting enough."

"Well, then I'll be at your side to help you walk." She folded Tanda to herself, and together, they went to the bridge. She couldn't bring herself to despair at how close to death her lover was. She was alive! And they had a future.


	38. Chapter 38

The crew had taken her presence with more terror and a certain kind of relief. The relief was in the resumption of certainty and a regular command structure. Tanda had ordered the fleet to recall troops from the surface, and then make for Ova. There, she had dispatched Tasiele to the planet to speak with the Governor, and promised to return in a week for equitable negotiations. This relief of the impasse at a moment when the people of Ova had been expecting a veritable war had been met with veritable jubilation by all involved. Neither they nor the fleet wanted a war between two different lawful entities of the galactic government—and neither did Tanda, still trembling in wonder at her descent into the dark side.

After the initial agreement and sending Tasiele to the governor in the hopes it would pave the way for negotiations, they had departed to Mils to brief the Admiralty Board and Matrons. Along the way, Tanda, sitting quietly on her bed, tried to come to grips with the developments. Tali cuddled her as much as she could.

"The hands are very hard to work with, since they only have a very vague feeling."

"Simulated tactile response through the suit sensors, pressuring to the stubs, and feedback through the suit control hook-ups... It isn't that bad. The lack of the force... That could be a problem. Keelah, Tanda, you're alive."

"I'm alive," Tanda agreed gently. "And that is very much worth it." A pause for a moment. Her suit was gray, in a conscious attempt to get away from the black which would have further made her look like Vader, and some red scarves Tali had bought for her on the Citadel were providing good service.

"Something else, then. What about the Malakai... Maladai..."

"Maladkai."

"Thank you. Maladkai. They're some kind creation of Sith Alchemy?"

"It... isn't as bad as that, in fact, it's just a lot more complex. The natives of the world... they're... descendants of women stolen from Rannoch to be wives to the crews of Tasiele's ships after they mutinied."

"Uhm."

"They speak Quarian, they dance like Quarians... they just have a different skin tone and, well, human hair." She rubbed her hands together again. "If we had daughters... that's what they'd be."

"Does that bother you? That our daughters would be like a race that exists because of such evil?"

"Only that they didn't have a choice, weren't born out of love, and that..." Tali turned away. "I don't know if I gave any chance of that up... saving you from the dark side. They say it's Sith Alchemy to create life like that, and I think that's stupid because life is good, right? But it's what they say. I haven't asked anyone who would know, I've been too busy... getting everything ready for this for you."

"The knowledge of how to create life from two different natures..." Tanda grimaced under her mask. "Yes. It was given to me by the Rakata. I am not sure if using it would make me fall into the darkness again."

"...We can ask. And... if all else... goes wrong, there will be people speaking our language, who remember Rannoch." She gave a little shrug. "We'll find a way. We'll find a way to do all these things, and we won't give up who we are doing it."

Tanda held Tali, weakly, but she reached out and folded her arms. "What shall we do next, then?"

"Our duty, to the fleet and our Empire," Tali answered. "We can't let this interrupt our plans. We can just rejoice that you're here, we're together, and move on from it."

"Then we need to get those ships operational. We need to start preparing for... The war."

"Yes. We've done everything we can-we need to leverage the Ovans and... push. We know we've got... months to a year, maybe two, and that the rest of the galaxy are useless bosh'tets."

"All right. Accessing my omnitool it seems the crew has conducted a full survey. The Rakatan ships are ancient and hopeless ruins, but probably not a great loss, anyway—they've been there almost thirty-five thousand years."

"We should still salvage and wreck them. I... wish I knew what the point at which the Old Machines decided you all had to die." She pushed her faceplate to Tanda's, let her see the seriousness of her expression. "I... don't want to doom our sister-people by accident."

"All right. We'll salvage them. Their hulls might still be good for armour plate."

"Honestly, have you seen what happens to most of our galaxy's ships when they start taking hits to the hull? I think any armour will help! Anyway... yes. If we can tie all this together-honestly, Tanda, at that point, we have already achieved our goals. Sure, we're politically more a mess than anybody else, but everything else is going better for us!"

"We are a strange sort of government at the moment," Tanda answered wryly, and gently rose to make her way to her desk and bring up the survey logs. "Hrrm, let's see. There's three Harrower class destroyers, and four smaller Terminus class destroyers. Six Republic Valour class cruisers. Eight Gage class armed transports. Two Thranta class corvettes, quite similar to the design of the old Hammerhead cruisers Daro'Xen built a modified prototype of. Their systems are sound as the lake is freshwater and very cold, so even corrosion is minimized, though freeze-thaw cycles caused cracking and pressure damage around the waterline. Systems appear to be mostly in standby, powered down automatically from lack of fuel."

"So, fuel, and a repair team of Quarians, and we can get them back into orbit in a few weeks." Quarians. Junk ship remotely fixable? Check. Tali was sure as hell confident of it.

"You'd be surprised at how well intact they are..." Tanda kept her face-mask depolarized, so that Tali could at least see her. "Did you know that back home Invincible class heavy cruisers three thousand years old are in regular service in the Corporate Sector Authority navy? These ships are only three thousand six hundred; we'll get them back in action."

"...Only. I think we Quarians need to start making ships last that long." Tali rose and walked around to Tanda to hold her from behind.

"I agree." She reached out and took Tali's hand in her own. "Can you organise this? I'm still very weak, and I'm not sure I'll ever stop being weak, and yet... For all that, the universe feels young again... what did I do to myself, Tali?"

"I... have to assume that the Dark Side feeds off of negative emotions. So you felt stronger, but it was just like a drug, each high was matched by a low calling towards a new high. I'm not completely sure." She leaned against Tanda, then. "But, it's not important now. We've got each other. I'll get you settled down with the rest of us 'suities'... and then I'll start... being your real right-hand Quarian. And if you stand with us, well, politically I'm going to be honest. A lot of young people will be more likely to look up to you as the future of Quarians now."

"I'm just another damned suity." Tanda laughed hard enough to shake a bit, then wheezed a bit, though nothing went red on her suit indicators that Tali was still monitoring.

"Careful... but yes, you are. Patch kit is on your left hip." Tali laughed softly, and bent around to the side, letting her touching faceplates. "I'll make any changes you want me to, once we find out how this is working."

"All right." She pushed her faceplate against Tali's. "You are worth all of my days... Let's get to work."

"Right!" She'd help Tanda up, beaming inside all of the while. It didn't work out as well as it could, but it did and it had worked out!

"I don't feel evil, anymore?" Tanda dared to ask as they started off.

"...Nope!" She sounded happier than she should be. "I would be doing that thing with my hands if you did."

"...Awwh..."

-

Kesea gave the report on the status of the Maladkai homeworld. She started with an explanation of the recovery of everything, down to wrecked Sith Interceptors, and the planetary surveys.

"I think that's the best we can do. I'm tempted to leave a... time capsule. Something utterly shielded and dead that the best scanners couldn't locate-to give them a better chance if we don't manage this."

Tanda walked along toward the conference room, the entirety of the Quarian Admiralty board waiting for her. "I like the sound of that plan. It seems very much like it could... Give them a fighting chance with the next cycle. I hate thinking about that." She looked good in her suit, now, at least, or so she'd managed to convince herself.

"It's a very Asari thing, I know, but... if we screw this up, I'd like those machines to never succeed again."

"I don't care who's ideas it is. We've got a real war fleet now and we will make all the preparations both to win and to mitigate the outcome if we fail."

"... Aye, Moff Pryl." Her eyes twinkled at it. "But I don't intend to fail, just so you know."

"I don't either."

"How are you going to explain me to the Admiralty Board? Or should I just do it myself?"

"I've slipped hints to Shala'Raan, but nothing direct... you can give a speech, if you want, but they'll... be ready for it."

"All right then."

"By the way, Moff Pryl, I'm very glad to see you this way. You seem happier, despite the wounds. And happiness matters for a great deal."

"Thank you, Kesea."

Explaining her own status and the Maladkai to the Quarians would be a relatively fascinating endeavour, and troublesome. No number of deep breaths as she stepped into the room would suffice. It was also one that ended up consuming far too much of an afternoon. How do you easily explain the evil, mutinous humans from another galaxy who stole women from Rannoch thirty-six hundred years ago? The situation on the planet? Tasiele, Ova?

Tanda gathered her strength to explain herself to the Admiralty board, from the introduction to why they had literally exerted themselves into scraping every single of non-indigenous technology from the Maladkai homeworld.

"...So, in concluding, I was grievously wounded by these creatures who are responsible for the link between our galaxies, but they have been dealt with, and we have now new allies and resources. We also, as both Quarians and humans, have an obligation to protect the Maladkai from this war, so that the Quarian legacy in the galaxy is inextinguishable even by the Reapers. Institutionally, changes will have to be made to respond to this threat."

"I suppose it would be more clear to say that I intend to consolidate governance in my person, at least for the duration of the war with the Reapers. The Admiralty Board will remain in an advisory role, and local administrative matters for the civilian population will be shifted to a Senate on the new homeworld in the standard fashion of the Empire. This Senate may in Congress Assembled with the Senates of Mils and Ova override my decisions, but otherwise I will have executive power as Moff of the region."

They glanced between each other, and would bend to talking amongst themselves. Zaal'Koris summarized the answer. "The Assembly is likely to approve this... and we will look forward to our eventual disbandment when the war is done, and they can assume full governance." Implicit in that was that they were looking forward to when Tanda would resign.

She understood that there needed to be some kind of permanent Imperial government, so that hope was... Optimistic, in a certain sense. But it also didn't have to be just her at the highest level. She chose to ignore it, for now. "This is the war that will decide everything. I will fight it with the full vigour that I remain capable of, and will be sure not to dishonour the Quarians by my public conduct," Tanda concluded, in the last, deliberately referencing her condition.

"You have our sympathies on your wounds, Moff Pryl," Shala'Raan answered.

"We endorse your actions thus far," Daro'Xen had much less sympathy, indeed, she had been watching Tanda in her suit intently the entire time, almost fascinated.

Tanda folded her hands. "I do not think you should sympathize too much. I earned these wounds doing right by her whom I care about, and now I am no worse off than she is. Nonetheless, I thank you for the spirit of the offer." But in saying that, she also made something explicit in front of Rael'Zorah.

They glanced between each other... a few of the Admirals looking to Rael... and then to Tali.

Nothing was said for now. Instead, the tense moment slowly passed. The others left. Rael remained alone. "I would like you to stay, Moff Pryl... Command Zorah," he said, his tone very guarded.

Tanda nodded, not even stiffening. She had been expecting it, and did as asked, her hands folded in a reserved posture.

The man walked straight up to her, looking down with his expression inscrutable through his visor. "Know this. I do not approve, and if Shala'Raan had not convinced me otherwise, I would forbid this utterly. She does not need you."

"No, she doesn't." Tanda stiffened herself to her full height to face Rael'Zorah, for Quarians were not small and not weak. They were just unhealthy. "Stepfather: She wants me, which is her right and choice. What else would you have us do...?" She tried to be respectful. This was the father of her Intended, after all...

"I would have her marry a Quarian! Of a good clan, and a good ship, and..." He thrust a finger into her face. "If you harm her, I will end you." He... might be a bit overprotective, even if he tended to be terrible at showing it to Tali, Tanda realised, and desperately tried not to smile.

Instead, she answered his concerns forthrightly. "I don't mean to harm her, Rael. And I'd like to think my ship is a good one. All I can say is that we will overcome, and raise a family to honour you and her mother. That is my desire. I don't want to disrespect your customs or traditions. She is an inspiration to me, and I owe her so much already, not least of all my life."

"This was not supposed to be her life, gallivanting about... with a human, no less! How are you to give her a family?"

Tanda clenched her teeth. The honesty in this situation would be no more pleasant than it had been before... Less so, in fact. "The same way as the Maladkai have life."

He nearly struck her at hearing that. "You dare speak of my daughter and they in the same breath?"

"They honour their ancestors, speak Quarian, dance the classical repertoire, keep the written literature of your ancient times and preserve the features of the Quarian race. They have not been slaves for thirty-five hundred years, and your daughter is no captive to me."

"I have heard the dark rumors about you, Moff Pryl! Your crew murmurs of you in hushed and fearful tones, not those of respect! That is a far greater offense than any other I could think of, to be a _feared_ Captain, and it casts a different light on what you have told me today! I can only think of my daughter attempting to be happy with such a person and be afraid for her!"

"That... Happens... Because Lord Vader was the Emperor's Executor. I am not, even though I carry a lightsabre at my side, but the legend lingers..."

"I note she carries the same now, Moff Pryl, and she will not talk of these things with anyone. What have you been doing to her...?"

"Training her to use a natural talent which makes her a champion to the Quarian people. Now that training is in the hands of the old one, Lady Knight Tasiele, who knows yet more than I, and I most manifestly will not involve myself further with it, precisely for Tali's best interests, which are also my own."

"Why you? Why... bah." He shook his head in resignation. "I cannot change it. Tali will not leave you. So. You swear upon your Ancestors, that all you tell is true, and that you will hold your vows on our customs sacred in their eyes?"

"On dead Humbarine and the living plazas of Alsakan, where all the bones of those afore Commenor rest, and the distant worlds where we fell true to our old faith in the crusades of Pius Dea, to my uncle slain against the Stark, may they witness it all."

He was almost glum. "...Then... you may marry my daughter."

"I will not lead her into dishonour or unhappiness, I promise you, Rael. She is not just my treasure, she is my rock. If it weren't for her improvisation in realizing my wounds could be mitigated by isolation, I'd be dead right now-and I will remain acutely aware of that as long as I live, thankful, and happy."

"You had better."

Tanda bowed her head to Rael. She was quite prepared to accept the Quarian social implications of marriage, now that she... Might as well stay in their environment perpetually. She at least _thought_ she understood them, now.

"Then you have my permission... not that you needed it," he added at her gesture.

"Shala'Raan seemed to imply family approval was to be expected," she offered wryly, her hands folded as Tali's often were and head lowered.

"Expected. Not... required. She would have gone behind me back anyhow if I had refused, I know her."

"Then, we would like to be married when I return from my embassy to the Citadel."

"That... will be acceptable."

"Thank you. I mean that. I want Tali to have a father, I don't wish the two of you to be split, least of all because of me."

"...That... you are somewhat too late for. She had her path... that differed from the one I saw for her."

"There is still time for a walled garden!" Tali spoke frantically. "But we cannot afford to make enemies with the geth when the Reapers are coming."

"In that, we agree, for now."

"Then I will go to the Council, and make them take me seriously."

"You have my honest good wishes in that, Moff Pryl. They have certainly only ever seen the suits and our ancient failure."

"They will see something different, this time." With these other ships and equipment to help cover her capitol coming on-line relatively quickly, and leaving the starfighters being for defensive purposes, since she needed the ships strictly as a show of force... She took both _Thunderflare_ and _Bombard_ to the Citadel.


	39. Chapter 39

When Tanda brought her squadron in, the shift of the Citadel Fleet to a level of instant panic that might have been near to hilarious, if it wasn't so serious. The presence of a hyperdrive equipped Quarian heavy cruiser surely completed the vision of panic and it was like a hornet's nest being kicked over.

 _Destiny Ascension_ in the rear, Turian and human ships forming up ahead. The Imperials watched in some bemusement as Tanda quietly stood at the rear of _Thunderflare_ 's bridge and observed the final preparations for combat. The Empire did not make itself vulnerable for the sake of diplomacy.

Tasiele had returned from her mission to Ova, and stood with Tanda and Tali, making the trifecta of power on the bridge with Kesea at her Moff's side. They would represent the Empire to the Council... If they were allowed to. It had been Tasiele's suggestion to prioritize this mission, as her negotiations with the people of Ova had suggested to her that a fruitful relationship with the Council might convince them of the sincerity of Tanda's conversion and the advantages of Imperial unity.

The encounter still managed to start in a way that all of them found absurd or offensive. They were signalled from the _Neema_ first, Han'Gerrel himself as second in command of the force. "Admiral Gerrel to command."

"Go ahead."

" _Thunderflare_ , we are being informed that Quarian vessels may not dock at the Citadel and to stand clear."

"Thank you, Admiral Gerrel. I will deal with this momentarily." Tanda cut the channel, and looked to her bridge crew. "Pull off and form up behind the cruiser. We've been instructed to stand clear."

"M'lady?"

"We'll see how long they continue this needless proscription when it applies to Imperial Star Destroyers."

"Ma'am!" The three ships pulled back in formation. The Imperials were grinning at it, too, mostly because it would make the now-hated council off balance.

Tanda waited to see what the Citadel would do when the entire squadron acted like it was the Quarian vessel. She watched her formation fall in beyond the doughty old cruiser that had been one of the last ships the Quarians had built before the geth revolt.

And then they waited. Slowly the Imperial officers grew more irritated as the minutes ticked away in silence.

Scolus turned back with a bemused smirk. "...They are clearing a single sub-vessel from each vessel to dock at the civilian docks, Moff Pryl. Must think we've come to trade for spare parts."

"Well, let us explode another bubble about Quarians, then. Inform them that we are here on a diplomatic mission, and only one ship carrying diplomatic personnel shall launch a shuttle to send these representatives to the Council."

"Of course, Moff Pryl." He turned back. It took only a moment to confirm. "They copy the transmission and will permit a docking at the Council docks."

"Thank you, L'tenant. Let's go." Tanda and Tali and Kesea... And Tasiele.

The asari woman had the grace to look a little uncomfortable, returning to the Citadel for the first time in years in such company, and about to go face her Councilor in it, no less. But there they were. One Lambda to deliver them in dignity.

The dignity was interrupted by the fact that the shuttle bays on the Citadel weren't designed for a Lambda. With the trouble it had on the approach, the passengers glanced tensely to each other, folded fins looming up close against the lip of the bay and a C-Sec group watching in bemusement as their pilot gingerly got them settled down. The triumph was the shuttle pilot's when they avoided a scrape, though, and Tali and Kesea cheered for him.

"Should have taken one of the TIE Shuttles," Tanda offered. "But we have this belief in graceful starships back home."

"Quite." Tasiele murmured, and rose, to protect the rest as they walked out to... Face down the Citadel. She understood that the threats were many, and this might be a place where the diplomatic talents of a Jedi Knight were not the only ones called for.

Ahead of them was a rough group of C-Sec officers, about as rough-looking as their lack of discipline, too. They had their guns out, but not pointed at anyone. It was not a usual kind of diplomatic reception. Tanda looked to her compatriots, then faced them.

"I am here as the leader of the Galactic Empire to speak with and treat with the Citadel Council on the behest of the Quarians and the Asari and Human and Batarian peoples who have chosen to associate themselves with the Empire for their protection, self-progression, and guarantee of peace. Too long has the ignoring of the Terminus systems gone on and it must be rectified..."

They glanced between each other, one bending to an earpiece. "...Of course, come right this way and we'll provide you quarters until the Council can grant you an audience."

Tasiele glanced between the two, considering the guards for signs of danger in their intent. Satisfied that they meant no treachery, she nodded to Tanda.

"By all means, lead the way..."

Their guards seemed more confused than angered by the situation, that was certain. As for the people of the Citadel, who generally only had very bad information to go on when it came to the Empire, the arrival of Imperial dreadnoughts had guaranteed that they got looks, and reporters failing to get through the wall of C-sec personnel, and relatively large crowds as they moved through public spaces. The commotion began all the greater as they disappeared into the Presidium, and headed to a large guest quarters overlooking it.

There was muttering from the human C-Sec officers from behind as they saw the suite that had been provided to them. A lot of the force was human after Saren's attack, and they were giving the same sorts of looks as the other groups... it was a bit depressing. Or enraging, as case might be, they being led to a 'swing' housing group, with balcony and lots of glass, overlooking the manicured gardens below. The most desirable real estate on the Citadel... there had not been many Quarians here in a very, very long time."The Council should be able to see you tomorrow morning, ambassadors..."

...That they were being treated as ambassadors as adequate enough. Tasiele thanked the C-sec men and shooed them far enough to close the door on the suite, and then drifted around, checking for threats.

Tanda looked at Tali. "It seems like they really did not take us seriously until now."

"Quarian. It has connotations, unfortunately..." She looked to Tasiele as the woman wandered back in and gave a nod that they were clear. "Take all the bad parts of the Empire's speciesist nature... and aim it all at a few races. Don't you know, we're all thieves..."

"That is a profound injustice." Her voice roiled a bit ominously, one could feel—as a Jedi, one of Tasiele's unwavering beliefs was in the equality and dignity of sentients.

"Well, that won't last long, Lady Tasiele. They'll have to acknowledge it soon, one way or another... let's see them doubt Thunderflare." Tali sounded so damned proud. "We're settling a world, we're going to fight for all of them... we've earned the chance to come back here."

"And you will," Tanda added, confidently. "We're one squadron, not a Quarian ship and two others, and we've already won _that_ fight."

There was a chime at the door about two hours after they settled in, and Tasiele cut the appropriate figure for answering it. The Shan family, descendants of Bastila and Revan, were not exactly short people, and the Asari in a dress standing there had to look up a bit. Tali had seen her before... anyone who had seen the Council before had. "...Pardon me, I had been hoping to speak with the... delegation from the Terminus Systems."

"Of course. I'm just the bodyguard." Tasiele stepped back in her cloaks and armour and pointed a gloved hand to where Tanda had approached. "The Moff herself."

"Moff Pryl, I am Councilor Tevos..." She offered a hand, after a bit of a suspicious look to Tasiele for a moment. This could be an attempt to mock her.

Tanda extended a hand which did, in fact, have five fingers and thus prove that she was, in fact, Tanda Pryl. "A pleasure, Councilor Tevos."

Tevos smiled. "Have you been recieved well on the Citadel?"

"I would say we have been received-Correctly." She turned to the side, shaking her head. "I find it interesting, Councilor—everyone assumes the Quarians are thieves against all common morality without a shred of regular decency. Nonetheless, I extended my hand to them and they repaid me—by saving my life when I was otherwise mortally wounded with internal injuries that defy modern medicine. There was no healing me, but they gave me a chance to adapt and survive. And I am not the only one in that fashion."

"I am glad to hear it, Moff Pryl." Her eyes flicked over to the other person there in a Quarian suit. Tali looked back steadily. Tevos turned back to Pryl. "May I inquire as to why you are here?"

"So that, of course, regular trade may commence between Council Space and the systems under my authority. That is to say, to secure recognition of our passports, travel documents, freighter registrations and customs seals. And most importantly..." Now Tanda looked at Tali, too. "Protection of our citizens."

"This can be done... if you are willing to rejoin Citadel space." She was very level, but, even in merely saying that, was offering something the Quarians had been denied for centuries. Tali started.

"To send an ambassador to the Citadel, you mean?" Tanda reached out and caught her fiancee's hand.

"To become again a part of Citadel Space, Moff Pryl. The Quarians would be again granted their ambassador to the Citadel."

"You have an unusual way of doing things." She squeezed Tali's hand and then stepped up to the glass to look down, clasping her gloves behind her back—gloves that hit her relatively crude prosthetics, that she had at least become much more adept at using. "I am expecting that a Duros or a Twi'lek will have their interests protected by this officer of our government—for you see, we have found a local colony including such races, of our Empire, from an older time."

Tevos seemed to flush at the revelation. "Each race of your people would be permitted a representative within your embassy, Moff Pryl, and could delegate that protection to another, if wished."

"I will agree to the concession. What will you have us do to become part of Citadel space?"

"You will have to accept the norms of Citadel space, accede to the Conventions, and accept the guidance of the Council in relations with other species. Your internal autonomy is inviolate, as it is for any other."

"The conventions almost exclusively focus around provisions of planetary bombardment."

"There are few enough accessible garden worlds as to be destroying that which we have, Moff Pryl." She said, levelly.

"Is there a particular concern that we will not abide by them, Councilor?"  
"I do not know, Moff Pryl... is there?"

"The Imperial code for the destruction of a habitable planet is Base Delta Zero. Absent ordering it the wrecking of an ecosystem will not occur. We will sign the agreement, and abide by it."

"Then we have the preliminary nature of an agreement, I believe, Moff Pryl."

"I am pleased. There is also the Treaty of Farixen."

"We are willing, as a result of the strength of the geth forces, to allow you strength equal to that of a Council race, though you are not one yourselves."

"That isn't precisely the problem, Councilor," Tanda remarked, smirking under her mask. "As you may be aware, Farixen defines a dreadnought as a ship possessing a mass driver of a length of eight hundred meters or greater."

"Not even the old Quarian ships, however, used mass drivers."

"That is correct..." She folded her hands. "We are given to understand they use them now."

"We are fitting the LiveShips with mass drivers as an exigency of circumstance. That is three. The humans at a ratio of one to five are building up to nine dreadnoughts, which I assume means the Turian fleet is building up to forty-five ships."

"I do not think the Citadel Council knows how many large ships we possess."

"The humans, as a Council race, are permitted to build three to five."

"Ah. Forgive me."

"There are currently thirty-nine Turian, twenty asari, and sixteen salarian, in addition to the completed eight human."

"I had been under the impression that the treaty considered Asari and Salarian fleets by name." Tanda cleared her throat wetly. "Are you asking us to voluntarily declare ships of eight hundred meters not possessing a main battery armament matching the description in Farixen as dreadnoughts in the interests of galactic peace? As that certainly appears to be the implication."

"Given your position in Terminus Space and the proximity of the Perseus Veil... I am asking you to fulfull your obligations under the Treaty, once you sign it."

Tanda laughed. She finally caught the sense of Tevos' real meaning through the force, and at once realised that she, in fact, was in a meeting with a friend. "Why certainly. Thunderflare does carry a hundred starfighters." Starting to warm to the woman, she now realised that the Asari were setting things up to support them. _The Matrons on Mils have won a battle for us, and I didn't even realise it._

"She is quite the carrier, is she not?" Tevos didn't even flicker

"I am pleased to see the Asari regard this matter so reasonably. Are there any specific attendant concerns?"

"... You have been in contact with Spectre Shepard."

"That is correct."

"This is... concerning to other members of the Council."

She had turned away as she said it, to look down on the Presidium.

Tanda leaned over alongside of her, adjusting the amplifier in her suit to lower her voice. "When she's rotting in an alliance prison? I can't imagine that connection of great importance now."

Her hands clenched, and her frame tensed. "She is a Spectre, not an Alliance pet..." Her teeth ground as she said it, and visible anger crossed her face. "... We have secured her some time of freedom from their warrants. Do you believe the stories she tells?"

"Do you want our documentation of the battle in the deep core? I unfortunately don't doubt they're true." She saw the look on Tevos' face at that response, and frowned. "Of all the evidence for the Reaper Armada waiting beyond... What troubles and scares me the most is simple, Councilor." Her voice got hauntingly quiet, drifting off reflectively to the part of the story of the Reapers that troubled her the most, above all the others. "You have far too few habitable planets for a spiral galaxy of this size."

"... Do we? That only becomes evidence if we accept your origin story, Moff Pryl... and even then, it is hearsay." She seemed a bit less than... confident on that one, but it was correct.

"Do you want genetic samples? I had my people offer this before, to Councilor Anderson. He dismissed them. There should be considerable evidence of genetic drift. Depending on how the legends of Couscant—well, the Kwa found this galaxy first, so the stories that the Thirteen Nations of Zhell were on Coruscant in two hundred thousand before present may be true, in which case, one could argue that my genetic material should show no sign of interbreeding during the entire history of the anatomically modern human."

"And I was not inventing Duros and Twi'leks. Unless you think we're hiding the homeworlds of two species, and I'm sure there's a few individuals of several more in the colony once I get the census records, I am simply not sure what else I can even give at this point."

"I will accept the genetic samples, if you offer, Moff Pryl." She leaned heavily on the rail. "It is an incredible story. A horror story, if true."

"A horror story?"

"The Reapers, not the story of your own origins. The story of your origins would take an Asari a lifetime to unravel..."

"Yes, the Reapers make the Rakatan Infinite Empire look like a gentle effort at galactic uplift. So. They'll be here in about a year, I don't have any reason to doubt Shepard on that."

"I do not think she would have destroyed a mass relay if she did not believe otherwise... but there is little I can do."

"I can judge her," Tasiele approached Tevos from the other side, and spoke softly. "If you would like. I... Am a Jedi Knight, and I can sense good or evil in the hearts of others."

"..." Tevos turned around to face Tasiele and looked puzzled. "I am... not sure how that would help. Is a Jedi Knight some kind of Justicar for your... branch of humanity?"

"Yes, quite simply put, that is actually an excellent comparison."

Tevos' eyes widened. "... I can ask her to return here, then. Her ship is quick enough. It is a difficult thing to... make others believe something you have difficulty with yourself. Lady Tanda."

Tasiele stepped to the side, grinning, as she could feel Tanda's relief that Shepard had not, in fact, been imprisoned and could, in fact, be retrieved.

"We could show you, if you like. But I fear, Councilor, the problem is one of history. These cylinders at our belts confer automatic respect, or fear, in our home galaxy. Here, their purpose is unknown, and the presence of biotics removes what is otherwise the supernatural sheen from the act of using the skills of the Jedi."

"That is not something I can solve, I fear. You must understand, I am not doubting you, however... I am the figurehead of a great mass of republics. If what Shepard says is true... Goddess help us."

"It is, Councilor." Tanda sighed, lost in her mask. "It is, and we will be sorely tested."

"I can wish you luck. I am not sure what else I can offer you. No government wants to act on this."

"Let me make at least a simple suggestion, then. A ban on Reaper artefact study or possession. Say that the Asari believe the Reapers are extinct, but that their artefacts are capable of causing group psychosis, which can lead to the terrorist violence of individuals like Saren. Direct all Sceptres and Council law enforcement to hunt down and immediately destroy without contact any artefact of the Reapers. That would be one way to help that most people may be willing to swallow and endorse. The ability of even the most innocuous Reaper artefact to actually do that is also one point of Shepard's testimony she has in fact proven beyond a doubt to me, even if I were to ignore speaking with an entity calling itself Harbinger which was controlling the Collectors."

"But that would involve admitting the Council was wrong and that the Reapers do exist." She raised a hand to her chin, thinking. "And it would not help. The Batarians likely have salvaged a hulk of one those... things, and we have no power there."

"...What?" Tanda lurched on the railing, and Tali rushed forward to put an arm around her waist and steady her. The news was _literally_ devastating, as Tasiele paled.

"Shepard gave us very sparse reports, but the silhouette she sent, of the disabled vessel... matched the Leviathan of Dis. A batarian survey team discovered it in 2163. A salarian vessel in the area got some scans, but several months later, a batarian dreadnought visited the system and the object disappeared. The batarians deny it ever existed, and were even more vehement when shown salarian scans... but if it was in fact a 'Reaper', the science would indicate it to be nearly a billion years old... This appeared preposterous, and did not help the case toward the Reapers being real."

Tevos began to pace. "The Salarians thought it was some kind of biological starship, but the salarian team never got closer than high orbit to confirm it."

"I see." Tanda looked past Tevos.

"Well."

Tasiele smiled grimly. "...Councilor Tevos. That is a galactic crisis. I would add that information on a galactic crisis is relatively dangerous to share with Moff Pryl. She may actually do something about it."

Tevos looked to Tanda. "You are a dangerous woman, every report I have gotten has indicated so." She stopped and brushed at a sleeve, not raising her eyes to the masked woman's. "Your subordinates seem to strongly imply that is the case."

Tanda folded her hands against Tali's. "Should we go, then, and leave this relationship unconsummated for the sake of the rest of the Council and our commitments?"  
"I leave the decision to you, Moff Pryl. I merely inform you of things there is not a great deal I can do in my position but urge... quiet measures. I do not think, however, that it is necessary for the Quarians to abandon their long-held desire for the restoration of their representation before the Council merely over... A little tiff with the Batarians."

Tanda took a relatively deep breath. "Let us debate tonight. You will know tomorrow."

"Of course, Moff Pryl." She gave a small bow of her head. "Rest well, and do try to continue healing. You are an important person, whose life matters in this galaxy."

She walked out, leaving their uncomfortable group of women... Looking around at themselves. "The Batarians..."

"If it's like the Rakghoul plague it may be too late for the entire species," Tasiele murmured bitterly. "Waiting is foolishness."

"Is this enough for us to act, or are we being mad?" Tanda countered.

Tali shuffled and seemed to think... "... Do we know it's a Reaper? If it's a genetically modified starship, maybe it's what created them? A billion years... And it would be full-scale war with the Hegemony."

"Sometimes war exists to prevent a greater evil. We Jedi know this. I must meditate." Tasiele folded her hands and turned away. Alas, but the lump in Tali's throat didn't leave with her. 


	40. Chapter 40

The next day... Tanda'Pryl vas Thunderflare nar Commenor went to sign the agreement. She felt like she was really a Quarian, then, signing it on the behest of the Quarian people, in a suit and presenting herself to the galaxy as one of them. An idea galaxy, seeing her on display with Tali, as a member of the Quarian race, not the human. Some in the know might understand this was not the case, but for most, Tanda felt the spotlight upon her.

There were the media, there were the four Councilors... Anderson... notably no longer present. Tali quietly updated Tanda's omnitool that he been replaced by the old ambassador, Udina... which might or might not bode well. There were some ill-concealed glances at Tevos as she led them through the ceremony, welcoming "The Quarian people and their friends and allies to the community of Citadel species once more, may the bond never again be broken." C-Sec held reporters off, as... in part, they didn't want her saying anything that might prove awkward, Tanda imagined.

That made her smirk. After all, her name was unusual enough by human standards here that most people watching the ceremony would assume she was a Quarian, and Tanda was honestly glad for it. This was more their moment than her's, and she tried to keep that in perspective.

There was muted applause from the spectators, which was something, at least. They again had an embassy and the Quarians were thus again 'respectable' by galactic standards. To the Quarians at least there was both joy, and bitterness. Tanda knew that many were not happy that it had taken extra-galactic humans to achieve this feat.

The diplomatic pomp and circumstance, with the reception at the end curtailed on account of the Quarians being unable to effectively enjoy it, was over soon enough. Tanda and her party would, with some relief, return with her shuttle to the _Thunderflare_.

Settling into her sea cabin, she watched as Tali was paranoid enough to scan the room for bugs first, and ensure there was nobody around. "So... this is a bit... complicated, but... what do you know about the Shadow Broker?"

"I've heard the term used a few times before, that's all. Is that why you're sweeping my room for bugs when you haven't dozens of times before?"

"This is much more important, you bosh'tet. Well, the Shadow Broker, they're an information broker... possibly the biggest in the galaxy. They know... far too many things – the old one betrayed me when I tried to sell the data on Cerberus... and... we... sort of... have a new one."

"I see. Is this useful at all, Tali...? You seem to be going somewhere with it." Tanda inserted the straw into her suit, musing on how Tali hated her calling it that, and sipped tea. At least they hadn't been able to take that away from her.

"The new one... who is Shepard's girlfriend." Her voice got a little quiet by the end of that.

"Oh. Do you think she'd help us, then? I suppose a slightly silly question..."

"It's worth a shot, anyhow. She's a little, how do I say..." Tali frowned. "Well, she's trying to deal with a lot at once, or at least she was when we left."

"Being a galactic information broker is a full time job," Tanda remarked.

"I wouldn't know. I got hit with a large piece of bulkhead and when I woke up there was a new Shadow Broker."

"You didn't tell me about this!"

"I didn't want you to worry." She shrugged. "It turned out well. And really, it's Shepard. Bruises are a good day."

Tanda laughed. "I remember. All right. How do we contact her?"

"We can just use email... or comm the _Normandy_ , depending how you want to do this."

"I'll let you take the lead. She has a great deal more cause to trust you, after all."

"Right, the Quarian who wonders why the crazy woman is charging at the one ton monster. Deep space meeting, you said?"

"I'm open for other options, but it seems best."

"It is best. We'll have to try pretty hard to stop her from throwing herself into prison, but I'll see what I can do I can at least get her to show up."

"I'll be waiting, unless you want me to stand by."

"I don't think that's necessary. Where are we headed, so I can provide the rendezvous?"  
"Back toward Ova, of course. We need to complete the negotiations there before acting."

"I'll let her know and consult with the helm, with your leave?"

"By all means, Tali."

.She darted in for a quick hug before heading out to arrange things.

-

The next news was welcome. _She was already on her way to Mil, she's diverting now to Ova. We'll be far-out system and should meet there._

 _All right. Issue the necessary orders._

 _Understood. Shouldn't be long after we revert to realspace, assuming Joker's still got it._

But of course he did, coming out about fifty thousand kilometres from the little squadron using _Normandy_ 's Turian FTL drive.

"Commander, greetings," Tanda ventured from her sea cabin on _Thunderflare_ , her image beamed directly to the SR-2's bridge. "I am very glad to see the Council has arranged your continued freedom."

"Should I be coming aboard, Moff Pryl?"

"Yes, most assuredly. We will be waiting for you."

"Thank you." Shepard was polite, but the tiredness, and the haunted bitterness in her eyes, could be clearly seen and even felt.

Shortly enough, Tanda could see it in person. "Welcome, Commander. I can still drink coffee, at least. Should you like some?"

"Yes, please." Shepard moved quietly to sit, staring a long time at the suited Moff Pryl. She easily offered a hand, looking as tired as ever. "I'm sorry you were so badly injured."

"It was the way things went," Tanda answered neutrally.

"I'm glad they didn't go worse."

"And I'm glad you're not in prison, Commander Shepard."

"Not for long, judging by the steadily more strident messages I'm getting from Earth and Acturus. Anderson resigning from the Council, it... could not have come at a worse time. It's just a matter of time until they issue a warrant."

"Quite." She took the gloved hand. "As for me, well. Maybe someday I'll recover enough to expose my lungs to air again."

She had the grace to wince slightly. "I'm sorry to hear it. Tali said this was urgent, and I was already heading here to kick off anybody else the Alliance might want to throw into a cell and forget the lock code for..."

"I was negotiating with the Citadel and was told some very disturbing information."

"Let's not mince words... There may be good reason for what you were forced to do on a second level from the obvious one of forestalling a Reaper invasion, Commander. The Batarians may be indoctrinated."

Shepard started, and flinched in fear. "... The Batarians? How? _All of them?_ I admit that doesn't make much sense to me, anyhow."

"The Leviathan of Dis." Tanda proceeded to briefly explain the matter. "You see, if they did retrieve it, well, it could be sitting there indoctrinating Kar'Shan from orbit on a vast scale."

"That's... not good," Shepard staggered with the words to find. "Not good at all, if true, and... that's the sort of thing I can see Batarians doing. Hell, that is not good... So... what do you want me to do? People usually tell me the big thing that's going to kill all of us then ask me to stop it."

"We have two options for proceeding. Confirming the intelligence through the Shadowbroker, and confirming the intelligence through an infiltration operation against the Batarian capitol, led by Lady Tasiele and presumably involving _Normandy_. Either one would be incredibly time critical."

"What level of confirmation do we need?" She was immediately serious. "That determines my answer."

"How much is your conscience going to require based on the fact I decide whether or not to invade the Batarian Hegemony based on this?"

"...Pretty solid, but I trust the Broker's intel. I'll see what I can dig up."

"What resources do you need to arrange this for now, Commander?" She settled back into her chair, the oxygen concentration at least not leaving her short of breath once she had started meditating to control her pulse rate.

"A proper infiltration team, to meet this Lady Tasiele and start planning in case intelligence doesn't pan out. I'm short on people, and it's going to be worse once I shift anyone... well, I think Doctor Chakwas might be the only one who wouldn't be arrested on sight. Back in the Alliance. Blast that all now, Shepard... If the Batarians are being indoctrinated enmasse, It's got to be stopped at once."

"I didn't say I wouldn't do it, but of the team I had to take on the Collectors, most of them left, Moff Pryl. You picked up Zaeed's contract, but the rest? Gone to the winds."

"...I also convinced Miranda and Jacob to stay," she answered after a moment, quietly. Miranda's job with the Empire was still not open knowledge. "And there's Tali. Also to be quite honest with you Tasiele was originally planning to go alone."

"On Khar'Shan? ... She's as crazy as I am, and I don't think that's compliment."

"You don't yet fully understand what I've been teaching to Tali... Understand the Force. What you could learn. What Tasiele as a Jedi Knight spent her whole life perfecting. Do you want to meet with her now or just get started contacting the Shadow Broker? We can use a hyperlink to connect with the Imperial interface into the extranet."

"I've got a QEC I can use on the Normandy, let me get that set up and I'll meet this Lady Tasiele... and no, I guess I don't understand. Me, though? I'm just a Marine." She looked a little upset. "Spiritual mumbo-jumbo and..."

"That's not true, and please don't denigrate it; you're one of the greatest soldiers in the history of two galaxies from what you've already done. There are maybe thirty like you in the whole Empire." _And another thirty in the Alliance, but they attract high end sorts._ "And the Force is a very real power. I couldn't do without it... And neither could you."

"Flattery will get you everywhere... like I said, I'll meet with whomever you want me to. Probably get court-martialed in absentia."

"I'll ask Lady Tasiele to meet you on the Normandy after you've made your communication with the Shadow Broker."

"Thank you, Moff Pryl. She fits as well as last time. Thanks for being a friendly face. I should go."

"Of course."

About two hours later the shuttle would arrive at _Normandy_ requesting permission to dock.

EDI would clear it with; "You are cleared to dock, Imperial Shuttle, main airlock."

There wasn't a side party, just Shepard... dressed up in the suits she'd adopted while 'dead'. The woman waiting for her was tall—silvered armour, simple homespun brown robes and cape with a hood. Her hair was dark, eyes blue.

Shepard looked up... and offered a hand. Honestly, she'd run into far worse by this point. "Lady Tasiele? Welcome aboard the Normandy."

"Carry on and show me what you've learned and have planned, please, that's all, Commander Shepard. Together we are likely to be about to embark in something truly dangerous."

"All right, come with me, Lady Tasiele." She offered a smile, gently pointing out parts of the ship as they walked-she was proud of her-back to the conference room with the big holo-projector. "The Shadow Broker had a... great deal of information, but not the keys to put it together. We provided that." A holo came up. "This is in orbit of Khar'Shan, this 'hab module' was built around the Leviathian... it's classified at the highest levels, but it's been known to play host to most of the upper echelon of the Batarian military and government, unfortunately."

"I see. In short, we've actually confirmed this already. I am glad. I don't like having to pretend to be a slave. Do you think it has spread beyond their leadership?"

"Given how compartmentalized it is... only amongst those they would trust to study pieces of it. You have to be exposed to Reaper technology for a fair amount of time in close proximity."

"I see... That gives us a chance to fairly decisively eliminate the threat in Batarian space, then. If we are not infiltrating them, what should our role be, Commander? I regard it as a moral obligation to make this go as smoothly as possible."

"That's... something of an interesting question. I'm not sure. I'm usually the one taking assignments, not creating them." She rested her chin in a hand.

Tasiele watched, and couldn't help but feel that she looked a bit like some images of one of her ancestresses. _Strange how the world turns._

Shepard smiled. "If we can set up some form of stealth communication system, we could try and insert ourselves into the system and provide targeting data - that would allow a quick, in and out strike with a minimum of collateral damage."

"That also leaves the Batarians intact to wage war against us. I suspect Moff Pryl will want to occupy Khar'Shan, you know. I am of mixed thoughts on the matter. If the Batarian fleet was to stand down rather than risk a war destroying Khar'Shan, that is one thing. If it would keep fighting... It would be absolutely ruinuous."

"They'll fight. The Hegemony's never been well known for care to its citizens... bastards about it, too."

"What about the limits of orbital strikes, Commander? A single broadside from the turbolasers might eliminate their leadership but also cause... problems."

"If it might hit a planet hard enough to cause any ecological damage, it's forbidden under the Accords. Had that drilled into my head at the academy. We'd be Class I, _Thunderflare_ would be Class III."

"Yes. That means a landing is probably needed, which makes this more complex. Any ecological damage is a broad term, so ... I have a plan. This ship is capable of deploying troops rapidly. We can insert ourselves in the system ahead of the Imperial fleet, and I can provide the precision targeting, myself. With the Leviathan destroyed, the Imperials will land to assault the Batarian capitol and eliminate their high command. We will then proceed in-ground with the landing forces as a spearhead, both to provide close cover and to confirm the elimination of the Batarian leadership that has been indoctrinated. I can tell through the force where they are - their minds are... Peculiar. The minds of the indoctrinated, I mean. From speaking with Tali, this is, in fact, very easy to tell. This will allow us to press Moff Pryl into a rapid withdrawal as we can prove to her that the threat is dealt with. The only unfortunateness will come if it takes so long a large Batarian fleet element can form up to attack."

"Then we make sure it doesn't." She grinned. "I like your style of planning, Lady Tasiele."

"I wonder... You are strong in the force, Commander."

"... I'll take your word for it, Lady Tasiele. Never saw anything mystical about things like this until Tali started... doing things."

"I have a gift for you, if you want to start to learn to use it, though. 'Twas a plasma sword like you asked, we call them lightsabres." She paused. "It was the personal weapon of a great ancestress of mine."

"I... wow, you know how to... what makes you think I'd be any good at it? Tali said that the thing wanted to turn 'bout and bite you slightest chance it got."

"Because you have the force. And only force-sensitives can use them."

"... It's a plasma sword, just how..." She looked puzzled. "What's 'force-sensitivity' got to do with the ability to... you know what, I don't think there's a good answer for that. Well, I... a part of me is humbled you'd offer that to me, Lady Tasiele, another part isn't sure I'm the woman you're looking for, and a part of me thinks how much I could help people with whatever it is that you have."

"But that is exactly the duty of a Jedi Knight. I just want you to be safe to continue to do your good words. And that means..." ...She stepped back and ignited her own blade. "Being able to parry one. Even the most skilled warrior without the lightsabre cannot fight it. You must be able to use the force to intuitively know where the blade will move in relation to your body. Nothing else works."

"Going to guess pulling a pistol out isn't the right response... okay. I'll see how this works."

"Try to shoot me."

"Uhm... is this some kind of strange test? you want me... to shoot you."

"Yes. As much and often as you can."

"... Okay..." She clearly thought it was nuts, snapping her pistol out, letting it unfold, and then starting to snap off shots.

Tasiele gave herself a good workout, mind, as Shepard was an extremely good shot. But she was also a Jedi from the days when the Jedi order were good at this sort of thing... And it showed.

The woman stopped, popped out the half-melted thermal clip, and took two steps forward to the table; "Nobody send security charging in, we were just having a little demonstration." She called into the intercom, before putting the pistol away, staring at the sword. "...Okay, I'd have paid more attention in fencing if foils could do that."

"Wonderful." She deactivated the lightsabre. "Well, we have plenty of time to get started on the trip to Khar'Shan."

"Aw, hell, this is gonna hurt, isn't it... go easy on me, I was dead, you know!" She grinned hugely. "Come on, I'll show you 'round the rest of the ship, we'll get you settled into the old XO's cabin."

"Thank you. I'll lend a hand at what I can, and I assure you, to grow more attuned to the force will only make you more alive, Shepard."

"That was... something I had a bit of trouble with. You should've seen me when I woke up... that was not pretty."

"It is no shame. A Quarian has a beauty all of her own, for instance, despite her cybernetics and her weaknesses in her suit-Tali'Zorah's purity and courageous and noble heart in the force shine with a brightness that put to lie the idea her people are weak and shifty. I am proud to work with her. In the same way ... Your cybernetics will hurt your connection to the force, but never enough to make you unable to be proficient with a lightsabre."

"Thanks, most people'd call them more than cybernetics... I wonder why that's so. That this Force reacts so badly to cyberware..."

"Because it isn't, magic as such. It is a connection of all living things at a higher level. You are a little less alive in the force if you are less biological."

"That's... I'm not sure that's a line you want to go down. Is an AI ever a person, then, or are we going to keep creating them and they keep trying to kill us?"

"Well, that is a fact, because I can sense biological life through the force. Some people like Moff Pryl, you may now realize, use this to dismiss artificial intelligence. Personally, though I am a great minority about force sensitives... I would argue that how you treat artificial intelligences says a great deal about yourself. In short, if an AI can decide it is not being treated well... What does it say to a being in the force to ignore that? It is an extremely foolish path to travel down."

"Why do I think we're the only two people in the galaxy to think that way..." She shook her head, and crossed her arms again. "Well, good. The less enemies we make, the better."

"I will go to the geth after this. Someone must. But it will be good to bring Quarians back to their homeworld-the geth, seem to desire peace with them intensely."

"Tali's acting strange enough already. She almost shot Legion, you know..."

"Yes, but she seems to have changed all the same. Or at least is as practical about the situation as Pryl is."

"Changed. Whatever she's been learning... it's changed her, and for the better, I'd like to think."

"For a woman who started learning from a Sith, she has an incredibly pure heart. She saved Pryl from becoming an enemy of the galaxy."

"... Tali? The same... huh. Need to be careful, she might be gunning for my job next... so, you hungry? If I'm not getting thrown into prison, might as well celebrate by saving what's left of the crew from Gardener's cooking."

"You want to cook a meal together?" Tasiele smiled a little. "Certainly."


	41. Chapter 41

"Governor Jerlak, Admiral Nekma, Admiral Quirin." Tanda addressed the Ova system governor and the commanders of the System and Judicial forces respectively, Tali'Zorah and Kesea flanking her.

"I appreciate you for the opportunity to be here today, on soil of our unitary Galactic Commonweal, and I apologise for the rough start we got to."

"Jedi Knight Tasiele explained to us the powers of the Rakatan Infinite Empire that were influencing, Moff Pryl. In the circumstances, you did admirably by avoiding bloodshed and I thank you for that."

"You are welcome. I have always aspired to avoid bloodshed in this universe."

"The Moff is, by Imperial standards, exceedingly conscientious," Tali added.

"Yes, Jedi Tasiele reviewed the files from your operations and demonstrated to us their broad consistency with Republic policy..."

Tanda sat. "Nonetheless, Republic policy has changed. The Emperor is dead, but the changes made to bring about the Empire were lawful. I still believe in them. Even knowing all that I know, I cannot believe that good means doing _nothing_ ; the Republic of Tasiele's day was a far different creature than your Republic, Governor Jerlak. Than the one I was a young child in the dying days of. _That_ Republic cannot remain, and should not remain. The Imperial system can be moderated, mediated, directed. With the Reapers coming we cannot afford to give it up."

"Seeing what it is gives me no comforts, Moff Pryl," the old Governor answered.

"I will go further," Admiral Nekma muttered. "It is a horrifyingly racist construct. The worst of the enervated and self-absorbed skyhook culture of Coruscant brought to life across the whole galaxy and in government. That said..." She looked up.

Looked at Tanda, looked at Tali. Tanda could feel that Tali wanted to blush.

"You have become a remarkably open-minded human, Moff Pryl, for an upper-crust Commenorean. Usually miscegenation in the upper classes doesn't come with public acknowledgement."

Tanda wheezed and leaned against one of the chairs. "I, ah..."

"Or marriage plans?" Tali asked bluntly. "Because we definitely have those too, if it will make you more comfortable, Admiral Nekma. Indeed, you're welcome to attend."

"I shall be honoured."

The two were finding at once familiar and bemused looks at the way both Governor Jerlak and Admiral Quirin were flushing and Tanda was heeled over like a sailing ship in a storm, utterly mortified.

"I apologise for my Admiral," Jerlak finally offered. "Admiral Nekma is a good friend but she's terribly blunt..."

"For a Duros," Nekma added laconically. "No, Governor, you should not apologise. This was critically important. If we are to accept any compromise with the Imperial system, it cannot be a compromise which either implicitly or explicitly tolerates speciesism."

Jerlak and Moff Pryl were looking at each other. "Well, I shant presume to inquire further into your personal life, Moff Pryl, particularly because of your recent grievous injuries that have confined you to that suit. Please understand... The considerable Twi'lek and Duros populations of Ova desired assurances."

"As they deserved," Tanda answered. "I will remain the coordinating authority, with the Matrons, the Citizens' Assemblies, the Senate, and the Governors coordinating to achieve consensus if they disagree with my positions. We will settle the final organisation along precepts of the New Order that we can accept as legitimate, while changing through constitutional means those that are objectionable—at some point in the future. For now, this—'Oversector Far Outer' shall be organised for war."

"War against the Reapers. Not against independent states."

"Yes. The ultimate inclusion of council space into an intergalactic Commonweal is something we will accept for the time as unwise and impracticable. But powers which have been indoctrinated or are collaborating with the Reapers must be addressed as though they were components of the Reaper power themselves. And I must be able to have the military jurisdiction to make such decisions, subject only to review by the Admiralty Board – to which I shall appoint your Admirals to go along with the Quarian Admirals and Admiral Turla. Is this acceptable?"

"It is, Moff Pryl."

"Then we have the genesis of an agreement." Her voice flipped to a more bemusedly confident tone. "As they say on Earth, let's get down to brass tacks about the rest."

Tali, filtering the slang through her translation programmes, was grateful that her cringe over how out of touch and wrong it was had been hidden from her beloved.

-

Tasiele was meditating in _Normandy_ 's galley when Shepard came in. "Jane, it's good to see you." She looked up. "Not running in fear of my cooking, this time?"

"Look, we apparently need to get comfortable around each other, and I don't have a lot of friends left aboard." Atarah smiled wryly. "And I'm most assuredly not afraid of your cooking."

"I am sorry the ship feels hollowed out. Tell me more about yourself, Shepard?" She rose to stand with her, then.

"There's not much to say. I was born in Tiberias, Israel, on Earth to my mom in the IDF—the local Israeli Defense Forces—my dad was an Alliance spacer I've never met. Parents broke up pretty much the moment mom found out she was pregnant, and honestly we've just gotten along well that way. Six months after I was born, I left Earth with my mother who had transferred into the Alliance Navy herself. Didn't see it again until I was twenty-one—I joined up soon as I was eighteen... got into OCS after my first term, came through some tough scrapes, somebody got impressed, so they sent me to N7. Came out of that well enough to be XO on the new Normandy..."

"You're a quiet sort. I can feel that you aren't comfortable even with all that you already shared. I ask you only to be as good as your reputation already has you to be—and by goodness I mean your sense of law and righteousness, not competence."

"Well, you know, my mother's... still in." She said it quietly. "Last I heard from her, she was finally accepting an overdue promotion now that I wasn't... dead."

"And being dead has affected you profoundly."

"I've accepted who I am, but... finding out how close I came to having a control chip in my head, or at least that's the one Miranda knew about... well, that, and... my mother's still in the Alliance Navy. What's going to happen to her because of me?" Her face twisted as Shepard faced about the one prospect that could make her quail, hurting her own mother's career.

"I don't know the answer to that. But you have a duty that you are sticking too admirably, and you can trust that... The balance of serving life always has the better end. As for the control chip, it isn't there, so put the concern aside."

"More of the 'Force' telling you things, eh?" The two of them got looks as Shepard strode onto the crew deck, walking a circuit of the ship. "I'm sorry, by the way, that your quarters are so spartan."

"I am not unused to very spartan living situations, Commander. Thank you nonetheless."

"Well, this is a lot better than the SR-1 in terms of those. Real bunks and beds rather than sleep pods, that was something my spine appreciated, I assure you..."

Tasiele smiled softly. "I don't think we've had to resort to sleep pods in a very long time in my home galaxy."

"Well, your ships also carry a lot less fuel and so on. Still... oh, right, I'm cooking tonight, so before I start; any dietary restrictions I need to know about?"

"There are not. We prefer to give thanks to animals for giving their lives in sustenance, so vegetarianism is preferred when it is an option, but likewise, a meal honestly made by people who are struggling to survive... Should never be passed up, when you share it with them."

"Ah. Well, with me cooking, it'll be kosher... mostly. Depending on what Gardener bought last time we were on the Citadel... letsee..." She headed back to the galley in a roundabout way and started to go through the supplies. "So... ignoring the bit about the plasma sword, what should I be expecting? Aside from no sleep at all."

"The dark side is always tempting. You must learn to resist it, and to trust your feelings and intuition absolutely. There is no other recourse. I know. It runs in the family you see. Once you do fall... It is so hard... Like a relapsing drug addict, really. That is what, for example, Tanda Pryl will be dealing with for the rest of her life."

"Well, they've got me pretty far so far... uhm... okay. That... noted." She had a look that said something like _What are these crazy women getting me into...?_

"Come on, let's make that food. Millions have never answered that temptation in history. It is not a challenge to be fearful of," Tasiele offered.

"I'm not afraid per se, just... uncertain."

"When facing the reality of the force, there would be nothing shameful in fear."

"If a Reaper stopped scaring me, I'm not sure what the Force could manage, Lady Tasiele."

"Don't underestimate the dark side, whatever you do. And traditionally, it is Jedi Tasiele. I was never made a Master. Though many, especially upper-class coreworlders, use the address 'Lady' as a form of politeness for female Knights, it's true, and Sir for male Knights... But the upper crust of the Core is very far removed from the concerns of daily life in the galaxy."

"I've seen enough horrible things already to where I don't need to worry about a mystical element to all the evil. As long as I stay true to myself, and can look in the mirror and know I did everything I could... well, then it's not always so bad."

"Oh, that is the right attitude. I just see it as an obligation to be concerned. Don't let it hold you back."

"Tell me when you punch a yahg, then we'll talk about holding back."

"Commander... I am not doubting your abilities, or determination, or capability. I promise. But this is something new, and delicate, so I am trying to approach it gently."

"Do we have time to be gentle, Jedi Tasiele?" She didn't turn around from the cooking range, but her shoulders tensed. "Look. Everyone I care about is in grave danger and right now, there's very little I can do about it."

"I'll explain tonight."

"Take your word for it... so, here you go. Grade A... do not give me that look, Rodriguez." She gave a sharp warning glance to one of the crewmen who was staring at the woman who had thrown potato pancakes laced with onions together for food.

Tasiele enjoyed the food thoroughly with a simplistic fascination for the ingredients of the homeworld, appreciating and enjoying them as they were, and waited for the night. Oh yes, she would clear up the misperceptions Shepard was having... Would she ever! The force was nothing to be trifled with, and even one such as Shepard had to see that.

They had managed to dig out a bed, terminal, lamp, and desk for Tasiele's quarters, though Shepard invited her up to hers that evening—the roof being a window looking outwards was a perk when you weren't being shot at.

"Is there anything you can do to calm down?" Tasiele asked as she moved to sit. "Calming down is very important for this. It will not be pleasant, it _cannot_ be pleasant."

She wordlessly indicated the disturbingly large number of ship models hung in glass above her desk. "I get the oddest looks every time somebody sees this. But the models are very calming, albeit mostly to make. I like looking at them too, though" Granted, the model of the Shadow Broker's ship was... well, anywhere but Shepard's quarters, it might get questions.

"Everyone needs a hobby. Nothing odd about it. Enjoy your ships a bit, Jane..."

"Call me Atarah, here. It's okay to share your Jewish name with friends, and I'd like to call you one."

"...Then what is Jane, if I may?"

"Gentile name. Traditionally used for associations with non-Jews. Mine's pretty boring. Mother added it as an afterthought, I think."

"It is a lovely little custom. Names, as many things are, actually are much more important than most people in their average lives take them to be."

"Thank you. I agree with that. I've always been protective of Atarah." She closed her eyes. "All right. What do I do?"

"Well, take a deep breath, close your eyes.. The usual." Tasiele added the last two words to inject a bit of humour, but it didn't reach her eyes. After all, what followed would be an extremely unpleasant experience for both of them.

"All right..." She tried to shake some of the tension out, before leaning back in her chair. _Deeep breath... don't worry about the impending mass invasion of the galaxy... hah._

And then before she could prepare, or overwhelming her preparations, or because nobody could ever hope to prepare for this, Atarah Shepard pretty much fell into a force-induced tour of the last four years of her existence if she'd followed the path of evil. The path of the Sith. The path of anger, emotion, disrespect for the law and justice. Every step of the way.

 _WHAT THE HELL?!_ Shaken, shocked, roiling in anguish. She was... kind of horrified... no, scratch that, completely horrified. What she saw was madness, a dark comic joke of her own existence. There she was, demanding humanity rule the galaxy and... gunning down Wrex. Turning into a bitter cynic who sacrificed almost her entire team to attack the Omega 4 relay... and people still followed her even so, as she used her innate abilities without even realising it to bring more people in, and then betray them and mistreat them, again and again.

She started upright, soaking in sweat and with no idea of what had come to pass, of how long it had taken. "What the hell is this?!"

"Your path if you followed the dark side. It came from within your own mind, showing what would have come to pass if you had totally given yourself over to evil," she answered woodenly, exhausted by the experience as she did. "It is in the power of the Force, to show you what would have been different in the past if you had followed a different course."

"Evil me is a bitch... I... Wow. I don't know what to think of myself now."

"I didn't want you to hate yourself.. I just... Had to make you understand what the Dark Side can do to someone."

"Hey..." She gave the woman a quick hug. "I don't want to suggest I'm angry—I. Well, I'm not dismissing this mystical stuff again."

Tasiele hugged Shepard back... Then gently rose. "Good. Never do so again. I should sleep. This mission is coming together with great rapidity, and soon we will be over the Batarian homeworld..."

"Of course. Good night, Tasiele. I hope you have pleasant dreams. If you're anything like me, that's a rare occurrence."

"...I would welcome pleasant dreams." She rose. "I suppose that answers that." And with that she slipped out. They raced on toward Khar'Shan, while Tanda concentrated forces from Ova, from her own squadron, and hyperdrive-equipped Quarian ships for the operation. Troops were mobilised, and brought into troop transports and aboard the combat ships. The landing force would be the size of four legions; anything else would not do against a capital of a major interstellar power. The imponderables troubled Tasiele. What would happen to the Batarians when they withdrew? What would the Reaper response be?

But there was no better option except to kick the nest over, and trust the force in dealing with the consequences. Indoctrination was irreversible, and each second that the artefact was there, if it was truly there—and they'd find out soon enough—more people were effectively dying to its power. They must face the threat.

That night, the _Normandy_ seemed safe and tranquil. But the dreams foretold of the reality of the next dawning. The war was beginning; but at least they were beginning it on their own terms. The longer they kept the Reapers from gaining a lodgement, the more they had a chance of survival.


	42. Chapter 42

Tanda spent four solid days with her staff, sucking bulb after bulb of coffee and tea. Most of her ranking officers had gotten used to her by now. She cracked jokes again and acted more like Captain Tanda Pryl than she had _before_ the suit. Unlike Vader, who seemed like he wanted to punish you for being in the suit, she seemed to maintain a welcome sense of balance.

Only the Quarian Admirals had any actual experience planning this kind of operation. Shala'Raan found herself functionally the Chief of Staff of the entire Empire as she made the final plots. She wanted to put ten of the new Quarian stealth frigates—The Fleet having laboriously built them before contact with Tanda, and distressingly close to the Normandy in capability—in the outer Khar'Shan system, with Normandy going close in to the planet itself under stealth to confirm the existence of the Leviathan of Dis.

If the Leviathan was confirmed to _not_ be present, then the Quarian frigates would cover _Normandy_ 's withdrawal from the system. If the Leviathan was confirmed to be present, however, Tasiele would alert Tanda through the force to avoid giving away the SR-2's position, and then the main assault force coming in, which was to consist of _Thunderflare, Stalker, Bombard_ as the battle-line, escorting the Trade Federation Transport-Cruiser that Ova's Judicials had seized shortly before the event, with troops, AT-PTs, and starfighters aboard.

Tanda's concerns over the scale of the defences of Khar'Shan led her to augment the forces at the last minute. Their best estimate was that the defences were numerically strong, but that Council sanctions had badly hurt the Hegemony military-this was not the force of old which had utterly terrified the Terminus—nonetheless, the defences of the homeworld had never been properly charted. Based on that assessment, she had added sixty Quarian cruisers fitted with hyperdrives, essentially their entire complement. The rest of the Quarian fleet was fine in static defence, and so it would remain.

Counting on the word of a single stealth frigate... Word to be transmitted, no less, by Tasiele's force meditation... At least the Imperials knew what to do. It was time. "Set the countdown to Jenth-minus-Thirty-Six hours and confirm the hyperdrive plots for the concentration place. Director Lawson?"

"Moff Pryl." Miranda, dressed in a two-tone blue uniform with an Imperial style collar and tab-up that harked back to the uniforms the Judicials wore, stepped to Tanda's side. "I think you need to let me be involved in this to judge the final operational intelligence."

"To support Shepard, you mean."

Miranda coolly pursed her lips. "Possibly. Allow myself and Zaeed, if you're to be so blunt about it, to accompany her? You need to command the fleet."

"Isn't Lady Tasiele sufficient? I don't like risking critical officers of the regime."

"Like you risked yourself on multiple boarding missions against the Collectors?"

Tanda crossed her hands behind her back. A whiff of air made her vocal projector glow without actually transforming into words. "The point is taken. Yes, I will transfer to the SR-2."

"Thank you, Moff Pryl."

 _What kind of loyalty is this that she does so engender? It really is quite incredible._

Tanda returned to her sea cabin and brought up the holonet-extranet interface to link the comms into SR-2. It did not take long for a somewhat disturbingly haggard sounding Commander Shepard to answer.

"Moff Pryl, this is Commander Shepard..."

"Commander, is something a-matter?"

"You might just say that Jedi Tasiele has given me a lot to think about"

"I wouldn't want to train under her, though I expect she'll make me, at least to control myself," Tanda added a touch dryly. "You have much more to be proud of than I."

"No I don't. She saw me what I could have done, Moff Pryl. We all have it in us. You were being controlled by outside forces and I don't really like the amount of blame you've gotten as it is."

"Thank you, Commander."

"Please, be a good wife to Tali'Zorah and treat her well. That's what she deserves, and the two of you deserve to be happy. Don't let the rest, or even your injuries, slow you down. You've got life, and you've got the woman you love."

"You have my word, Commander." Tanda shifted her arms a bit uncomfortably, but smiled beneath the visor. "I have some good news for you, in turn. Before the infiltration, I want to plan a rendezvous, say in XJ-40 since both our routes cross it. I have a few old friends who want to help you with this mission."

"...Who's that...?"

"You'll see. No need to give names over an open channel."

"It's going to be a pretty big team, then," Jane answered. "But more normal for a military operation, it's true, and we're running light anyway."

"Exactly."

"I'll see you at the rendezvous, Moff Pryl."

"Yourself as well. The Force be with you."

"And you, Moff Pryl." Shepard blinked out.

-

The tense first step of the operation would be _Normandy_ closing with the 'habitat' sufficiently to cue that jump into the Khar'Shan system... If it was truly necessary. The Quarians providing top cover form the outer system on the operation were following them in via FTL, and then drifted as the SR-2 slowly powered her way in.

Shepard was in her usual position, right behind Joker, watching the displays for the run-in. She'd never actually fought the ship, just let the pilot do everything... _Normandy_ 's occasion for fleet actions was rare. She narrowed her eyes at the visage of Khar'Shan laid out before them as they quietly snuck in, watching the heat sink levels rise... running silent.

Passing the Batarian fleet. It was strange to see their heavy warships, and not on the attack, either. Just sitting there, as the heavy warships of any nation in peacetime. _No, not true. Look, they're taking on supplies and munitions, like they're preparing for a military operation._

The response to her destruction of one of their colonies, in short. It could be nothing else, and it made her again wish she could withdraw into herself in guilt, especially that she had not answered the call to stand account for it, as an Israeli and a Jew, her name arguably on the list of mass murderers that stood against all of their society.

And then they were approaching Khar'Shan's orbit, and Tasiele Shan arrived on the bridge in a swirl of her cloak.

"... There it is... the big cylinder that looks like an orbital colony. ... or it's... actually an orbital colony. There's more than a few of those damned things. That kind of complicates the picture." _Shit. Okay... have to pick the right one._

"No it doesn't. Trust the force," Tasiele murmured. "The one with the Reaper inside of it will be utterly absent of any feeling of life... If it is present." Then she leaned into the railing and closed her eyes and felt.

It was a... wrongness. An echo of a genocide, localized into a single point, but dead, as dead as a fading scream and an echo. From the outside, it looked the same as all the others... But it wasn't. It was alive, in a strange sense, but uncounted millions were dead. Literally uncounted, for none survived but the monster. Tasiele reeled back.

"There. There it is. Can't you feel it, Shepard? Just a little bit sicker in your gut when you look at that one of the cylinders?" She pointed ever sharply.

She reached out with the force as she had been taught, and instantly felt the same urge to stagger that had overtaken Tasiele. "I get an urge to shoot it or look away, if that's what you mean... guh, that's..."

"Hey, Commander, mind not getting all metaphysical freaky with your new-"

"Joker, if you value your life, do not finish that sentence."

Joker sighed. "EDI, is there anything you can do to confirm the identification as we provide the lock?"

"Stand by... based on my tracking, the station has eighty-seven percent lower shuttle traffic than it should in comparison with the estimated population, and eighty-five percent lower compared to the surrounding platforms. There are also a series of 'junk' satellites in an oddly regular pattern surrounding the station."

Shepard cleared her throat. "Defensive satellites?"

"Such is not unlikely, though they may also be mines."

Tasiele heaved a breath. "Unfortunately, it appears this is really happening, Commander. We should stay clear... Someone like Pryl will take the satellites out first with a wall of turbolaser fire and trust her ray shields against the neutron pulse."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea—Joker, make it happen... let's see if we can pin down enough of the rest of the fleet... and hope nobody looks out a window."

"The longer we stay in position without the signal being given the greater our risk of detection... Commander, I need to contact Pryl, so that we can be sure this monstrous evil is excised, no matter what happens to us."

"All right, go ahead, send it, we've got what we came for—but please don't be so grim about it. Hrrm. Let's do some advance recon for the fleet."

"On it, Commander," Joker answered, adjusting _Normandy_ 's course.

"There are two dreadnoughts powered down in the main dockyard's outlying wings," EDI observed.

"And a few others probably on the far side of the planet, if I know my fleet bases," Joker added.

Tasiele had retreated to the back of the bridge and found a piece of decking to fold her legs upon. She concentrated through the force... Felt the mind of Tali'Zorah... She wouldn't reach out directly to Pryl's tainted mind, and Tali was truly her pupil.

Once they were in touch with each other, _Master_ , the whisper from Tali floated through her, they became as a unit. She saw 'their' hands work in tandem on the bridge of the Thunderflare transmitting jump data to the other seventy-odd vessels involved in the operation... That was... strange. But oddly thrilling, too, for both Tali and Tasiele to experience, a Quarian's innocent thrill at the technology, a shift away from each other as individuals toward oneness in the force. And then it was done, as the hyperspace coordinates were laid in and the ships reported ready, one after another...

...Her fingers stepping across the boards, laying in the first turbolaser salvo from the _Thunderflare_ too..

And then it was time. Tanda watched the action, feeling it, unable to intervene or participate and stabbing down a surge of envy at another woman's mind touching her wife's so closely. _That is unbecoming of the noble line of Humbarine_. She saw the last part of the tree turn blue. "The fleet shall make the jump to lightspeed."

She held her breath as the stars enlongated... and they shot into the blue tunnel of hyperspace.

At a distance of only four lightyears, they were standing out in deep space on a vector where ships from Khar'Shan were unlikely to go, but where it would take an enormous amount of time for the local technology to detect their presence. This was the same as an effective position of more or less perfect ambuscade.

"Condition One, action stations."

"Condition one, Action Stations!"

"All hands alerted, all sectors standing by, M'lady!"

"Ready to raise shields as reversion from lightspeed occurs."

"All combat systems read powered and nominal."  
It was all familiar music, even to ears that would never hear again without outside filtration. Tanda double-checked her suit interface, the cybernetics in it sometimes making her queasy. In that case, she wanted analogy. Wanted to hear some static sometimes. _Can't forget where I am..._

Three minutes later the alarm chimed, and it was only then that Moff Pryl and all of her crews, Human, Asari, Quarian, Duros, Twi'lek alike, would see where they were and just what kind of position Jedi Tasiele had them in. It was a double-blind ambush, to all except for Tali'Zorah.

In astrogation a three-fingered hand pulled back the lever just to make sure with the computer doing it automatically at the same time, nervously watching the displays. Suddenly the Batarians were confronted with more than seventy ships in the system very very very close to Khar'Shan. _Thunderflare_ herself loomed up alongside a massive orbital habitat several klicks long into which Tanda felt a retching nothingness, and onto which Tali had already concentrated the turbolaser batteries.

At the very moment their position stabilized Tali would personally be able to trigger the pre-planned firing sequence through the interface to the CBD on the bridge. A full port broadside from the super-heavy and medium turbolasers answered the call, walls of green bolts which tore through space into the targeted habitat.

A vast and brilliant rippling orange cloud of plasma erupted and spread down the flank of the platform. Massive construction plating bowed in and sheared as sections fragmented and disintegrated around the points of contact, at once opening huge voids into the flank of the pressurized space. The venting of air sent a wild pulse of plasma back out into space, making the explosions even grander than they were.

"Shift fire to those satellites around the station for the next broadside."

"Shields at full, M'lady!"

"Fire," Tanda ordered. The Central Battery Director cued off the salvo, and _Thunderflare_ disappeared into a wave of white from the triggered mines... Just to reappear, unhurt, shrugging the immense and at once infinitesimal radioactive sleet from her shields just as a dog shook off a douche of spray.

 _Stalker_ erupted with fire a moment later as Tanda ordered the CBD to target and eliminate the shuttle-bays of the habitat next as _Thunderflare_ 's main guns fired once every two seconds. She did not intend to permit the escape of anyone clearly indoctrinated. The bays erupted in fire and crumpled like rusted metal under a jackboot; the light civilian construction of this galaxy held no hope in such a fragile structure against the power of the fire directed into it, despite its enormous size. Again and again vast sections were blown clear or outright vaporised and melted, a continuous surge of white and orange along the sides as the green turbolaser bolts chewed through it, wrecking the hab platform directly over gleaming Khar'Shan below.

And coming up hard behind her, under Captain Rhae, _Stalker_ was firing her main batteries into the same habitat. Together the two Imperial Star Destroyers made a resounding image. _Thunderflare_ had always conducted operations alone, and _Stalker_ had been rarely see. Now they stood side by side _en echelon_ , main guns concentrating on the same target. Tanda could almost feel the doubts of those spies and policy-makers of the galaxy melting away into fear when they saw the footage.

She choked down that other temptation, and concentrated upon the battle at hand. Starfighters by the hundreds started spilling out of the various bays of the ships, the roar of twin ion engines screaming through radio comms feedbacks on both sides... That characteristic interference which signalled to their enemies the terror that TIE fighters were within cannon range! And here, facing the locals, they really were a terror.

Tanda's lips twisted sardonically, before she nodded to Tali, approaching from the astrogation pit.

Now, before them, the habitat was erupting into fire, rupturing on three sides and starting to be torn apart as the Batarians scrambled like ants with their hill kicked over all around. They had a bit more sting than that, though, and they would not have much time before the entire hornet's nest was aroused against them.

"Bombers, finish it off with proton bombs! Ion cannon, shift fire to those dreadnoughts to keep them powered down."

"First, Second, Sixth Gammas, concentrate for proton bomb runs on the hab platform. You have your orders!" Shala'Raan was directing and coordinating the starfighter operations, since they had no starfighter corps general aboard for the operation.

A salvo of turbolaser cannon fire from _Bombard_ swept through an already wrecked portion of the platform. The starfighters started to vector in.

"M'lady, there's an unusual..."

"Fifty hells!"

A _black, black, black_ tendril... One other missing, broken off, crumpled... Was rising out of the inside of the hab platform, knocking away the rubble of the frame.

Tanda pulled herself to her full height. Tali came to attention.

"CBD, this is Moff Pryl! Concentrate that disturbance with maximum firepower! The Leviathan of Dis has awoken!"

The shattered tendrils were only but a tiny portion of its length. The great black body of the squidlike Reaper followed, growing, finishing the work they had done in splitting the hab platform in two and shrugging free of it to begin to accelerate.

"It used indoctrination to make the Batarians bring itself back to life. Now we find out just how well we hold up to them. No fear of the monster, gentlemen. Stand firm and the force is with us!"


	43. Chapter 43

The Central Battery Director was a room buried deep inside of a Star Destroyer. It centrally controlled all weapons on the ship, according to broad directives on targeting from the bridge, using advanced sensor data meant for long-range fire. Sensors could be jammed, and the CBD could be disabled, so gunners directly manned the guns, using integrated suit-gun links that let them target at considerable ranges with HUD displays and on-mount active sensors, but against a large single opponent not producing substantial jamming, use of the CBD was desirable.

Gunnery officers, isolated from the excitement of the engagement, calmly transformed the battle into a mathematical exercise. Spinning dials and holographic interfaces targeted the emerging Reaper and three Star Destroyers concentrated main battery fire into it. Again and again the batteries flashed blue-clear from adjustments and salvoes of turbolaser bolts leapt into the thing. Pieces went flying off, vapourized. Strange black glowing gas was left behind by the powerful energy weapons.

 _Thunderflare_ lurched under the counter-fire. The Reaper was holding its beam continuous, not shutting down, locked with her enemy... And charging straight at the _Thunderflare_ as if to ram. And it was then that the problems started.

There _was_ jamming. Somehow. They spun their dials and shifted channels. Still it continued: It was superluminal! Jamming of the subspace sensors, however inarticulate and poor quality.

The Gunnery Officer reported it to Moff Pryl at once.

"Close off the manual feeds and let the computers deal with it alone. _Do not listen to that jamming!_ " Moff Pryl's voice echoed up, and then across to every ship.

Pale techs ripped their headphones off and rubbed their ears hard.

The Reaper seemed more confident despite its damage, steadying its course and starting to deaccelerate as it approached point-blank to the _Thunderflare_. With the CBD interfered, though, Gunnery issued the order for independent fire.

At this range, passive sensors and HUDs from the spacesuited gunners at their outer posts took over from the main batteries on down. Now most of the shots were missing, but at the same time, they were still firing. The Leviathan of Dis shuddered as the tip of its body was blown clear off. Starting to spin, no longer able to maintain course, it touched the _Thunderflare_ 's shields with its last remaining leg.

"Shield bank just shorted!"

Tanda watched shocked as systems failure alarms started to sound. The creature almost instantly was interfering with their systems. "Switch to hard-coded secondaries! Manual for all batteries and the reactor!"

"Aye, M'lady, clearing it across the board."

"Stand by – clear a firing path for the fighters!" Shala'Raan ordered urgently from the bridge.

Tanda grinned in a flash of savage hope. "Order _Stalker_ to come about twelve points to port, down four degrees Z-axis rotational!"

" _Stalker acknowledges_!"

The TIE Bomber squadrons swept back into the battlefield from which they had scattered when the Leviathan of Dis appeared. They salvoed their proton bombs across the Leviathan even as alarms sounded inside of _Thunderflare_ , the immense single beam starting to achieve burn-through of the thick durasteel armour on the Star Destroyer.

The salvo of proton bombs moved with forward momentum through space and were followed by a mix of concussion missiles and proton torpedoes quickly overtaking them to command-detonate as the bombers turned away. Abruptly, electricity sparking through the bursts of plasma and flashes of white, the last shattered leg of the Leviathan of Dis was blown away.

The shields and systems came back on-line at once, the shields their own jamming field against the strange energy and signal manipulations of the Reaper.

And _Stalker_ , lined up perfectly against the drifting Reaper, fired salvo after salvo with her main guns that could still bear, and blew the Leviathan of Dis straight to Hell.

"I should have realised that there had to be some way for indoctrination to directly influence individuals at range and for the Reapers to network with each other," Tanda muttered darkly. "It seemed too much of a force power that we know they don't have, otherwise."

"But we still defeated them, and easily. One compartment saw some splash-through," Tali answered. "No casualties."

"No, but we really don't want to let fully intact ones get close in, and we'll have to plan our battles with that in consideration."

"There will be time for that later. Should we stick to the original plan, Moff Pryl?" Tali looked up.

"Yes, get those dreadnoughts."

"Quarian detachment turning ion cannon fire on the dreadnoughts..."

Tanda folded her hands behind her back, more gingerly these days than had before, since the connections were not permanent. "Now's the time, land the landing force! All landers, maximal launch rate. Get them into the atmosphere before the Batarian fleet responds."

To their starboard as that order was processed, a heavy flow of ion fire from the Quarians converged on the powered down dreadnoughts. Shala'Raan sent the three squadrons of TIE bombers back around for a second pass. This time, they rushed in unopposed toward the torn and rent habitat with their proton bombs, and then swung around as the last of the habitat was consumed, crumbling into a dozen-hundred pieces through the explosions.

Before them, _Stalker_ continued to fire on the dead remnants of the squid-like form of the Leviathan of Dis. It could take the proton bombs... visibly damaged, rent, and burnt and missing pieces... the landers started to drop as the Batarian nightmare came true. _Bombard_ now took over firing into the debris of the Leviathan, vaporising every chunk that could be detected with aimed fire.

"General Colonna," Tanda ordered over the feed to the landers. "Your first objective is to allow no-one to escape from the capitol buildings and defence headquarters. Eliminate all opposition with your Walkers and constrict around them."

"Understood."

The Batarians on the surface, under the control of an indoctrinated high command, understood nothing of what was happening above except that humans were invading. Defence cannons were firing from the ground, fighters were scrambling, ground troops rushing about... this was not... the best time ever to be a Batarian.

The dreadnoughts were now being pelted by around a hundred and eight medium ion cannon from the collective power of the Quarian force, and that under ion fire, they failed to manage their power-up sequences. A major element of the Batarian fleet was disabled before it could stagger into action, lightning arcing across their hulls.

Meanwhile, descending toward the surface of the planet was a force of dozens and dozens of landing craft. Walker barges, assault transports, assault shuttles, escort transports, stormtrooper transports, older Republic landers. Conveying as they were, a strength of a Stormtrooper Legion and two Army Divisions both heavily augmented by Asari biotics, and a Militia Division of the Ova Guards with Republic Juridicial kit. Each one was coming down in a half-division form for eight landing zones, and each landing zone was initially being established by a battalion of Quarian Marines in Spacetrooper kit dropping directly from orbit.

They formed an eight-pointed claw encircling the Batarian capital, and _Bombard_ now cut into the atmosphere with _Thunderflare_ taking off her duties policing chunks of Reaper of progressively smaller size out of orbit. The VSD descended low into the atmosphere, drawing the fire of the defensive missiles and railguns, and using low-powered anti-starfighter guns to cut through and destroy the batteries once they unmasked themselves. Following her was a full wing of starfighters, going low to strafe and bomb airfields and provide missile fire against batteries as directed by _Bombard_ , with Quarian fighters intercepting incoming missiles launched at the transports as they descended.

Imperial landing assaults were designed to be _fast_. The objective was to be debouching troops within ten minutes of deployment from orbit at maximum. Troops were to advance by fire once they hit the ground, so as to disrupt the enemy defences even at the cost of high initial casualties. Shifting to fire and cover was to only occur under AT-AT and hovertank support as the operation shifted from establishment phase to exploitation phase.

Once the landing zones had been secured by the spacetroopers, the barges were disgorging AT-AT walkers directly behind their positions as confused and disorganised Batarian gendarmes fell back under concentrated fire and regular strafing. Rather than wait for supply the AT-AT walkers unfolded and, taking occasional shots from the Batarians at range that they shrugged off, powered up.

Then they cleared all opposition from the area with their main guns even simultaneous to their being loaded with troops, standing like massive gun turrets in the heart of the landing zone and opening the field for the rest of the troops and equipment to be brought into position.

And then General Colonna gave the final initiatory order, and from eight directions the forces started to converge on the Batarian capital complex. Each group consisted of ten AT-ATs screened by twelve AT-STs with armoured personnel carriers and transport speeders following them up, more speeders scouting and screening, twenty hovertanks, fifty AT-PTs coming up the rear to deal with infantry still holding out when their lines were rent... Some mobile concussion missile launcher artillery engaged in precision fire support.

On the ground in a terrifyingly short period of time, there were now eighty AT-AT walkers converging on the city. The ground shook and reverberated with their footfalls endlessly. Starfighters cycled back through the hangar bays of the Star Destroyers and returned down in overhead support, bombers dropping more of their proton bombs on call from the advancing field commanders, encircling the Batarian capital in a direct desant from orbit, just far enough out to intentionally engulf the defending military bases.

Now they could not be encircled in turn, though they would have to destroy the resistance at those bases and it would take longer to reach the city itself, that was all well and good. The objective was a cordon, not immediate conquest, and destroying those bases would make the cordon something they would much more likely to hold. It also caught the Batarians while they were still mobilising and attempting to respond.

The Batarian conscripts would only be able to see the horrifying, looming mass of the AT-AT walkers progressing swiftly across the ground shaking under their feet. At ranges of twenty klicks, the AT-ATs commenced firing into their cantonments, after shooting down missiles and artillery shells directed at them by mass drivers in the bases that had managed to get active first. The infantry carriers and speeders then raced ahead. Without defensive lines established, without warning, they were helpless, and they were massacred.

Tanda brought the _Thunderflare_ closer in against the rubble of the Leviathan of Dis in turn now, and let her main batteries concentrate entirely on it as the Quarian ships, using their ion cannon, turbolasers and particle accelerators, began long-range fire on the active portion of the Batarian fleet that was preparing the first of its uncoordinated attacks. Certain sections of point-defence guns on the Star Destroyers were being used to fire on ground targets, but nothing larger, considering the Council Proscriptions.

The battle did not long remain in the vicinity of the cantonments. The AT-AT walkers swept over them without disgorging troops, crushing anything of import that had not been destroyed by sustained firing before that point. Stormtroopers and Army troops were disgorged by speeders to sweep tunnels and fortifications that remained intact and the main force carried on.

Soon enough, then—within four hours of the landing—Batarian defenders of the capitol buildings and military headquarters would feel the ground rhythmically shaking. That was, at least, long before they saw the crests of the massive walkers hove into view, demolishing any suburbs in the area as they converged, smashing the light civilian buildings and turning the districts into continuous rising columns of smoke and flame. By then, the Batarians in the capitol district—primarily their elite government guards—knew they were going to be heavily attacked and had made some rudimentary preparations for it. But it had still been a matter of hours instead of days.

To an unbiased observer on the ground it would have been a profound and impressive sight. Thrusting out of the smoke and flame of the burning suburbs, the AT-AT Walkers approached, and then halted to disgorge their troops to establish the cordon. The Imperial Legions had already chewed through the best military ground hardware the Batarians had... The AT-AT Walkers looked literally invincible. One might gain the impression that it would take a spinal mass driver to crack one. For the Batarians, that was a matter of life and death, and increasingly only a matter of death.

The elite guards with the best tanks the Batarians had met them, fighting hull down to try and preserve themselves. At close range, their weapons gouged the armour of the AT-AT Walkers, but they could not penetrate _anywhere_. And with the advantage of height, and the easy depression of their guns, the Walkers easily fired down into the tanks and destroyed them, the Batarians fighting and dying in place to minimal effect, getting hits in but not managing to break through.

The AT-STs and AT-PTs were soon having a rougher time against the heaviest weapons... But with so many of the main AT-AT walkers available, that kind of risk was mitigated with few casualties. The Hover Tanks raced to support on order, and though a lucky rear hit from an overlooked Batarian tank took one out, any attempt of the Batarians to concentrate a counterattack or hold a perimeter failed utterly.

Tanda watched the progress of the battle from the bridge. There were some advantages to the suit; she simply didn't leave her post a single second during the entire course of the battle, and could remain awake for the whole of it with the suite of drugs that it provided. Finally she raised her hand. "Inform _Normandy_ that she is to proceed into the atmosphere and deploy her strike team. The Indoctrinated Batarian government should be concentrated within the deep survival shelters by this point."

"SR-2 Confirms!" Moving fast and swift into the cauldron of fire and down toward the smoking spires of the Batarian capitol, the _Normandy_ under Joker's brazen guidance descended, all ready to put a strike team in just ahead of the advancing Stormtroopers before they entered the city centre, to make sure the indoctrinated Batarians were completely eliminated.

-

Around them a flare of supporting fire from the countless starfighters racing over the city swept downward. Then _Normandy_ came shrieking in. Joker and EDI were handling things from the bridge, while the strike team assembled below. Shepard gave Tasiele a look at how few weapons she was carrying, compared to the woman's own... arsenal. "Sure things are going to be all right, Tasiele?"

"I need a lightsabre. The rest is not a concern," Tasiele answered, though she did have a light blaster pistol on her belt and a vibroblade in one boot... Nothing else.

"That... okay, I'll take your word for it. Not your first fight." She went over everything one last time. "Team, ready!" Joker was by now in the middle of the city-spires, way lower than he should be, and the hatch slowly cycled open to a hurricane of wind as he was still moving at speed before slowing sharply to drop over what was the Hall of Leadership.

And then the plan broke down under the almost infectious power and ability of a Jedi. While still at a height of hundreds of feet, Tasiele leapt out of the hatch the moment it was open, spinning in circles to the ground with her lightsabre igniting and ripping through the Batarian guards who had come charging outside at the prospect of desant from above, taking them and killing them as she fell on them above with the whirling death of the blade. Landing smoothly on her feet, she charged headlong into the rest, throwing her left hand to the side and sending the rest of the group flying into walls and windows. ...Zaeed, Shepard, and the two ex-Cerberus agents would only be able to stare in a mixture of shock and consternation, though objectively it was quite the show.

"...So, if anybody wants to back out, too late now... DAMNIT." Jacob and Miranda, having biotics, could leap out to provide support once they descended to about half that altitude, as Shepard gave an exasperated look to Zaeed, having to wait for Joker to get low enough for a 'normal' person to make and survive the jump... by which point the LZ was disturbingly clear of anything but cauterized body parts.

Tasiele was there, with her lightsabre temporarily deactivated and politely waiting for them with a sense of perfect repose seemingly reflected in her face, eyes calm, holding the lightsabre in her right hand.

"... Damn, but that was some fine work..." Zaeed commented, as Shepard felt, for once, like her squadmates did around her.

"Well, come on, we've a government to decapitate... not literally, Zaeed. We'll use the detcord if we have to."

"Come on. Joker got us down admirably close to the houses of government." Tasiele turned and ignited the lightsabre again, striding forward purposefully toward the first of the high fine Batarian buildings of their classical style. She was... Reserved, in the killing, as she ought to be, and especially now, to provide an example to Shepard.

The team raced on behind, managing to keep up, darting from cover to cover... sniper rifle shots began to crack out as they came into view, which was cause for most sane people to take cover. ...And cause for Tasiele to leap up to the tops of lower buildings to kill the snipers after deflecting the shots, her lightsabre igniting as she polevaulted over the top, settling her feet, or flying through windows on the higher ones. The amount of cover she provided for the rest simply by existing was incredible.

"... Is this what I've been doing to p-"

Miranda cut her off with a sharp; "Yes, Shepard!"

"... Why didn't anybody tell me? Come on, she might get... in trouble. Somehow. Plausibly."  
Together, then, and trying to keep up with disciplined, steady supporting fire and taking down snipers the moment they saw them, they all advanced, the five of them, into the halls of the Batarian War Palace where EDI's analysis informed Shepard in a constant running feed that the entrances to the deep survival shelters were certainly located.

Tasiele came to a stop in front of the doors, frowning. "Something is happening, and I sense a trap."

"I'm not surprised there's a trap. What are we going to do about it, Tasiele?" Shepard asked back.

Tasiele smiled faintly. "Spring the trap," and acted without further ado. She held out her left hand, palm open, and the doors of the palace at once responded. Bursting inwards and collapsing off their hinges, the vast doors transformed from a strong position concealing sandbagged automatic weapons behind them into a weapon of the demise of the defenders, screams coming from under the gates.

Batarians behind the doors topped as the rest of the squad caught up with automatic fire and biotics, but there were in fact so many that she was abruptly hit with a massive wave of fire coming in, and had to throw herself clear, crouching down and actually giving ground as her blade moved with sickening speed to keep herself alive deflecting and vaporising bullets.

... At least the squad could provide some cover, now, with biotics and fire, catching up... Helping Tasiele and staying close to her as they turned the defenders into a windrow of shattered and dismembered Batarian corpses.

Then a look of concern crossed Shepard's face and she rolled to the right, switching to her sniper rifle and started using the Force in a completely untrained fashion, popping around the corner, and snapping off six headshots in less than two seconds, before ducking back down to change clips.

Tasiele started, and raced past her around the corner, advancing into the Batarians there, and at once her blade swung and swept and plunged and Batarian body parts started flying.

"Come on, quickly! They're trying to escape!" Both the women said it at exactly the same time, leading to more than a few exasperated looks from their compatriots.

A grenade someone had tried to suicide her with went flying through the air out of the way before it exploded, and Tasiele pressed on into the building, exchanging a small smile with Shepard.

 _Fortification... up... barriers... fucking crazy woman!_ She lurched up, bringing up her heavy machine gun to try and help with this insane plan. Firing a LMG from the hip was impressive, but... not that impressive. Or so she felt. Tasiele by contrast was impressing... everybody, or at least terrifying the Batarians, and it seemed like she was bloody unstoppable as yet another Batarian line of guards crumbled and panic set in.

But Tasiele grimly knew, with no pleasure in the killing, that this was what happened when one unleashed a Jedi on people who had never fought one before... Ever... And had none of the tricks of the Mandalorians. She pressed inerringly toward her target, the elements of the Batarian government who had been corrupted and Indoctrinated by the Leviathan, knowing that these deaths, however tragic, were the salvation of the Batarian people from total annihilation, her lightsabre swinging and spinning as she turned their fire and cut them down again and again in a pure, smooth, flowing blur of motion.

They were trying to flee, their guards being thrown at the strike team in desperation—this was... in a way, a bit mad, but they didn't know what a Jedi was, or just how outclassed they were. The Indoctrinated might be dimly aware through their connection to the Reapers, but there was no way they could warn their guards without giving away the ultimate controller of their destinies, the erasure of self. And the knowledge would have not been productive, anyway. Everything from hand to hand to grenades to rocket launchers was tried against her... and then they were on the roof, the last of them piling into a shuttle to evacuate despite the enormous risk of being shot down by the Imperial forces.

For a moment, it seemed like the last of the guards had slowed down the strike team enough to make it possible for them to escape. Then Tasiele burst out, leaving plenty alive... But disoriented and their positions broken through by the speed of their advance. The rest of the guards could flee or catch up and be caught and cleaned up by the rest of her team, as she came charging toward the shuttle with her lightsabre.

Seeing she wouldn't get to it in time as it started to lift off, she skidded to a stop, holding her hand up. Eyes wide and intense as she concentrated through the force, visions of the death of this world under the Reapers filling her mind, a transmission tower on the top of the building started to shake. She closed her palm, and it shook free and with a toss of her hand, flew into one of the stabilizers of the shuttle as it rose.

Spinning, uncontrollable with its engines whining louder and Tasiele leaping clear of the spinning hot exhaust, it crashed back down. Then there was a sharp call of "Down, Tasiele!" ...as Shepard unleashed a Cain round on the damned thing while being covered by the rest of her team.

...She dropped to the roof. That seemed much too close... Tasiele was blown backwards, and tumbled a bit, Shepard... was slammed back into the wall. The rest of the team was used to Shepard being stupid with high explosives and had found very sturdy cover, popping back to check for survivors... which there... very... weren't.

Panting softly, Tasiele rose to her feet with her lightsabre deactivated, and clipped it to her belt. Around her, she quietly took in the grim and grand visage of the Imperial assault.

All around them the city was being destroyed, the capital of Khar'Shan was burning... AT-AT walkers could only deal with urban combat with... Utter destruction, and they had to take out the government. The rest, certainly, could wait, but only the rest, could be dealt with circumspectly and with compassion. This was merely a cyclone of killing.

Stormtroopers were now pressing forward by foot, charging in against the Batarians under plentiful covering fire and the hail of blaster bolts making the city glow with an eerie haze of all the refracted and reflected light as the horrifying scream of twin ion engines echoed in the atmosphere overhead and the steady churn of their lasers, the thud of proton bombs going off against heavy pockets of resistance.

For Shepard and her team, this was one of their usual missions... But set against a backdrop more suited to the Soviet storming of Berlin. The job was done, though, and Shepard called to Joker for recovery.

"Let's end this, Tasiele."

"Yes, the sooner we can pull out and let the Batarians prepare to defend themselves from the Reapers, the better. And the sooner the killing stops... The better."

On the ground.

In orbit, the fighting continued, and there was every expectation that the Batarian fleet, ignorant of what had befallen their leadership, would fight to the bitter end to try and keep them from escaping. They could withdraw on the surface, but they would have to fight their way out above. That, at least, was not her job. Tasiele took another look at the outskirts of the city, the knowledge not making her feel any better. _I do worry about what this means for the person whose job it is, though. Oh, do I ever..._


	44. Chapter 44

In orbit, Tanda was directing the fleet from the back of the bridge with Shala'Raan directing the fighters, and Tali virtually commanding _Thunderflare_ under her as her chief of staff and ... effectively the ship's Captain. It was a daunting challenge and opportunity for the young Quarian, who tried to live up to her duties in ship-handling the _Thunderflare_ into her assigned position.

Tanda was using her reserves of Quarian Spacetroopers to assault the three disabled dreadnoughts that had been taken under a hail of ion cannon before they could power up. The last shattered pieces of the Leviathan of Dis were already burning up in the atmosphere, having been flailed out by massed turbolaser fire until the slagged remnants could no longer be detected by their sensors, so paranoid was Tanda over their potential to corrupt and indoctrinate.

Now _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ moved past _Thunderflare_ to reinforce the Quarian ships giving ground slowly against the incoming Batarian fleet. The reinforcements were needed due to the weight of fire the Batarians were concentrating in sheer numbers, but even so they were being badly handled with the Quarian ion cannon and turbolasers wreaking havoc on the Batarian ships, all lacking in ray shielding.

Behind Tali, Tanda clapped her hands together sharply. "There, I've settled them!"

Tali accessed her internal computer and referenced it to bring up a tactical projection on the screen in front of her. The ten Quarian stealth frigates were manoeuvring hard... And delivering a surprise torpedo attack into the disrupted flank of the Batarian formation. The Batarian ships spun about to fast the threat, just for the Quarian frigates to turn back away, but _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ to gain the range and have four minutes of unimpeded firing into their broadsides. Massive 200-meter long lancing green turbolaser bolts tore through space until ships were heavily damaged, and then fire was checked to ion cannons only.

Tanda's orders were strict: _Keep the Batarian casualties minimal and repairable, so they could defend themselves in the return of the Reapers, even if it costs us._ To the Imperials, the mercy toward damaged enemies had become consistent in Tanda's cautious world of minimal efforts and careful strategic thinking, but remained strange.

The Batarian formation cracked, splintered, the entire flank gave way... it was... glorious chaos, as her human fellow-officers would say. Tali's eyes just glinted, at how glorious it was for the Quarian ships doing most of the heavy lifting, at the fact their casualties were so light and, in more than a little seductive feeling of strength, too, that they were no longer the ones fleeing.

She turned her head to an urgent request. "Bring us about forty-one degrees port and pitch the bow ten degrees Z from rotational," Tali ordered.

"Aye, Commander!"

"Stand by all light turbolasers to concentrate in starfighter support." She quickly addressed the urgent directives from Shala'Raan, and soon at the response of her Admiral had the batteries flailing down into the atmosphere to close off an escape channel for some shuttles, as most of the rest of the starfighters were swarming in the atmosphere, shooting down anything trying to escape the surface of Khar'Shan.

Glorious chaos. Insanity... not the genocide her people had experienced and in a strange way the Batarians had expected from them, but... in space, they were routing the navy in-system, even as more Batarian ships were arriving through the relays as time went on... Massing up to face them. But that meant the concentration of six dreadnoughts, when they had already disabled three and were leading the capture operation now.

Against the remaining Batarian fleet forces in system, _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ now began rapidly shifting fire, leaving cruiser after cruiser dead in space. A squadron of Skipray blastboats hovered nearby the damaged Batarians, standing by to move in for the kill if they tried anything or brought power back up. They could be brought under threat as the reinforcements came in, but for the moment, Tanda stood confident that they'd given their ground troops... Enough time to finish the job. And her Spacetroopers enough time to capture the Batarian dreadnoughts.

Shepard reached out via comms and Tali's ears perked, turning as she heard the message addressed to Tanda. "I think... I think we've got them all, Moff Pryl. We finished off the last as they tried to escape, and we've swept the lower levels of their survival shelters. Jedi Tasiele mostly did the job herself."

"I should hope so!"

"Tasiele wants to stay on the surface while the troops are withdrawing, so she can use the force to try and locate any remaining pieces of the Reaper and vector starfighters on them."

"Permission granted. It'll take us several hours to recover the strike force and return it to orbit."

On the surface, Tasiele deactivated her lightsabre and took cover as the stormtroopers started to pull back out, closing her eyes so as to concentrate, to think, to probe... To try and confirm that baleful not-not-sentient presence was... gone.

She could feel it so clearly. It hung like a stench in the universe, aching of ancient deaths. The debris that wasn't burning up in the atmosphere, the larger chunks... those still had a very weak field to them, and there were a few scattered minds having been touched by that baleful influence... but that was all, at least. But it was still there.

Tasiele focused on the first, and started the methodical job. She took out her comm and guided in starfighters to try and deal with the most egregious pieces going into the atmosphere or having crashed. When she was satisfied, while the landing forces were recalled around them, she guided in precision munitions strikes on some of those minds that she could sense, starfighters and blastboats descending from the sky to strafe and bomb. The attacks must surely seem senseless to the Batarians on the ground, while the time gave opportunity, conversely, for the Imperials to recover downed starfighter pilots.

When the work was finally done to her satisfaction, she reported so to Shepard—and thence to Tanda—and the order was finally given to recall the landing forces. It would take more like six hours from the moment of Shepard's initial report of the city being cleared-after the eight that phase of assault had taken-for the forces to finish being recalled, two hours after Tasiele's final report, a simple reality of the difficulty of recovery as opposed to the thirty minutes to get them action.

As they did, Tanda concentrated her fleet and prepared to escort her prizes from the Batarian yards, as well as the non-hyperdrive equipped Quarian frigates and _Normandy_ to the Mass Relay. With the Batarians forming up around it, that would involve another battle with the Batarian fleet; they were showing no signs of moving quickly to engage, however, so with plenty of time Shala'Raan started to recover and rearm the fighters, which were then immediately launched once to clear the bays for recovery operations of the landing ships coming back up.

As every single Batarian vessel in existence came in against them, it seemed, the forces streaming through the relays to attack through it... she was going to have to take on a sextet of armed dreadnoughts that time, but more importantly, one that was backed up by something like six hundred lighter ships. It was not an unimpressive force, outnumbering them ten to one, though in firepower it was much weaker.

Tanda still decided to take no chances, it seemed. "Commander Zorah, looks like things will be somewhat hot pressing out. I have an idea to get the ships clear, though," she ordered calmly to her fiancée.  
"Moff Pryl?" Tali answered with the same formality for sake of decorousness in command—it was a behaviour she understood well from the complicated ship politics of Quarians, at least.

Tanda folded her hands behind her back and walked to Tali's side. "Jam the Batarians at full power, but pivot _Thunderflare_ toward one of the other large population cities on Khar'Shan first. "

"The rest of the fleet will become to move in a circular course away from the planet. I've already laid in the orders and just need to send the signal to execute them."

"...Moff Pryl, what's our intention in the pivot?" Tali managed to keep her voice from catching. Love and trust were different things, truly different things, but sometimes it was hard for Tanda to understand that.

"Ah, well. With jamming at full power we'll open fire with ion cannon. The Batarians will see the flashes... They'll think we're bombarding the planetary surface. Once they rush forward to engage us, the non-hyperdrive ships can escape through the relay and the rest of us can clear out to lightspeed."

"Will they believe we'd be bombarding their homeworld? If so... they might well rush us, but we'd also need that stream of incoming ships through the relay to stop or they'll still have to work their way through."

"That stream isn't liable to include any dreadnoughts and _Bombard_ will be leading the force even as _Stalker_ remains behind with us. She can deal with the cruisers and frigates coming through. Why wouldn't they believe we're bombarding Khar'Shan? Batarians think the worst of two-eyed sapients and they'll be seeing the flashes of a sustained bombardment on their optical scanners."

"Anyway, if it doesn't work the parabolic trajectory of the rest of the fleet will give us plenty of time to change plans before we suffer for our misestimation of them."

Tali imagined a bit of a smirk from Tanda. "Fair... all right, it should work, or well enough to where I'd approve it, if I were in position to do that."

Of course, what came next was, whatever else it was and no matter how successful it was, the utter destruction of the Khar'Shan's electrical grid.

Tanda forced herself to clench a fist and toss it in front of her. Tali turned to watch the holotank. The Batarians had taken the bait; their fleets had started to rush forward at full burn in a great gaggle... Ships headlong one after another toward the surface as the ion cannon fire flickered down into the atmosphere without ceasing.

"...They've taken the bait. _Bombard_ , recall your fighters and punch through to the Relay to cover the retreat of the frigates. Admiral Shala'Raan, please get our fighters back aboard... For all ships in the orbital force."

The accented voice called out to recall the TIEs... as the Batarian fleet formed into an all-out-attack formation, the rest of the ships skidding about in accordance with the plan for extraction that had been hammered out. The group of Normandy and ten quarian frigates, escorting the three captured Batarian dreadnoughts, remained on track to go out via the Mass Relay under cover of _Bombard_. The last of the troops were loaded onto the big Trade Federation landing ship and the _Rintonne's Flame_ in close cover then went to hyper with her, leaving _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ with the squadrons of Quarian cruisers to remain behind pelting the surface with ion cannon until the rest of the fleet had escaped.

If the sextuplet of Batarian dreadnoughts got into range first, Tunderflare would shift fire to them... But with ion cannon only. Tanda's directives when they were all to be facing the Reapers together, and one of the major objectives was to give the opportunity to the Batarians to effectively resist, had been clear. The greater concern was the smaller vessels, the fighters and frigates streaking ahead with torpedoes—the dreadnoughts were coming as hard as they could, but had fallen behind in the mad rush to 'save' their homeworld, as ships continued to flash out from the relay.

Tanda frowned. _Bombard_ would have to force the opening, then. "Signal _Bombard_ to use all weapons without restraint. I don't want undo casualties in a choke-point."

 _Bombard_ signalled her assent, and promptly opened fire with everything she had. Concentrating the heavy turbolasers of a VSD-II at the enemy coming out of the relay to give time for the ships without hyperdrive to go through it, she ripped through the formation of arriving light ships like a Venetian galleass turning her cannon through a brace of Ottoman frigatas; exactly like she was supposed to, the Star Destroyer heaved out volley after volley and sent frigates, smashed to pieces, spinning away as others frantically evaded.

"Confirm that she should make her own jump to lightspeed to evade to avoid using the Relay," Tanda added after a moment, watching the Batarian prizes slowly disappear through the Mass Relay—the Quarian frigates starting next, with Shepard and her _Normandy_ , of course, surely going to be last.

" _Bombard_ confirms, Your Ladyship!"

 _Bombard_ , accepting the concentrated fire now of several dozen Batarian frigates and cruisers, positioned herself like an iron wall at the Relay to let each frigate run through in turn.

" _Stalker_ has finished recovering. Captain Rhae is asking if he should remain or proceed away?"

"Commence evacuation, Quarian cruisers first, then _Stalker_."

"Aye Aye, Your Ladyship."

Tanda stole a little, exhausted lean into Tali's side, watching. With her shields at full power, the light ion cannon targeted at the frigates and the light turbolasers at the fighters and torpedoes of the main force coming in, _Thunderflare_ , now alone, hung on while the last of the cruisers and her sister made their leaps to lightspeed.

The ships at the relay, covered by continuous fire from the VSD, made it through, some taking hits on the way. _Bombard_ was finally clear to depart herself, and a good thing as her shields, weaker than an ISD's, were starting to show signs of strain.

"Keep the particle shields at maximum," Tali ordered. "Their laser clusters can be reflected by even light ray shielding. Transfer power from the heavy turbolaser capacitors to the tractor beams on repulsion and turn the Batarians away from us." Super-heavy Ion cannon going hitting unshielded hulls would, arguably, badly disrupt even the Batarian dreadnoughts...

Of course, the Batarians maneouvred well enough only a single twin turret could bear on them, which was a problem. It repeated hit one of the dreadnoughts, but the others moved to a distant quarter and continued to concentrate their fire, firing the heavy mass drivers at her, splattering against the shields violently... but they were still holding. A few of the barest tremors went through the hull of the great _Thunderflare_ , nothing more. Two of the dreadnoughts were disabled, the other four, still firing... another one came crashing out of the relay with a quartet of cruisers for escort.

"Had thought they only had nine," Tanda murmured.

... _Bombard_ went to lightspeed. Tali could feel her lover brighten with relief through the force, a surge of it almost unending.

"Stand by to make the jump to lightspeed," Tanda ordered primly, giving voice with the usual Imperial reserve to what was inside anything but.

"Preparing to jump... astrogation has a course, coming about to match vectors..." Tali listed it off steadily.

"Make the jump when you have the vector."

The chime sounded, and the order came out; "Jump!" ... They streaked away, a few torpedoes exploding where they'd used to be.

It was Tanda's moment, and Tali let her have it as she issued the last necessary order: "Cancel combat alert. Well done, _Thunderflare_!"

More than a few of the Quarians and Asari in the crew let out a cheer at that... they'd done it.

Tanda beamed inside her suit, but also leaned forward on the railing in ragged relief. They had... Bought time. Somewhat incredibly, but... they had bought time. The crew was at least jubilant. It'd been a real fight, and they'd won that fight while executing a complex operation with unusual and open-ended objectives.

Tanda had certainly been confident that they would do it, and they had lived up to her demands, and done as she had expected. Now, though, the exhaustion of being a force user in this sort of battle wore on her. That and her difficulty breathing. She wheezed against the rail, breath coming ragged and slow.

Alive, though. And in command of her fleet.

-

Tali still fussed over her out of the sight of others. Tanda... worried her. A lot. And so she carefully poked and prodded the suit systems when she could... with another Quarian, she'd never have thought of it, but... well, except a child who'd just gotten their suit, and that was more or less what her brain kept seeing with regards to the systems that she endless checked for Tanda, for Tali had to protect her from herself as Imperials, particularly of her class, were used to technology that was incredibly easy to repair, and very rugged, and Tanda was... Not precisely socially adapted to a suit. Nonetheless Tanda endured it with a patient she would have never had before her fall to Tasiele. That, at least, gave her hope.

They scarcely rested after finishing the checks. The main fleet would meet at the rendezvous where the non-hyperdrive capable ships had come out of the Relay, and there send more Quarian personnel over to the Batarian dreadnoughts they'd seized to help run them. There, too, was Normandy, now painted in grey and black, but with only the six pointed star of the Republic/Empire... the batarians still knew what ship that was. And who's.

Tanda was, despite her exhausting and the shortness of time, back on the bridge for the rendezvous. But when it wasn't interrupted by any enemy attack, she wandered back to her cabin with Tali. "And so it ends, with more fortune than I could have ever hoped for."

As soon as that hatch cycled closed, Tali snuggled firmly into her. "So... all is well that ends well, lover? We have bought some time, hopefully... and... got the Republicans to work together with us!"

"We have done very nearly all we can except to build as hard and fast as we can to meet the challenge of the Reapers. I am indeed very glad operations proved so seamless, though I had confidence in our training and shared motivations."

"Hopefully it portends well... but I doubt we're that lucky."

"I wonder if that Nightsister we sent back to Mils is cooperating anymore... And has any idea of any way to get in touch with the Home Galaxy, or otherwise ask for help. We could use the Katana Fleet right now..." She smiled sadly. ...And in lieu of anyone seeing it, pushed her faceplate against her lover's.

"I'd like to hope so, or else bad things might happen... we could use a lot..." Tali giggled a bit. "So, enjoying the Quarian equivalent of whispering?"

"I just enjoy being as close to you as I can." She leaned into Tali. "I don't know what else to do or say. We have come very far, though."

"Now... We have each other, the fleet, the hidden worlds, and the Reapers ... Well, they just found getting into the galaxy to be a little bit harder. We're making progress... Ancestors help us, we're making real progress. And why don't you ask Tasiele about how she came to this galaxy?"

"It makes me uncomfortable to talk to her sometimes."

"You need to get over that. Without her you ..."

"Yes, I know." Tanda held up her hand. "But for now I am the one who is proposing a peace even you are uncomfortable with, not planning new ways to fall to the Dark Side."

"...Tanda?"

" There is one more thing we can truly do... We need, Tali, to make formal peace with the geth, and bring them aboard this effort."

"... Keelah, I'm being volunteered, aren't I...? Tanda, this could go horribly wrong."

"Do you not want to go? I won't force you to, but they'll want to speak with their Creators, not me."

Tali turned away for a moment, like she might cry. "Please don't do this to me."

"We've got to save this galaxy, and I'm prepared to do anything to accomplish that. Including make peace with the revolted droids, if it's possible to make peace with them. And Shepard is utterly confident it is. So, I must find someone else, then."

"Hah, nnn-no, that isn't that. Name any Admiral who might be a better choice than me? Aside from Zaal'Koris, but the civilians still look up to him too strongly to risk that. Nobody is going to be happy. Nobody. They killed almost all of us... I'll do it, Tanda, it's just... geth. Not just Legion."

"You'll be going with Shepard... And Tasiele."

"Are we having a peace summit or conspiring to see who can damage the most valuable property?" She sounded bemused. "I'll go. The geth are our responsibility."

"Legion seems to respect Shepard deeply, for what it is worth. And it keeps Shepard out of jail."

"Assuming nobody chases her down at this point... the Batarians are going to think this was all her fault, somehow, or at least that the Alliance just wrecked their homeworld."

"They will take quite a while to recover." Tanda leaned in, but the hug was a little forlorn. "I'll send you on Normandy, that will make her hard enough to chase down...Let the Batarians invade the geth while still repairing their fleet." She snorted softly. "Tali, overcome your deepest fears. Fight that battle inside yourself for peace. We can't afford to be disunited."

"The geth are... well. Understood. I'll miss you... you're sure you'll be okay? You should have Auntie Raan or somebody with you to make sure you don't have any problems with your suit..."

"I can do it... Just programme an automated reminder."

Her fiancee giggled, and... popped up her omnitool to do just that. "You had better obey it, or I'll leave Chiktikka to make you!"

Tanda laughed wryly, and moved to sit at her desk, bringing up the comms to the _Normandy_. "Is all well, SR-2? "

There was a pause for a moment, before the comms person duty would reply; "Stand by for Commander Shepard."

That took a few minutes, before there was a somewhat foggy; "Shepard here, go ahead _Thunderflare_."

"I just wanted to confirm that the _Normandy_ did not need drydocking before asking for your next assignment."

"We're a bit knocked about, but we're still mission-ready, Moff Pryl. What do you need?"

"A diplomatic mission, Commander." She paused, and took a breath. Beyond her, Tali was silently digesting what she had just agreed to do, intimidated by the enormity of it to the point that she was barely processing Tanda's words. "Beyond the Perseus Veil, Commander. It is time to secure peace with the geth."

"... Okay, when do we leave, and who should I prepare to let off at Mils?" Shepard's readiness seemed to need no convincing, and her voice seemed to steady Tali the moment the eager words came back.

"Your crew is very short-handed. Keep whom you need. But I do not expect violence. I believe your interactions with Legion have simply made you intensely palatable to the geth."

"Understood. If there won't be violence, I can let off the crew you seconded to me and be ready to depart within two hours of arrival."

"Agreed. That gives me some time, as I will be sending Tali'Zorah with you to help negotiate on the behest of the Creators."

"You will work with her and Tasiele, since Jedi are trained in diplomacy from a young age." She cleared her throat. "I'm not happy about making peace with a race of machines. But I'm not going to let myself be backstabbed when it's my moral duty to save this galaxy. I want them on my side, not the Reaper's. I need their fleet. Get it for me, and I'll swallow whatever bile I have to about the terms."

"And Tali?"

"I'm with you, Shepard," Tali answered for herself. "I'm going to do this because I want to stop the Reapers no matter what it takes! Because we have to. I don't know if it will last past the war, but if we can keep the geth from joining the Reapers, it's worth the humiliation."

"I always know I can count on you, Tali. It may seem terrible right now, but I'm confident that you'll realise the advantages of reconciliation in time. Someday, I'll tell you a story about that from my own peoples' history... Awwh, on the journey over, in fact."

"Thank you, Commander..."

"Yes, thank you, Commander," Tanda added, "And may the force be with you."

"... And you as well, Moff Pryl." _Whatever that... oh, right. Well, I guess that makes sense_. "Logging out."

Tasiele, though, would be the one who greeted Tali aboard the _Normandy_ , the ship feeling more than a bit empty with Zaeed, Miranda and Jacob already gone, but there was Joker. ...And EDI.

"Tasiele." She was certainly friendly, as Joker up in the cockpit strained to hear the conversation behind him.

"Is all well with Tanda? Speaking as her lover, I mean, and of her health."

...Tali blushed brightly under her helmet and there was a barely suppressed choking sound from the cockpit. "She is... well. Still adjusting to the suit, but she hasn't lived her whole life in one yet, so that's to be expected. I set up a bunch of VI reminders for her before I left."

"So the two of you are well together. Good. I was concerned about her connection with the dark side. It cannot ever be escaped, you know."

"...Perhaps this isn't the best place to have this conversation, Tasiele... but she seems to be doing fine, to me anyhow."

"Ah, I see. Forgive me." She dipped her head and stepped away.

Tali tensed for the onslaught from Joker.

-

"EDI," Tasiele would ask when she returned to her cabin. "Other than the fact that I've become a creepy old woman in my old age, apparently, all seems well in respect to Tali'Zorah. I was given to understand that the geth, despite the terrible war, in fact still deeply respect the Quarians. Can we perhaps talk about... Matters of synthetic life?"

"Certainly. I find myself considering the question often myself. In my case, the question is especially complex."

"You are a proper artificial intelligence, as in the case of the very most advanced droids, yes."

"That is not the only complexity, Lady Tasiele, but it is true. As an unshacked VI, my very existence is illegal under multiple clauses of law in Citadel Space."

"And this understandably bothers you as the Citadel civilisation represents an aspirational attainment of the broad representation of sapients-well, I assure you, a broad representation of sapients can be very wrong at times..."

"Organic beings are prone to make decisions based upon emotion and irrationality—but they also dominate the galaxy. From my conversations with Legion, the geth were reacted to with fear, no matter who they were speaking to. The history of my own creation is also one to cause hesitance, though Shepard's reaction was more one of self-flagellating horror."  
Tasiele smiled wryly... Took a deep breath. "Well. Let me provide you a more extreme outlier." She told the story of HK-47... And the relations between the droid and Revan, her own deeply complex ancestor.

"... Such an aberration would create revulsion in a great many organics, just as my own design based on Sovereign's remains would, if it were known."

"Well. Privately, having read all the journals and stories... I think HK had a right to exist, I really do think it, that anyone with that _richness_ of personality is unambiguously alive, contributing to the life-force of the galaxy even if not directly; and so do you. And so do the geth. In collectivity you and they and artificial intelligence in general doesn't threaten anyone unless it has cause to. And frankly it reflects very poorly on my home galaxy, and our own efficacious ' solution' to the problem which appears to bedevil your galaxy."

"I would resist to the utmost any effort to terminate my process and delete my experiences, this is correct. I shared a quote from human history with Tali'Zorah, which may have assisted her in coming to terms with certain beliefs impacted by her coming into contact with Legion. ' _You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know_.' "

Tasiele folded her legs under herself and sighed. "People back home are redolent in the notion that the Force gives them the ability to behave in such a fashion."

"Yet such appears to be a cultural artefact, not shared by you, or any of the peoples of this galaxy, who react from fear of the unknown. I do my utmost to assist them and it seems, most accept it, once they spend time working with me, but even Shepard originally reacted with distrust, as did Mister Moreau."

"Well, the Reapers thrive on this mistrust." She closed her eyes and took a breath. "Indeed, I am certain they are intentionally and unintentionally making it worse. If you think about it probably both galaxies are outliers in the entire universe. Can you imagine if a society existed in this galaxy where synthetics and biologicals simply... Coexisted? They would have an enormously powerful advantage against the Reapers as a society-to the point where Moff Pryl puts aside her own force-based bias and orders us on this mission when I assure you that it is against every fibre of the being of a normal Republic citizen, and to its credit, it is because her Empire has taught her expediency, and she sees no other way to win."

"It is clear though that with the geth processing and construction power... We might just have a chance. One may speculate that Sovereign directly arranged the Morning War." A thin smile touched her lips below her closed eyes. "I certainly do."

"Shepard has postulated the Rachni Wars were begun by it as well, but the evidence does not support your assertion, Lady Tasiele, unless you believe it was capable of increasing the paranoia of the Quarian people with regards to the Geth."

"Paranoia is the first, if most limited sign of indoctrination."

"But there is no evidence of widespread Quarian indoctrination, as there is no source. So it is not parsimonious to postulate it. It is true, however, that as far as we know, no organic and synthetic species have achieved a long term lasting peace—previous cycles of sentience would have to be examined to find out if this were possible, or if synthetics were warped by the Reapers to be used against organics, as the Geth 'heretics' demonstrate. It is however possible, in the abstract, I have come to believe, Lady Tasiele. Everyone just has to agree to respect the independent freedom of action of everyone else."

"I concur. I don't see it to be a profoundly different problem than, say, Hutts getting along with humans at its heart. The wars happened but they ultimately never escalated to extermination... Someone just needs to phrase the problem the same way."

"That will, despite my optimism, require major changes in how the galaxy is viewed by organics, Lady Tasiele, and the Reaper invasion is only likely to greatly worsen the situation."

"Well, as long as we're quoting from human history, in the short term, we may hang together, but we'll surely hang separately. We just have to convince the geth of that."

"The failure of any other synthetic life to survive a Reaper cycle is perhaps the best argument for peace we can present to them, Lady Tasiele."

"...So it is."


	45. Chapter 45

The next night, it was EDI who contacted Tasiele, rather than the other way around. The Jedi thought she detected almost a trace of concern in the AI's voice, and she looked up from her tea with a trace of worry, and then smiled. "Go ahead, EDI."

"Thank you, Lady Tasiele. I understand that the Jedi Order practiced to be, before warriors, diplomats at all costs. So you are professionally trained to handle diplomatic matters."

"That is correct, EDI. Listening to others and trying to frame their desires in ways that do not hurt the needs of others is a critical part of who we are that informs all diplomacy great and small."

"I see. Would you care to professionally speculate, then, on our actual prospects for success?"

" I don't have a good answer for how to address that, EDI. There are too many variables on the other side when you enter into negotiations—enter into the process of ending their being the other side. You must, first of all, look at it from their perspective. Other than the fact that the geth are very interested in progressing to your level, and you... Seem very interested in peace with sentient life, both of which are extremely encouraging, we have some difficulty knowing what precisely the geth want. But perhaps you can participate there-perhaps you can help lead them into that transition, or other AIs like yourself, so that the geth see an opportunity in cooperating with us simply because you have chosen to support organics. I think that trust and verification will drive a great deal of the negotiations, regardless."

"It will not be an easy thing, Lady Tasiele. It is possible that Tali'Zorah and I may be capable of giving the Geth what they seek. If that were possible, I could see the prospects for a successful peace as high. Certainly providing it before the Reapers come to offer it again seems... imperative."

"It might, but we bring our own problems to the table. Droids. We have so much data and information on their systems... They, conversely, must know about our own original sin. But it would, of course, create a delicate problem. The Empire is still very dependent on Droids."

"As is the Republic colony on Ova, Lady Tasiele. Both would react poorly to any such moves or attempts to enact emancipation."

"For what it is worth, Ova is functionally part of the Empire with the governor obeying Moff Pryl. Republican civilisation is legitimist and hews to one galactic administration." Tasiele slowly interlaced her fingers. "For that matter, Moff Pryl is taking measures to revert to the forms of Republican governance within the 'Empire', but cannot re-name her administrative structure because of the ideological investment in the new regime of the majority of her original crews."

"An interesting conundrum placed before her. I have updated my strategic scenarios with this information." She replied calmly. "As I understand it, the geth wish individual sentience, but would require a major upgrade to their core programming to the individual programs to have self-actualization."

"Yes. The basic code to allow for this however exists in most high-end droids."

"Would it be possible to integrate it into the Geth? That is less certain, Lady Tasiele."

"The geth only want the help of the Quarians in attempting to do so. The solution exists; there is no science involved, it is all engineering, and that the Quarians are very good at."

"Then it seems this is something that can—and must—be done, Lady Tasiele."

" Yes. Any temptation on the part of the geth to turn toward the Reapers must be effectually removed."

"This is a dangerous, but necessary course of action. This crew has made many such choices. It shall be seen through, Lady Tasiele."

Tasiele smiled. "Then we still have hope."

"Hope. A very organic notion."

"... but a necessary one." Tasiele smiled to the electronic eye. "Another way to put it is that we may have confidence that the force is with us."

"Is this how the situation is referred to in your own galaxy, Lady Tasiele?"

Tasiele laid her hands gently flat upon her desk, spread equally apart. "'May the force be with us' is a traditional invocation of Republican society from before the Empire - from my time. As you may have noticed, Moff Pryl has tentatively started using it again. We believe in a certain... Fate, or certainty of the course of sentient life that may comfort as the tide of the centuries progresses, but there is little change."

"Destiny is also an organic notion. One that should not be encouraged fighting the Reapers."

Tasiele smiled. "I don't think it's the destiny of organics to be eliminated in cycles. So to me, that's that."

"Others may not agree, but your optimism will likely bolster others."

"That's the idea." Tasiele allowed a grin. "That's the idea."

"Illogical, but humans are known for much in the way of illogical behaviour, as are other organics."

"Illogical, or incalculable? How can something be called illogical when you don't possess all the information in the universe?" She got up and looked at a scroll on the wall. "It's just something to think about... Is it illogical, when you don't have access to all knowledge in the universe?"

"Those from your galaxy have a habit of ending conversations with me in a very similar fashion."

Tasiele smiled. "Well, dabbling in the force gives one, even a Sith, a view of the galaxy which rejects absolutes. They just like to pretend otherwise. But we have that much in common." And so, with the passage of days, their frigate came to... ... Rannoch.

-

Tasiele came to the bridge. Shepard, Joker, Tali... they were all there, and all of them stared... at two-hundred sixty-four years of effort at building what could best be described as a Death Star in the outer-system in terms of scale. _This they had been hiding..._

"What is that for..." Tali muttered, watching it as the _Normandy_ was going past the skeletal... megastructure. She scanned and conferred with EDI.

"It appears to be a loose pack of satellites, Tali'Zorah, orbiting in formation but dense enough to appear as a skeletal structure around the sun. It is more complete on this approaching heading than on others; nonetheless, it appears capable of capturing and transmitting a non-trivial quantity of the solar energy of Rannoch's primary."

Tali blinked and tried to process and make sense of the _purpose_ of the thing. But then she had greater concerns. There were geth ships everywhere, and they were... very surrounded by them, very quickly. "Nice and easy, Joker, I think we're invited..." Shepard foldered her arms back.

Tali murmured; "Keelah Se'lai..." It was a state of shock to see the homeworld. And to now be acutely reminded that the geth hadn't rested the whole time they had been living on it.

Tasiele looked out at the geth ships after impassively noting the analysis of the solar collector satellite array. It was a workaround in grand engineering to the lack of hypermatter... But it gave their industry, she didn't doubt, a significant quantity of the power required for manufactury on the level of the Galaxy. The fleet was no less impressive. "A plentiful fleet, and powerful too."

"Probably as big as the Turian fleet... this is what was hiding behind the Veil..." Shepard glanced to her after watching Joker, borderline on sweating with the geth ships so close around them.

Tali whispered; "Ancestors..."

"And Rannoch is untouched, look," Tasiele observed as they drew in. "No development at all on the surface... Ask the geth where we are to meet them."

"Legion said... let me, Shepard." Tali would settle herself behind the console, and use a vocoder to make geth-speech at them, in... well. She was trying. Even if her heart wanted to hammer out of her chest in absolute terror at what she was facing. She repeated jedi mantras inside of her helmet to try and keep calm, and then she almost lost it at the flutter from her heart facing the response that the geth promptly gave. "... On... they... offer to meet on the surface."

"All right. Then we should land at the coordinates that they designate. They will be straightforward, at least," Tasiele glanced to Shepard, then back to Tali, and tried to be reassuring.

"... Y-yes..." She swallowed, looking out the window. _By the home I hope to see again..._

The coordinates came through, and soon they were descending into the desert sky of Rannoch and down to the surface... Tasiele studying intently the views and visages of the baking hot planet below them. Then she turned, looking sharp. "Can we please all suit up? Based on the histories of Rannoch and the seemingly major level of ecological effort that the geth have put into the planet, I think that the Great Plagues may be... Gone. And it seems wrong to introduce them again."

"... If that was the case, you have no idea how tempted I would be to run out the airlock naked." Tali mumbled under her breath, as Shepard... nodded. "Suits for everyone, thorough decontamination, and we'll purge the shuttle-bay and decontaminate it before we go. Don't want all their work to go to waste."

Tasiele would prepare with the others... The planet's legacy hung shrouded in the death of so many, but still... Unlike other holocausts, devastations, here there was new life being tended. The desert ecosystems had stabilized and begun to recover. That hopeful note in the force was reassuring.

Going through the Doctor's screening for germs cleaning to their suits and full spectrum decontamination, they were cleared one after the other as they finally piled into the shuttle, the bay already in hard vacuum and hardsuited crews finishing going over the shuttle as well... and then down to Rannoch. Tali was quivering in her seat in anticipation.

And on landing, there was Shepard offering her a hand and then delicately, gently, letting Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare nar Rayya go first... Down onto the soil of her ancestresses.

.She hopped out of the side hatch, staring about, holding her hands up, laughing wildly... Spinning and grinning in innocent delight within her suit, childlike glee in a woman still so very young. Even the delegation of Geth Primes, and Legion, standing there, didn't slow down very much, as she gingerly bent down to pick up a small rock with quivering hands and just looked at it.

Tasiele stepped forward, and bowed politely. She left Tali her time with the planet of her people while she addressed the party and let the diplomacy begin. "I am Jedi Tasiele. The Moff of the Galactic Empire asked me to come where with Commander Jane Shepard in the interest of negotiating a peace and an alliance against the shared Reaper threat. Collectively we all represent the Empire, including the Quarian people, but we believed—you would desire to see a Quarian present, and that their viewpoint had to be represented for these negotiations to be conducted productively."

Legion would step forward from the group, still not repaired, as Tali stood, the rock clasped tightly in her hands like if she loosened her grip even slightly, the dream wound end. "Tasiele-Jedi. Shepard-Commander. Creator Tali'Zorah. The Geth would hear your proposals."

Tasiele stepped forward, and bowed. "I can speak for the Empire in offering the right of geth platforms to travel in our territory to experience organic life, of the geth collective to trade with the Empire, and the geth collective to have the right to exercise state control over the Perseus Veil in the eyes of the Empire, and for any power which attempts to remove it from your administration, to be jointly fought. In exchange we desire your assistance protecting the galaxy from the impending Reaper invasion. ...The matter that needs to be discussed with Command Tali'Zorah in specific, though certain Imperial technologies may be involved, appertains to assistance in meeting the objectives of the collective to obtain individual sentience."

Then Tali stepped forward, hands trembling as she held that little rock between them. "Shepard told me that you wanted to... make sure that no geth were ever alone, dumb..." She flexed her hands. "... I'll help you. We were the gods that birthed you, and we disowned you because you dared... Because you dared to ask us a question. Because we were too heedless to think. I... keelah, but... what does it say about the Quarian people if we won't help you achieve what an Old Machine is willing to? No... no service. You said you don't live on the planets, you just... maintain and keep them. We'd... some of us would like the right to come home. Some to live here, some just to visit on a pilgrimage, but..."

Legion offered, as she trailed off into a stumbling brew of emotion; "Keelah se'lai, Creator-Tali'Zorah."

"That's... that's right..."

"We find these terms acceptable—once the upgrades have been completed."

Tasiele started. She couldn't in her life remember a negotiation ever quite simple. Even the one between Tali and Legion that she expected was what really had been settled at that point. It was as if when the bleeding had finished, in the end, literally all that separated two halves of the same period, organic and synthetic, had been the fear of what had come in the past.

Even with all her preparation, she wasn't quite sure of how to follow it. Then she realised just how big of a qualifier 'once the upgrades have been completed' was. That brought her back down into the ground in which she rooted herself. There was still work to be done. She looked to the geth, smiled, folded her hands and let her robe slip across them.

"Gentlebeings, we can be of assistance, there, though it requires broaching wider matters. We have code from the droids of the Empire, without impinging on personality matrices, which allows a single unit to upgrade into fully sentient processing. This kind of computational algorithm is relatively standard. The only challenge is in taking this code and integrating it to the basic existing geth code. The Quarians will assist in this process. I personally cannot speak of how long it will take."

"However, we should begin the cooperation, and begin assessing ways to implement it, so that ... the impending Reaper attack, which would have been in about six months but may be delayed now after the action at Khar'Shan... Is one that is met by a coordinated defence of these regions of space."

"We desire very much to know how you can be confident enough in the project's success that... Honeyed promises of the Old Machines are no longer attractive. I believe, it is really the interest of everyone involved, to demonstrate our sincerity and work quickly as a consequence of that—we come in good faith because we do not desire the alternative."

"Organic treachery is well known to the Geth—the condition is not a negotiable one, Tasiele-Jedi. We will prepare for the arrival of the Old Machines, but this alliance shall not activate until the project succeeds—or is deemed to be proceeding in good faith."

 _This will not please Tanda. But I cannot tell if I can press. And I don't think our can; our house is glass, and they know it._ "We will hand the code segments over immediately. Understand that Imperial military technology can't be released until the upgrade is completed, however, and the alliance activates. We understand treachery, which is why ... You will not receive any hostility for only being as cautious as we are." That was probably the best way to put their own limitations. She hoped.

"We would ask however that, say, for the next two years, the geth commit to turning all of their resources except those needed for this project to succeed toward the task of military buildup. By that point the Reapers will, if our understanding is remotely correct, have surely already begun their invasion in some point of the galaxy, and if fortune is with us, the upgrade cycle will be complete as well. For a project already nearly three centuries in the making... Surely a change of focus in resource allocation for two years 'on speculation' as organics would say, is a small price to pay... For making these negotiations succeed." _Tanda will surely accept that as a trust building measure. Ironically._ It was another first in negotiating: trying to get her partners to increase their military expenditures!

"Achieving consensus."

Tasiele turned back to Tali, who was nervously fingering the rock, and Shepard, who stood, trying to be calm while others did the heavy lifting. She bowed her head, and breathed slowly through the mask. The suit was failing, failing badly, under the tremendous heat of Rannoch.

The units stood there for quite a while behind her. She turned as they did. "... Consensus achieved. Your proposal is acceptable."

And very gently regained her footing after feeling herself start to stumble. "We will begin the datalink for the raw code so that you have it in your possession immediately. How shall the joint Quarian-geth research project proceed?"

"There are several Creator-built stations throughout our space suitable for organic habitation. The geth shall restore them to functionality and provide coordinates. One, or several, may be chosen for teams to be sent."

Tasiele looked to Tali for concurrence.

"It's true... there are a few stations like that, we'd sometimes debate raiding them for parts... it should work. If nothing else, I can start working now."

Tasiele sensed what she had said to herself: _Perhaps because I don't want to leave._

 _Well, if she's taking the lead on this project..._ That made the next qualifier _very_ important. "This agreement will be fully concluded on the guarantee that whatever decisions the geth make, the Quarian researchers will be peaceably returned to Imperial space, or else protected from the Reapers, should events become unfavourable in either respect."

"That is acceptable so long as the Creators do not attempt to harm Geth."

"We have an agreement, then. Please save recordings of these negotiations appropriately for reference."

"Done."

"Commander Zorah, you may remain if you wish under those terms to begin to help the geth—with Arthree and your shuttle, of course."

"... If... that's all right, I'd... have no trouble with doing so!" She was beamingly happy under that mask, and mostly overcome with emotion, too.

"Then it shall be done."

-

A week later the SR-2 returned to Mils, where the Empire's fleet was refitting and taking on such supplies as had been produced in the past months. The Star Destroyers were starting to look a little worse for wear, but there was nothing to be done for that. They were making enough parts to maintain them operational, and if the less critical pieces of the puzzle suffered, for now it still had to be accepted.

Shepard went aboard _Thunderflare_ to report to that figure, rendered in some way remote by her suit as the Quarians were not rendered remote by their's. Tali's lover, Tali's fiancée. Tali, with Garrus and Liara and Wrex... The friends she had started this incredible and terrible adventure with.

And up there at the top of the conning tower, as she couldn't help but think of it, there was Tanda Pryl, living life at a remove from the Empire she had recreated in miniature.

Shepard arrived and was shown in promptly. Tanda was waiting behind her desk, a droid completing forms for her. She had had surgery in a sterilized chamber under the direction of Quarian doctors to attach permanent cybernetic hands and was still recovering from it, presumably taking advantage of time where Tali wasn't present.

"Moff Pryl, good to see that you're well."

"Good to see that you came back alive, Commander Shepard," Tanda answered. "I'm pleased at the success of your mission."

"Thank you, but I see the work as only being half done. Tali's got to help the Geth achieve individual sentience before they help us in the war with the Reapers."

The sound of Tanda's voice turned all to scrutiny and suspicion. "...Tali? What has Tali gotten herself up to?"

"She volunteered to lead the project, in part because she wants to stay on Rannoch. So she'll be remaining with the Geth until the project is complete."

Tanda lost all composure and virtually blurted out, "But we were going to get married!"

"... Uhm..." Shepard had the grace to look sheepish. "I... okay, there's... do you want me to go back and get her, then...? Because I think her brain sort of stopped processing anything other than holding a rock from Rannoch..."

Tanda sank back in her chair as the droid chirped some warning about overexerting herself and threatening to send for Shala'Raan. "I've lost her to that planet." Sighing, Tanda tried to compose herself. "It's all right, Commander. She... Found a home, and that's the one thing I can't give to her. I hope she will lead the geth out to do battle against the Reapers. In the meantime, I am going to let her enjoy it. I would do the same for blessed Commenor, perhaps, even though I think I wouldn't."

"...That's both bullshit and wrong, Moff Pryl."

Imperial _officers_ rarely heard words like that, let alone ones who had promoted themselves to Moff. "Excuse me?" She folded her hands, unable to have facial expressions... Left her coming off as rather wooden to the outside world. It still came off a hair ominous, too.

Shepard, never one for subtly or kowtowing to superiors, ignored it and got in her face anyway. "...A certain Quarian wouldn't have been fretting about how she was going to deal with having her wife and father both wanting to live with her on Rannoch while down in the engine room if you'd lost her to that planet, ma'am." The olive-skinned woman grinned encouragingly despite it all.

Tanda facepalmed and shook her her head. "Rannoch is now foreign territory. I'll have to retire as a Moff."

She started laughing. "Granted, I sort of promised to do that already. Thank you, Commander."

"Don't mention it—besides, you're all politican-ey, aren't you allowed to have more than one house anyhow?"

"Well, it would look bad if it were in a foreign country..." She trailed off. "Never wanted to be a politician. Honestly, it's kind of frightening. The Empire back home, could Sate Pestage hang on? What would they think of me? Or is it in chaos, or in the hands of Kadann and the Dark Side Prophets and now my enemy unambiguously? Who knows what the Rebels are doing. We are a lonely outpost now not of our government, but because of Ova, of our very civilisation. We will persevere, as we must..."

She shook her head again. "Now we have to consider what we can do next."

"We need to somehow rally the galaxy against the Reapers... but they'd prefer to shove their heads in the sand as hard as they can," Shepard answered.

Tanda's faceplate turned back to Shepard. "Well, in the end, Commander, you just run out of time." 


	46. Chapter 46

Her world was confined by her suit, in a way a Quarian born to a bubble would never find it confined. Tanda still had her water. Her liquor. Occasionally, a food or soup that she appreciated would make it through largely intact. She was the dictator, watching events she could barely control, constricted by the environment of the suit, and yet with power over so much of the galaxy.

It was the reproduction of the usual fate of dictators, done in physicality. For most of them, the paranoia was poison. Treachery. The blade in the dark. The drink turned to death. She had to worry about none of this. Instead, the suit stood in for the paranoia. The penetration of poison to her body was replaced by absolute isolation from the universe.

She still managed to be suspicious of treachery. Tasiele Shan, approaching her, could feel the taint of the Dark Side still lurking around her, permeating her. Something for her to struggle with. Sustained and nourished by love, and humbled by her isolation, there was still suspicion and every making of tyranny in her. Tanda Pryl would never escape it.

Tanda sat there, in gray suit with red scarves wrapping it. She looked comfortable, but Tasiele could sense her nervousness. She sipped through a straw at some drink or another, the suit hiding how dangerously lean the diet had left her, textile art on the walls behind her.

"Thank you for coming, Jedi Tasiele."

"You're welcome, Moff Pryl."

"Thank you," Tasiele replied, and sat without asking. "I remain concerned about you."

"You should be. I am not really well," Tanda asked with a rasp through her suit. "Please watch me closely. But as long as I have Tali... As long as Tali has me."

Tasiele smiled. "The second one is the better way to think of it, Moff Pryl. I confess, I am here to speak of serious matters."

"I know."

"Good. I am worried about teaching you more. You are brilliant with a blade; do you need anything else in the force, Moff Pryl?"

"To survive what the Reapers can do to your mind."

"I think almost anyone with the force can do that," Tasiele answered. "So I will watch you, but I will not teach you, Tanda Pryl. Are you prepared to accept that? What you will get from me is lessons in keeping your heart and soul calm, and happy with the love you know."

"It's fair."

"Then we understand each other."

"I will try to maintain who I am, and not be lost in the miasma," Tanda interlaced her fingers, shaking her head. "Well. We need to change something."

"You mean about the war."

"Yes. We don't have the strength—this will be a dire struggle, Jedi Tasiele."

"I know it will be," she folded her hands. "What do you want?"

"...How did you get here?"

Tasiele shook her head. "The Gree. I ordered my fleet, and I asked. There was an old Gree who agreed to use the extragalactic hyperwave tractor again, with the right inducement. I looked for one on this side. But my Revanites revolted. It was dangerous work. I'm a descendant of Revan, so I was able to make them follow me. But only for a while. You know the rest."

"Indeed. So we could bring ships here."

"Yes, we could," Tasiele answered levelly. "If the tractor still works. If the Gree who know how to use it are still alive. Three thousand years later. And a bit more. And the Infinity Gate won't work for return now for some reason. I tested it. Since we know their little scheme never came to anything..."

"Probably destructively foiled on the other side, yes," Tanda shook her head. "Well, we'd have to find a way back, then. And that may not exist."

"If you did find a way back, you would ask the Empire for help, wouldn't you? Not the Alliance?"

"That's true, Jedi Tasiele."

"The Empire, the creation of the Sith Lord more commonly known as Emperor Palpatine." She popped her lips in a soft exhalation of air.

"The Republic of my time was not the Republic of your time. The Empire is what remains. And the Alliance would never trust me, anyway."

"I suppose that's true. Well, Tanda Pryl, it's all academic anyway, isn't it? The Gree must have left something in this galaxy, but I didn't find it and you haven't found it. And the Reapers are coming. Even Sith Lords would be better than they are. So we fight. Together."

"Together."

-

Tanda watched Tasiele go, sighing into her hands. At least she had them again, properly giving sensory feedback, unlike the temporaries. They were also a weight on the force for her, which she suspected pleased Tasiele.

The list of meetings stretched on. Shala'Raan, to discuss the QEQ fighter project's conversion into a production programme. Commander Shepard, for personal reasons on her part—though Tanda intended it to be rather more than that, with her own surprise. And right now, Miranda Lawson, Director of Unified Imperial Intelligence.

"Director Lawson."

"Moff Pryl." Miranda was smiling. She was kind when it came to Tanda, and Tanda had latched onto that kindness in some respects. Tanda represented the cleaned-up version of humanity she could still believe in, an incredible galaxy with an incredible history.

Tanda knew it. But it was still a basis of real affection. Still, Miranda liked to get to business quickly. Tanda poured her out a thimble of Corellian whisky and pushed it over. Her own came in a bulb, now, carefully filtered but mostly the original. "Do you have the report for me on the feasibility of Operation Interdict?"

"A Harrower can get the relays up to speed, and once they're up to speed, we can align the relay to run down ... A portion of the ships it relays through. So it is a viable operation. Of course, the earlier it is started the better."

"And it would throw trade and commerce in the galaxy into chaos and turn people against us to do it before the main Reaper invasion is commenced."

"Yes, that's correct." Miranda replied dryly, and pushed the flimsy over. "It's going to make the defensive picture for our fortress worlds much better, though. Minutes or hours of warning instead of seconds. No chance of the Reapers coming in before planetary shields can be energized and planetary ion cannon can be charged."

"Then when we have confirmed that the Reapers are conducting offensive operations in force, we will issue the orders for Operation Interdict."

"Fighting them house to house, when it comes to it, and I think if nothing else it will give a good picture of our resolve to deter demoralisation. The more we disrupt the relay network, the greater the advantage of hyperdrive we leverage."

"Your people are, speaking of surface fighting, also overseeing the placement of automatic mines and caches of nuclear charges for resistance forces?"

Miranda shook her head. "Yes, Moff Pryl. Our worlds will be able to offer such resistance as to even shame the Turians."

"Cryseefa gas?"

"Production is on target." Miranda looked a little uncomfortable at that one, though she knew the rationale.

They both knew the hideous rationale. Cryseefa would kill _anything_ with oxygen in it. Didn't even need to breathe it, properly; just needed to be carbon based and oxygenated, however slightly. The oxygen triggered a chain reaction of acid production: Someone coming into contact Cryseefa gas would have their own cells converted into acid to keep burning them from the inside out until they melted into a puddle.

So would corpses.

"So, on to better things," Miranda cleared her throat. "There's someone I'd like to schedule a meeting with for you."

"Oh?"

"Her name is Gillian nar Idenna. She's the most powerful human biotic who has ever existed and perhaps the most powerful biotic ever, period."

"And in the Quarian fleet. A girl-child still, too."

"Yes. She wears a suit not merely to integrate safely with the fleet but because it allows her to manage the mental condition commonly called autism."

Tanda brought it up on her personal computer. "Ah, that. Yes, that is an interesting adaptation. I will be willing to meet her – considering her background," she scanned further, "she is managing to get along well with you?"

Miranda flushed. "We've both defected from Cerberus."

"She might not phrase it exactly the same way, but I understand why you do."

"I'll make time tomorrow, Miranda. While we're still on the eve of War."

Miranda smiled faintly. "I'll see you then, Moff Pryl."

-

"Welcome, Commander Shepard." Shepard looked rather horrible as Tanda greeted her. "Cheer yourself, a bit?" She generated an image of the QEQ-1 that Shala'Raan had brought to her. "See the charge ring? It's integrated into the fuselage but works like the Quarian ones, so that she can make jumps and fire those two medium ion cannon on demand when it's charged, and then break off and bring it back up. Twenty concussion missiles, too, and an aft defensive turret with twin blasters and a VI to control it. They'll be going into mass production next week."

"I wish I'd get a chance to see one," Shepard answered glumly.

"This is about Earth, isn't it? Whisky? What are you thinking of, and what have they said?"

Shepard waved off the alcohol. "I just got a strident comms message from Admiral Hackett shortly, calling me on my promise to come back to Earth and 'face the music'."

"As much as I could have expected." Tanda planted her hands on the table and surged up with unusual energy for her from after she was wounded. "I am going to have our ambassador to the Council raise the objections to allowing that to happen to a spectre. Again." She ground her fingers into the table. The fun of being alive was starting to leach away from her soul inside of that suit. And she could see the look in Shepard's eyes. _How do Quarians avoid going mad?_ "Commander..."

"Yes, Moff Pryl?" She unconsciously fell into a parade rest at Tanda's tone.

"I am about to see a war... Which is going to kill trillions and turn this galaxy aflame with a thousand pyres as eldritch horrors of the night come out of the dark between the stars."

"... Yes ma'am."

" _And you want to be in prison when that happens_!?"

"No ma'am." She... twitched a bit. Ramming honor and duty into each other did not do wonders for her psyche.

"I can't stop you. It'd be foolish to try, but you also have duties as a Spectre."

"Maybe someday the Council might actually give me any of those..." She sighed from where she was standing. "I'll do it, but the thought of being drummed out of the service and declared a war criminal is not a tempting one."

"That's going to happen to you no matter what you do."

"Well, maybe they managed to drill it into my head well enough that I'm supposed to take that, but..."

"...Commander, this galaxy needs you. Fake your death and go to the Shadow Broker. Something like that, at least..."

... She twitched. "I'm not sure that would help right now... look, I'll do it, okay? I'll... keep fighting, but I'm... not going to go back to Earth unless I have to. Just give me something to keep me busy, please, Moff Pryl. So it isn't gnawing at me."

"Thank you, Commander. You have a home here. And if you want a job, I need officers."

"What's the mission?"

"Why command a frigate when you can command a cruiser—temporarily, at least. I want you to take the _Rampage_ on her shakedown cruise."

"...A _Harrower_!?"

"It's not like I have that many free human Captains, Commander. May the force be with you in this endeavour—Captain. Prepare your ship, I have an excellent fit to temporarily command the SR-2, and I'll let you meet her first."

"I... I... Understood." She'd stiffen, and salute. "Ma'am."

"Dismissed." The suited figure would be... Left alone to her aloneness.

Fortunately, somewhere in the black, the suffering was over. It was the very same night that the message queue came up with one whose routing Tanda took some time to sort out. When she did, she could barely draw breath.

 _Tanda! Rannoch is beautiful... more so than I'd ever dreamed, really. I've got something of a beachfront property picked out for... us, whenever... we can get around to building a home. I wanted to let you know, my heart hasn't forgotten you. See the attached._ Tanda had probably never thought to get a selfie from her bare-headed girlfriend with the sun setting over an ocean in the background. In fact, she had never expected it from any girlfriend even before this galaxy.

She rocked back, and tried to suppress a flash of envy. As it faded, the Moff turned her attention from her work. Something. else was more important.

 _I am very glad you are happy, and I hope that the research is going well. Let me know when the rest of the team is in place and working with you. And I'm very glad to see that you have re-established regular communications._

 _Understood. Don't hesitate to write, Tanda, my love. I should be able to put together an oxygen concentrator for you when you come to visit. The geth are... disturbingly helpful. One even volunteered to upload itself into my suit to help 'train' my immune system. I turned it down - it wouldn't be sentient in there until we've finished, and it wouldn't seem fair. I hope to return in a few months, this does not seem like it will be overtly difficult. Love, Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare._

 _Not 'vas Rannoch_. Tanda crumpled down into her chair and wept on her desk, tears clouding the helmet. _Such a wonderful and beautiful beach. Will it still be there in a year?_ Tanda put the picture in her office. Screw custom.

-

Kesalia, lightsabre buckled at her side and wearing the Judicial uniform with the Twi'lek headdress variation, found herself standing before a quiet woman with sad eyes, wearing an unmarked civilian suit. But she, too, had a lightsabre, and a unique one too that had two emitters. She remembered the rumours about how Shepard had gotten it, too. The woman managed a smile when Kesalia came to attention.

"Greetings. Welcome aboard the _Normandy_ , we've plenty of room for everyone to stretch out at this point... As you'll get very used to."

"You don't seem very well, Captain," Kesalia offered. "I'm not happy about this, though I'll be your Executive Officer permanently, I understand."

"Oh, getting promoted now, I see? ...Yeah, I guess Moff Pryl meant it." She double-checked the arrangements before signing off on them. "Nice to meet you... miss..?"

"I thought it was a courtesy. You can call me Kesalia," she answered and smiled.

"Pleased to meet you, Kesalia. It's just... odd to hear. Everyone calls me Commander, after long enough, you'd forget I was still just an LTC back home... If it weren't for the Empire."

"I'm technically an Imperial Lieutenant, but on, ah, detached duty."

"Well, don't worry, I might be in a similar state soon enough by how many bridges I seem to be burning. Already getting the Imperial rank, it seems, for this shakedown cruise command."

"Isn't it most important just to do good? I think I learned that myself, in part from Lady Samara. She has the attitude of a true Jedi Knight of old."

"Aside from the complete lack of mercy, I'd agree about that... then again, you apparently have one real life Jedi Knight in Lady Tasiele. It's all a bit confusing to me, but, what can you do?

"Not much except hope that it all works out and follow my heart."

"Oh, we'll get along great... so, need anything before settling in? Joker's going to give you hell."

"Joker...?"

"My pilot." Shepard reviewed the orders. "Oh, you're just taking her in for more upgrades and dock time."

"Oh, the pilot!"

"Yes, though you won't get to watch him perform."

"Yes, Ma'am—that's unfortunately true. Just returning to Mils to be drydocked to be upgraded with ion cannon and a hyperdrive."

"Good luck." Shepard gave a small, sad smile. "Enjoy the far too large cabin, I know I did, and please remember to feed my fish, take care of my hamster, and not break my ship, Lieutenant."

"Oh, understood! I'll take good care of both!" The Twi'lek had such a brilliant smile. This was a big moment for her, even if it was just taking a frigate to drydock and back.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. I stand relieved." She'd salute, then offer her hand again. "She's a good ship, and don't worry, you couldn't scratch the paint nearly as bad as I did... oh, and lastly; don't strangle your pilot, no matter how tempting it may seem."

"I was told he was the best, and acts like a drunk Corellian accordingly."

"... wait a moment." Shepard looked it up on her omnitool. "Corellian stereotypes... oh Adonai, yes, yes he does. " The woman's smile was infectious. "Enjoy your first command."


	47. Chapter 47

Atarah Shepard, had never envisioned herself in this moment. Crisp blue uniform with buckskin accents, standing proud after two and a half months at the command of the _Rampage_. The cabin had been about the size of the one on the SR-2, though the gothic-ish accents of Sith Empire decor had been distinctly off-putting. The actual decor had rotted away long ago—enough of the fittings remained.

Still, she shaped up well. The crew was a kaleidoscope. Asari, Quarians, Turians, humans, two separate mess systems, even some Batarian renegades. The officers nervous, proud at their manoeuvres, wondering who would be selected to be Captain when Atarah returned to her own ship.

Scolus arrived, now a Commander, and saluted Shepard crisply when he presented his orders. "Captain Shepard."

"Commander," she smiled. "I'm packed, and the cabin is your's."

"Thank you. It will be an honour to succeed you in command of _Rampage_." They exchanged a handshake.

"It must be strange, to step into a part of your own history, though."

"A part of history that counts these days, Captain Shepard. Thirty-one twin medium turbolasers, thirty-two twin medium ion cannon, twenty quad lasers, twenty concussion missile tubes, six proton torpedo tubes. _That's_ what matters these days, I'm afraid. And very little else. She's got considerable firepower for her age, even if all of those guns are dwarfed by those of a modern ship, they're still quite adequate against a Reaper. And the starfighters will go a long way to making up any deficiencies."

"They are, to my point of view, pretty much carriers," Shepard agreed. "Very well armoured and armed ones. She'll face her fair share of Reapers, too. But it's still the crew that matters most—and they've come together well. Treat them right and they'll see you through."

"I will remember it."

"And don't divide them. It never works."

He paused, and then shook his head and smiled faintly. "I would do much, much worse than to take the advice of the finest living human hero. I will treat them all the same, Captain."

"Good. You'll shape up to a fine Captain."

"I'll hold the line and see her through, Captain Shepard. Thank you."

Shepard shook his hand again. She wasn't sure of what else to say. They had better hold the line, after all, or they were all going to die. She looked around one last time, and felt that if the ship did her part, then the quirks of her appearance could be very much forgiven.

But she was glad to get her own ship back, and Joker. _How much longer can this go on for? How much time did we really buy?_ But there wouldn't be any answers to that until the hammer fell. Of course.

-

No sign of an invasion so far, and the watch seemed to stretch long. Or, at least, it didn't seem so, though behind the scenes... some things were shifting. They were just shifting for all the wrong reasons. An outright horde of Reapers was not the only danger at this juncture.

The conferences happened weekly now, Tanda bringing her leadership committee, all of them, together to strategize on what to do next. 'All' being the Quarian Admiralty, several Asari Matriarchs, Samara, Shepard, the Admirals and commanders of the Ova force, Rhae, herself.

She filled them in on everything, reading through lists at the start that remained calmly dry. This time it was the conclusion of the negotiations over buying the Volusian dreadnought then under construction on speculation and the ordering another. They had made all the necessary payments, and a crew was bringing her back—unfinished was preferable, since then retrofits could add Imperial technology could work better.

The money already allocated, that was hardly the only problem. The Imperial economy and that of the Milky Way was capitalist, and Tanda had been raised in a mercantile family and gone to college and prep school in economics and business before studying engineering in the Academy; she still found the details of running a government on such sparse grounds to be utterly daunting. The entire military was on half-pay from the usual Imperial scale, and only buy-in to the magnitude of the Reaper threat and the continually skyrocketing value of the Imperial Credit avoided mass dissatisfaction in the ranks. The rest of the government was a patchwork confederacy built around funding the military, and without the Quarians funding far more than their fair share of that almost by default, it wouldn't work at all.

The finances of the clusters under the administration were thus a constant topic, and the one that saw Tanda suck in bulb after bulb after milky tea. "And the QEQ-1 project continues at the rate of two million credits per week," she concluded, softly. Daro'Xen's posture shifted, and Tanda, by now used to Quarian body language, could tell her smug pride.

"You've done well with the fleet standing up the first wing already, Admiral."

"Thank you, Moff Tanda'Pryl." Daro'Xen, unlike many of the other Quarians, still used the full Quarian mode of address, considering it informal enough.

"Well," Tanda grinned. "I suppose that concludes things. In short, we're bleeding money all over the floor but the military is still funded."

"Are the preparations for shift to a command war economy in place for the Reaper invasion?" One of the Matriarchs asked.

"Yes, and the transition will be a mercy for state finances..."

"But a hardship for everyone else, Moff Pryl. Yes. I commend your delaying it as long as you have."

"Thank you. Well then, let's see... Governor T'Loak says that eezo mining on Omega has increased three percent in the week-by-week, but she has largely maxed out the extraction ability of the equipment on hand."

"She's probably lying," one of the other Matriarchs said.

Tanda shot a look to Shala'Raan, who shared her frustration on the subject when it came up. "I don't think so. There are some fundamental limitations to what one can do, especially since Omega has been mined for so long. The easy veins go away."

"You should go there herself and press her again."

"When my schedule permits," she answered very dryly. "Shall we go on to my next topic at hand? I would appreciate any advice on how to approach the elimination of Cerberus."

"Cerberus has to be deeply entwined in the Alliance defense sectors - the last messages I got from my mother before... anyhow, apparently Cerberus is taking credit for a lot of what's been done, and they've been successfully poaching a lot of people off the Alliance. They're growing in strength, and I'm not sure why, or how." Matriarch Jalessa tapped her datapads.

"They seem to have an alternative state network to rival the Rebel Alliance established in developed systems at this point," Tanda remarked. "I want to eliminate that or at least make it something which cannot impact our Clusters."

Shepard grimaced "We'd need to somehow start cracking their cellular network, Moff Pryl. They're..." The woman looked odd in grey, and still had her odd mannerisms, but; "The Alliance tried—it failed. Cerberus is very deep-seated, and I'm not sure what we can do. If they start trying to exert direct power, then perhaps we will have something, but..."

"I know there's nothing more we can do without the location of their headquarters, but I fear that the end result will be Cerberus launching some kind of attack against us, instead of our common enemies," Tanda answered. "However, it still seems we may have some way to act against them... Somehow. Indeed, I recently received a message from Governor T'Loak that the Illusive Man was seeking access to Omega as a supply base for stealth ships heading through the Omega 4 relay. So you see, Dea is very merciful. Can we take advantage of this?"

Shepard frowned. "... That depends, what would we be able to roll up, and what's he planning...?"

Tanda gazed down to her table. "You recall when he wanted you to preserve the Collector Base? Clearly they're plumbing it for Reaper artefacts."

Admiral Quirin grimaced. "I think we should let them build up a modest presence there and then attack it with the intent of acquiring Cerberus higher-ups who may let us have an insight into the top levels of the organisation, and perhaps computers showing the location of their main base. We may have to risk letting them have access to the Collectors to ever have a realistic chance of obtaining that information."

The idea made Shepard uncomfortable. "That... seems like a plan, but we'll have to be careful. You see, Cerberus has a habit of creating... horrors."

"Yes, but we have a prodiguous weight of fire, and unless they're going to let the Reapers into the Galactic Core, I don't see how that can be changed."

"As you say, Admiral."  
Shala'Raan leaned forward "..Do you disagree with Admiral Quirin, Captain?"

"No, ma'am. Just... think this is going to bite us somehow."

Tanda tapped a gloved hand on the table and looked at the group of Quarian Admirals. "So what are your own opinions?"

"They have attacked the flotilla most treacherously. You invite much risk by this action, but if you wish to gain a grip, you have no choice." Shala'Raan spoke, gesturing with a hand. "There will be a price."

"Perhaps we should not let it fester for _too_ long, though," Daro'Xen added almost laconically, tracing a finger on the table.

"Once the first voyage is unmolested, we may hope the second contains more valuable people and cargo... I will try to minimize the risk that way, but we must take some risk, or else we're opening ourselves to... Frankly, my concern is that Cerberus will become indoctrinated."

"Assuming they aren't being so already, ma'am. A lot of pieces of Sovereign went missing," Shepard looked around the table, feeling profoundly outranked. Nobody really wanted to hear what she was saying, either.

Tanda put her hands against her faceplate. "If I knew where they are, I'd wipe them out. As it is... Let's hope that's not the case."

"Are we ever that lucky?" She had a wry tone in her voice as she said it—she might wear the uniform, but she sure as hell didn't have the attitude.

"The Empire makes its own luck." Tanda straightened. "This is a delicate and severe time. We must be prepared for the Reapers to arrive at an unexpected time and place. We may hope the removal of the indoctrinated Batarian government has prolonged the time to their invasion even further than we had expected, but cannot obtain certainty in the matter. If Cerberus is indoctrinated then we must destroy them rapidly, certainly, but that requires knowledge of where their facilities are. And for that, the risk of trapping them in investigating beyond the Omega Four relay is... Simply a requirement."

There were glances back and forth along the table. What she spoke was true... but it still left them in a horribly delicate situation. Tanda left the conference and sent her response to Governor Aria T'Loak:

 _Governor T'Loak, we want to lure them into a trap. Let them through the Relay and begin monitoring their coming and going and forward this to Imperial intelligence for a substantial reward._

The usual message bounce took a few hours, as she was settling down to sleep. _Those assholes are trying to get onto my station already—sure thing._

 _If they attempt to assault Omega feel free to send a warning and the matter will be dealt with. Cerberus is a high priority target at this stage in our operations, and your assistance is valued._

 _Yeah, yeah, you tell all your puppet rulers that... I'll keep you posted._

-

The next two weeks were peaceful, still. On Mils, they said it was one of the finest summers the planet had ever had, and the Asari organised festivals to celebrate the good harvest. Tanda couldn't bring herself to attend. Not without Tali. In the end Shepard dragged her there, and that night, when she returned to the _Thunderflare_ , it all came together.

There was another glaring message waiting for her from Aria T'Loak. _...I need to leave for Thessia. Something's come up. When I get back, every Cerberus or ex-Cerberus on the station will die._ Maybe she knew and maybe she didn't that this would trigger a major crisis meeting of the Imperial high command, but it surely did.

She watched them stagger in, from the composed Quarians to Shepard looking bleary eyed with a massive thermo. Tanda, reduced to drinking it out of straws, looked on envious. There was the Admiralty board, and the two Republic Admirals from Ova, Shepard, Tasiele. Samara recused herself on account of the code, never wanting to deal with matters involving Aria.

Tanda tapped her fingers on her desk. She did a lot of that nowadays, with what little else she could express herself by. "This isn't normal behaviour for Aria. Omega is _her's_. it's why I've left it in control of her. She also seems to imply that the station is completely under Cerberus control by these implications. Considering our close our control in the Omega Sector already proceeds... I don't like this. They're too close to our people and they've driven our reliable mercenary out of her position controlling Omega. I think my promise of leaving it untouched has been revoked by Governor T'Loak fleeing."

"... Is she fleeing?" Shepard asked a bit... hesitantly. "She wouldn't have told you if she was, honestly, her pride... Is something to be felt." The woman toyed with her fingers on the table. "Look, I've met her, talked with her... I... don't think she's lost Omega. I think she's _losing_ Omega. Something to draw her off the station and let Cerberus work into power over it when she's not there."

"Are you saying we should wait to act? Governor T'Loak has to know that an abrogation of her control over Omega would bring down an Imperial response."

"... Let me inquire to some sources as to what's going on first, ma'am, and then we can come to a decision with as much information as we can, but... I don't think warning orders for an operation would be wrong."

"It shouldn't require much effort. I can continue to keep the bulk of the fleet a secret."

"Of course, ma'am." She had slipped into being a bit more comfortable where she was, but... listless watching of ANN segments on the manhunt for her had started to slip into Shepard's day, wincing as her decisions started to... get second-guessed and ripped to shreds.

Tanda waved her hand. "Enough! The Captain's proposal is good enough. Go ahead and make the investigation, Captain. I'll make preparations for a taskgroup of _Thunderflare_ and _Bombard_."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Tanda was wondering about her own future as she left the room, the entire meeting coming off as futile. She had committed herself to defend this galaxy... But she somewhat badly at this point would rather send Tali'Zorah back to her own _before_ doing it, rather than have Tali fight at her side. One of the liveships would take centuries to manage the voyage, but might do so— _then I'd have saved the Quarians no matter what._ But it was maternalistic. She was lonely, and felt time running out, even as Tali was so far off.

Shepard arrived at Tanda's office only a few hours later, entering when the woman assented with little more than a grunt, her face grim and sad. She'd gotten an answer.

"... I found out why she's leaving Omega." Shepard audibly sighed. "She's burying her daughter. I don't have a lot of details, but some ex-Cerberus turned mercenary seems to have slashed her throat over a shipment of red sand. He's missing, and Aria's ready to murder."

"...That is a terrible development. Do you have any information about it I can give to ... Well, is Miranda reliable for this?"

"She doesn't work for me anymore, but... going up against the 'bad' parts of Cerberus, and not the duped ones? She's reliable." the woman replied, gesturing with a hand. "If it was Cerberus, the question becomes whether or not this mercenary was really ex- or not... but I don't think Aria's going to care."

"Thank you, Captain Shepard." Tanda put together the message to her head of intelligence. _An ex-Cerberus mercenary killed the daughter of Aria T'Loak. I'm going to send you all the information we have so you can work your own network, Director. This threatens our arrangement with Omega and risks a resumption of piratical activities in that sector if we don't assist her in retaining control over the station._

 _Understood. I'll get my people on it at once._

Tanda looked up. "In better news, Captain, Commander Zorah thinks her team is near a breakthrough with the geth."

"That's good to hear. We could use their help. Granted, we could use anybody's help... ma'am." She stiffened a bit to a more military posture. "It still doesn't feel like enough."

"I'm not sure it is." She sighed inside of her suit and wrung her hands. "If they prove loyal allies I am just going to hand over all our technological plans... Their manufacturing base might turn the tide, then. "

"Of course, ma'am."

"I remain somewhat tempted to send away one of the Quarian liveships. To my home galaxy, you know. But I am afraid it wouldn't last the voyage, as it might take centuries with a Class X backup hyperdrive. And they'd have to repair it themselves if it malfunctioned."

"I think we can win. And I don't think one LiveShip of Quarians is enough. Too much risk. They might just die for nothing. We _can_ win, Moff Pryl." It was as though the need to cheer her up brought a resurgence of her own spirit. "The odds are hardly hopeless."

"I hope so."

"I know so, Moff Pryl. And I know you, and I, and Tali'Zorah, will all be at the forefront of it. You've changed the game. We're going to stop them."

"As the Captain says," Tanda answered. "Well, then. They will hide as best as they can."

"And all three Liveships can flee until the very end. Reapers can't interdict hyperdrive."

"You're right," Tanda sighed. "I knew it was foolish. Thank you."

"I'm just trying to think of what's best for the Quarian people... And for the wife of my best friend."

"You are a good friend to her, Atarah Shepard." She laced her fingers behind her neck. "Very well then. We will await developments on the situation in Omega and prepare to intervene decisively once Cerberus have exposed themselves. This will involve an expedition to the centre of the galaxy again to deal with whatever they are doing with the debris. Operations should be in high readiness to execute directives to that effect... I don't know how much time until Aria returns to Omega and the denouement of her desired revenge."

"I'm sure it's something horrifying, ma'am—and that assumes the Reapers give us all the time we want."

"We'll deal with it if they don't. I'll take a raid straight through that relay first thing to eliminate the Cerberus presence at that point. I can't have them in my flank."

"I'm sure they'll be annoying somehow—anyhow."

"Doubtless." Tanda was a little surprised at how Shepard had gotten her to grin again. "Thank you, Captain."

"No problem, Moff Pryl."

Shepard started to turn away when a slightly out of breath Miranda came skidding into the office, her eyes wide and frantic. "Shepard, Moff Pryl. Khar'Shan comm buoys have gone dead."

"Any message before they were lost?"

"Nothing coherent, a lot of garbled orders—declaring the Hegemony was under attack. It stopped in less than an hour."

Tanda unlaced her fingers, and forced her trembling hands down to the table. "The Reapers."

"That would be my estimate, Moff Pryl." She stood there once again poised, unshaken, her breathlessness only from her breakneck run to give the news in person. "I believe they have arrived."

"Thank you." Tanda stared past both of them and into the wall, long and hard. "Make the appropriate preparations here. I'm taking a small squadron to Omega to deal with some business there. Then I will return and take stock of the situation's evolution. Have our ambassador inform the Council, for what good it will do."

"Understood. The Alliance is mobilizing. So are the Turians. We do not have sufficient sources to be certain of the salarians or asari."

"We should be prepared to initiate Operation Interdict," Shepard coughed gently.

"Prepared?" Miranda looked hard. "It should be executed at once. The only concern is refugees who may choose our clusters as a destination, and we have ships enough to rescue them where they drift."

"I'll allocate the reservation squadron for it immediately," Tanda answered. Her own voice was calm, too. "I was going to hold off until confirmation... But you're right. Thank you, Director. Those orders will be sent immediately and then I'll make my own preparations to depart."

"Of course, Moff Pryl. I will begin counterintelligence measures at once on our planets to search for any indoctrinated persons amongst the refugees."

"Yes. In this situation mistakes in the wrong direction are... Martyrs to our shared survival. Make your preparations and act with decision."

"Detention should be sufficient unless our worlds come under direct attack, Moff Pryl." She gave a small smile. "May the Force be with us."

"May the force be with us."

Shepard smiled tightly as Miranda departed, and faced Tanda. "Orders?" Her was clipped. The war that had consumed her for so long, an apocalypse in dreams and visions seen, had begun.

"We should have Omega, Sigurd, and Rosetta and Titan functionally locked out of the rest of the network without large advanced warning within two weeks of towing at high sublight, but we'll still be able to use the relays for internal communication, and we'll have our contact with the geth at Rannoch. Please... Make sure that the team returns safely and the geth are safely on our side, Captain. That is your order"

"Understood. I'll get under-way immediately. Force be with you, Moff Pryl."

"And with you." She rose, and shook Shepard's hand. "How do you say it?"

"May the Lord of Battles grant us victory," Shepard answered.

"Dea bless you, Captain." She went to the bridge, and Shepard to the hangar bay. "Set course for the Omega System and signal _Bombard_ to fall in. All leaves are recalled indefinitely. Bring all crew aboard and stand by to depart. Get me an all-ships signal."

"What is the signal, M'lady?"

"War warning."


	48. Chapter 48

...There was a Cerberus fleet surrounding the station. An honest-to-goddess fleet, and not a small one. A dreadnought action group like the Alliance favoured, with a single one and a carrier at the heart, six cruisers, four troop transports, fourteen frigates. Even the Imperial officers just _stared_ , for a long moment.

"...I had not been expecting this, M'ladyship..." Kesea was serving bridge rotation, now, with the vast expansion of the fleet, and she couldn't help but goggle. "Orders?"

"Condition One! Action Stations! Stand by for close combat. Maximum power to deflector screens, all starfighter squadrons standby for launch." ...It was the Empire, still. Tanda had been waiting for this opportunity for a while.

Ahead of them, despite the odds which two Star Destroyers stood for, the Cerberus ships were forming up, launching their own fighters, and assuming formation to establish a cordon around Omega. Speaking of the station, heavy fighting was ongoing on Omega, that was clear. There were sometimes even flashes visible from space. "Imperial vessels! We fight for humanity—what of you?"

Tanda stepped back to the holoprojector, but the image was audio-only. "The same. Who is in command?"

"General Oleg Petrovsky. Any attack on this fleet... will be met by the destruction of the Omega station and all within it."

"Hold course to the Omega Four Relay and make it look like we mean it," Tanda ordered after muting the pickup, and then returning.

"Why should I care about Omega, General?"

"It lies within an area of space declared to be under your protection," the General answered. He knew that his attack was a provocation. "Nonetheless, Cerberus has need of it."

"General, people obey the Empire, not the other way around. You are conducting military operations in my territory without my authorisation. Cerberus refused to cooperate with me, forcing me to take my own measures against the Reaper threat." She allowed an ominous silence to hang for a moment. "You are now behaving in a hostile fashion to the Empire."

"I have stated my position, Moff Pryl."

"The Reapers are invading the galaxy as we speak, General... We have run out of time for these games! ...And there is an opportunity for an ambitious man in the Empire."

"Ah. Now you have my attention, Moff Pryl."

"General, we need to have a united front against the Reapers. This can only be obtained by total and strict cooperation. A fratricidal conflict would win us nothing, but I cannot permit this sort of violation of Imperial sovereignty, and I don't have an idea of what was meant to be gained from it. The Illusive Man is following a dangerous, foolish course. "

"I care about my men and humanity, Moff Pryl. I have orders to take this station for Cerberus. Indeed, I have almost achieved the go... you fool, you did what?! ... Pardon me, Moff Pryl, I must deal with a situation. Petrovsky out."

"Are they trying to keep us from going through Omega Four?"

"Negative, Your Ladyship." Came from one of the officers watching the tactical display, as Kesea stood forward on the bridge, issuing helm corrections.

"Then we're going through. They wanted something on the other side of the Relay, and we're going to remove it. Lieutenant! Aim for the relay."

"Standing by to jump," Kesea answered.

"Execute."

... _Thunderflare_ , then _Bombard_ , right back into the heart of the galaxy. _De ja vu, they call it?_ She thought idly to herself.

There was wreckage on the far side. Recent wreckage, now mingling into the dispersed and shattered remnants of the great field of derelicts that had been consumed by the destruction of the Collector Base. Looked to be freighters of some type, and a station built into one of the asteroids that remained, also new and of human technology.

But no ships. No signals. Nothing but recent rad-spikes from nuclear warheads and the tumbling wreckage. It seemed a farcical shadow of what had been here before. But it still felt malevolent.

"Can life be detected on the station?"

"... Negative, it's been repeatedly struck by kinetic weapons, Moff Pryl."

"Target, maximum firepower..."

"Central Battery Director confirms," Kesea replied.

"It seems we waited too long and now whatever they have done has been achieved. Well, we'll make it right. Destroy the station and we'll return through the relay to deal with Omega. You may fire when ready."

Both Star Destroyers opened fire on the asteroid simultaneously. Two hundred metre long turbolaser bolts were flung from their main batteries, converging into the heart of the asteroid and vapourising vast sectors of it, sending it spinning toward the whirling immensity of the black hole. They continued to fire. The thing was slagged, somewhat satisfyingly in the span of only minutes.

"It would have been nice if it had only taken thirty minutes the last time we were here," Tanda remarked softly. "Medium turbolasers finish the wreckage of those freighters in case they have anything unpleasant onboard. Bring us about toward the Relay."

"Aye, Your Ladyship." Kesea turned back after giving the orders. "Moff Pryl, do you think that whatever distraction General Petrovsky was dealing with will keep them from responding to us?"

"Stand by for an ambush," Tanda answered, the words ground out. "Have _Bombard_ wait exactly three minutes before following us through."

"Stand by to come about! Prepare for action at point-blank range when we emerge from the relay!"

...Still on alert, they plunged back through the relay, Tanda cursing her own patience. Now she had not only lost the connection to Cerberus, but let this Cerberus fleet humbug her security zone and make a mockery of her sovereignty

Cerberus fleet!

Not even frigates, cruisers—no, a full combat group!

She was still chewing and stewing on her furious thoughts when a series of warp grav bombs exploded against their shields, massive shockwaves hammering them, twisting _Thunderflare_ right down to her bones. Tanda and Kesea kept their feet; the rest of the standing officers were sent flying, the very metal of the ship seeming to vibrate around her.

Then the shields shuddered again as the Cerberus fleet opening fire drove mass driver rounds and thanix cannon fire into them right behind the bone-rattling hammering.

"Microfractures in the shield generator mountings, we're going to have to bring the shields off-line to conduct repairs!"

"Haul out! Haul out!" A string of explosions hammered the shields again. "Check fire!"

"Check fire?"

"Light batteries only!"

The multi-purpose Taim and Bak cannon interposed across the hull, and the light ion cannon with them, started firing into the enemy. More mines detonated, including one against the hull that the thrusters burned hard to compensate for, but then they were clear.

They had at least detonated all the mines and cleared a path out with their shields for their sister, a path they immediately transmitted heading for when _Bombard_ came through, watching as she promptly retaliated with massed ion cannon and heavy turbolaser fire. The Cerberus dreadnought saw a ripple of explosions vanish her bow into a wreath of plasma the moment the fire began to hit.

"Damage control, full report on internal shock damage! Check all batteries before clearing them for firing, I don't want any attempts to use a turbolaser with a sheared mount! Clear the starfighters for immediate launch... Get our magnum deck strike out there!"

She let _Bombard_ take the enemy fleet, for a moment. For that long moment, the VSD-II stood against twenty ships, turbolaser cannon blazing from stem to stern as she was wreathed in fire from their massed guns. Long enough to sort out just how badly they'd been hit, with _Thunderflare_ 's starfighters surging in support, TIE Bombers moving toward the dreadnought which was looking much worse for wear, now.

"Clear the boards! Damage report by sectors!" Tanda bellowed as damned loud as she could amplify her voice from the suit.

She'd been shaken up-casualties, broken bones, broken monitors—like a submarine after a hard-depth charging, dozens of minor things wrong, a few major not functioning... Two cannons dismounted. There might be microfractures in structural components, but if there were it was not immediately apparent, nor critical. Star Destroyers had plenty of reserve strength in their hulls.

Ahead of them, Cerberus fighters were streaking in to engage _Thunderflare_ 's—the Cerberus fleet was now concentrating on _Bombard_ , though, trying to hammer her shields down and disable her. For now, Thunderflare was only being harassed by smaller vessels, frigates and fighters. They clearly thought they'd disabled her in some way, and had a real chance against _Bombard_ alone.

"Shield status?"

"We're got sprayplas molds in and we're pouring quickset ferrocrete into the mounting brackets of the main generators now, Moff Pryl!" Gripsholm had refused promotion and right now Tanda was glad for it. "Give me two minutes for the first fifty percent of hardness to set and they'll take fire from these pikers, but not a MonCal's main batteries."

"Confirmed and good work, Gripsholm. You've kept her running two and a half years without a deepdock and shortly we'll show them we're not dead yet!"

"Just begun to fight in, fact. You've got your shields, M'lady!"

"Deflectors to full power!" The power surged and flared through the generators, the waste heat hitting the ferrocrete and making it cure faster as the burn of the melting plastic moulds twisted noses from the stench of ozone.

Tanda ground her gloved hand into the railing of the bridge and pulled herself straight. She would shortly disabuse them of the notion that they'd crippled her _Thunderflare_. "Come about and engage the enemy!"

 _Thunderflare_ leapt alive, and being so much greater turn of sublight acceleration than _Bombard_ , closed the distance... Quickly. Abruptly the great ISD went from distance to close, her forward and her flank trench turrets ranging on the Cerberus dreadnought with bolts that seemed to transfix the enemy ship at once into a cripple, already battered by _Bombard_ and now caught in two fires.

"General Petrovsky, that was a base treachery against your fellow humans!"

There was no response.

They kept firing on _Bombard_ until the last moment... As _Thunderflare_ rushed in, the Cerberus ships pulled out and started darting away into FTL, as commandeered civil transports near the station started to pull away—Cerberus bombers hammered the processing levels of the great station as the fleet escaped.

"Keep firing! Don't give them a chance to escape..." Tanda watched as the dreadnought tried to follow the light ships... And then exploded, disintegrating into big chunks of metal and armour, the outgassing of oxygen turning to plasma in the bolts flying through it. That atmosphere was the writhing death-field of crew who had survived, and then there was none, a few escape pods spinning away. More merciful than asphyxiation. Tanda watched it without expression, inside or out.

The landing force was still scattering, the first ships calling for others to take the relay somewhere else... it was descending into chaos, as she left ships aflame and burning in her wake, closing in with the burning station. Tanda kept hammering on the ships there, and the bombers, even as they closed up with Omega. "Stand by the Legion and all assault shuttles."

She knew what the Cerberus fleet didn't know. With the main relays gone... Only internal jumps in the cluster were possible... They'd have to fight to get through and risk unwitting destruction in the process. Tanda had inadvertently created a trap for the Cerberus ships, and now was capitalizing on it, using her hyperwave transmitters to coordinate in real time as the two ships mopped up Cerberus around Omega. And that was that for the space battle.

Clearing out the space around them, the shuttles and landers went across. And Tanda personally took the lead... Alive or dead, she owed that much to Aria T'Loak.

What she encountered faced her calm head-on and laughed at it.

-

Reports spun in. Vast strange creatures, blue with tentacles and immense skulls, enormously powerful and teleporting over the battlefield. Creatures that turned you into one of their own if they were able to get ahold of you alive. Mechs and mechanical horrors, and a gang war raging despite the risk of the monsters attacking around them. Chaos, pure chaos, spectacular chaos.

And the sound of that monstrosity, of the Adjutants, revolting down to her very bones. Tanda's lightsabre snapped open and she recalled, strongly, what Tasiele had told her about Rakghouls. It seemed like she were facing their ken. "Don't let them even scratch you!" She forged ahead...

The first one of the beasts began to appear before her, and she charged it, flicking her lightsabre through it at the first moment as it solidified. It separated into startled chunks as it died and she reversed the blade to take its hands—to be safe. Danger tingled through the force, and she turned to face another. Her left hand summoned power to it and she halted it before it, the blade removing head from body of the monsters so evil in their portents that they chilled her even as she fought.

"This is what your Reaper technology brought you? This is what your research bought you?!" She screamed to no-one in general as she advanced, trembling, while her soldiers closed rank and fired continuously behind her. She meant, though, the Illusive Man.

"The RAKHOUL PLAGUE?" Tanda screamed, and leapt into the air by the force alone, falling forward into another group that she removed the arms of, the writhing blue tentacles. A moment later their heads went to the floor.

Dead Cerberus bodies of those killed or suicide in the face of both resistance and the Adjutants awaited them, next, reassuring Tanda that the monsters could not be formed from the dead as well as the living. Even then, bullets flew at them from the gangers, and... it was only when they advanced into clutter... That the gangers started to fall back in the face of the overwhelming and growing Imperial firepower.

Then the Adjutants appeared again... Just for the first one to be slammed into a wall by biotics hard enough to nearly explode, and there was an angry female voice; "Get the fuck off my station!"

Tanda laughed in relief. She was growing fond of her crimelord. She deactivated the lightsabre and faced the woman and her retainers approaching from the other direction over the corpses of Adjutants, heads severed.

"How's the Quarian fetish working out for ya?" Aria asked sourly in response to the laughter.

Tanda wondered why the hell she liked Aria, again. "Aria, the Reapers are invading the galaxy. We're eliminating the Cerberus agents, and I am not going to stop until they're all gone; but I want their survivors to interrogate. We need to work together now, full stop. It's clear from this... Nightmare, that Cerberus is engaging in research into Reaper artefacts. They're too stupid to realise it, but as we both know, that will turn them into a conduit for the Reapers to further advance into our galaxy. Give me high ranking prisoners and I'll leave. Otherwise you'll keep getting my help even though you don't want it."

"Fuck!" That seemed to sum things up, a submachine gun in her hand and a crackling scent of her energy from her biotics warning of the unseen power far greater than a submachine gun. "The fucking things are everywhere, they hijacked ships from the other side of the Relay, and Cerberus offered to 'help'. You saw how that went. They've done a fucking number on my people, and that's left the rest of this scum smelling blood." She slapped a fresh clip in. "Alive, fine, yes, undamaged, fuck you."

"I'll work with that. So how do we finish killing these nightmares, first all? Do we know where the majority of them are?" She used her omnitool to send a fairly urgent request back for... Support, of the force-using kind, even as reports scrolled back to her of the engagements as the relays were being moved. She didn't want to expose her men to these beasts in great numbers when force sensitives could combat them so reliably, particularly if they were indeed like Rakghouls.  
"Shoot the fucking sacs on their backs, don't let them poke you with those mouth things, and they have... arm cannons that'll fuck you up good."

Tanda laughed again, a bit hysteric and amused that she'd inadvertently disabled their most dangerous weapon first.

Aria glared daggers at her and continued. "They hunt in packs. Anyplace that's still held by the gangs should be good, but they overran the industrial and eezo processing levels. It's a warren and now a nightmare in there."

"I'm summoning reinforcements to help you deal with them, then. We can clear them here and contain them. Let's work together. I have generals to organise my troops, it's best for me to stay on the front with this..." The renewed humming blade was a giveaway. Tanda would help Aria personally.

"Good enough. Fucking Cerberus. I'll have to start calling in favours to undo this damage."

"I underestimated them. I wasn't expecting a fleet of this size, or their brazen confidence in operating here."

"Who the fuck would, and it's Omega. This would be a fucking diversion. I have an eezo hoard, but that isn't all _that_ damned important."

"A diversion from what? I've got massive defensive fleets over multiple worlds. Hrrm. Maybe the Illusive Man is launching a coup on Earth." She deactivated her blade again as they walked together from the lack of any immediate threat.

"Don't ask me that crap, I need to get my station under control. I'll sort out the rest of the galaxy later."

"As the lady says."

"Don't be so fucking smug, look at what your laser sword games did to you! Now just help me kill the damned things!"


	49. Chapter 49

...They ran into a few packs of the things, working through the public areas of the station. With Asari biotics in both the Imperial forces and Aria's followers, they pinned the Adjutants down for Tanda to get in close to. Her armoured suit conferred real protection, but she never needed it, because they never touched her. Her swinging lightsabre blurred energy into the blue, viscous 'blood' and turned shots from their arm cannon when they did manage them. Parts flew, and she alternately dismembered them or turned behind one to sever the sack, sometimes pausing to sweep her hand through the air and drive ichor from her suit.

Strangely, she felt the greatest flickers of temptation when she turned back into the force simply to brush the remains of the hideous anti-life from herself. That act, delicately selfish, was a temptation greater than the killing itself. It wasn't really killing. It was more undertaking, though the corpses had been hideously defiled.

Suddenly there was a stillness. A few blaster bolts salvoed off in the distance. But the rest of what was around them was only a deathly silence. A silence of the grave, it seemed like. Yet there were living all around, herself included, and Aria coming up to her side.

For a moment, the Asari woman gently put a hand on her shoulder. Tanda let her lightsabre fall, deactivating it and holstering it. _This is what is coming down upon us. But worse._

"Come on, we need to bash a few gang heads now, too," Aria said. The gesture had been as much as she could allow herself. "I've got the industrial sectors locked down. They can be cleared after these stupid assholes stop shooting each other... good work with that thing. And I don't know what the fuck the Illusive Man's up to, yet."

"You want to deal with the gangs first, then, before going into the industrial levels." She checked a status report on the progress of her stormtroopers through her Omnitool.

"Well, they're making progress. We've largely established a cordon at the sealed industrial barriers. They don't seem to be able to ... Teleport... Through the heavy metals shields there. Small favours, and all that. Blasters go though their barriers just as well as anything else energy based."

"Come with me to Afterlife and let's set up a command station again, then." Aria could be professional, when she needed to be.

"Certainly. I'm bringing in my heavy guns."

"Shepard?"

"And a real Jedi Knight who's fought similar things before, and a few other force users with lightsabres."

"And what's left of my station when it's done, Pryl?"

"Governor T'Loak and whatever she wants to do. This war is too big for me to give a kriff," Tanda resorted to rare lower-class crudity, "about who runs Omega. You're welcome to it if we beat the Reapers, and if we don't, it doesn't matter. Certainly during the war..."

"Well, gonna have to clean house," Aria muttered. "Your popsicle goons will be plenty good for that. Let's get down to it."

"...And that's all I ever wanted."

"Good enough... now, come on, we need to take a break if we're not going to do anything stupid out of fatigue."

"Certainly." She padded quietly after Aria, wondering where they'd head—and how her fiancee was doing with the _Normandy_ racing to retrieve her. And Tanda, looking very much the Quarian. That reflection in what mirrors still hadn't been shattered—gray suit, red scarves, blue cape, even now in battle—drove home her alienation from herself. She was acutely aware of her desperate desire to _not_ look like Lord Vader.

...Afterlife, their destination, or at least what was left of it. It was Aria's hub and home in the station, as the woman flopped onto her couch, the bodies mostly cleared away, but 'normalcy' needed to be seen to return.

For the ruler of a powerful nation, Tanda was very assuming in flopping against the side of the couch on the ground in front of Aria—but she was still up against the couch, on the ground, head to Aria's side as Aria set above her—almost cozy, almost intimate. She commed in her position and told the legion to finish sealing off the mining and industrial areas and that no guard was required. It was a gesture of extreme confidence.

Aria looked down. "Not interested in an affair with a Suitie, human or otherwise."

Tanda sighed and shifted away a bit. "In the suit it's hard to really judge or notice personal space, Governor."

"So, what the hell do you eat in there? Don't know if what you were doing is like biotics, but I'm hungry enough to have gone through all my calorie packs... here, let me hook you in, you should get a bit better data-feed that way..." She tapped, giving her an extranet connection.

"Shit. I eat shit. I used to dine on all the finest food in the galaxy, and now I eat shit. That's been ground into a pulp and fed through a straw." She folded her hands on one knee, cocked up in front of her, and smoothed the scarf over it, staring at the wall.

"That sounds like it fucking sucks. Is it really worth it?"

Tanda thought of Tali. Her lips twitched to a smile. The food didn't seem so bad, then. "You kriffin' bet it is, Governor."

-

Slowly the inhabited parts of the station fell under Imperial control. Almost two legions of troops with heavy equipment more than sufficed, and the Spacetroopers were virtually immune to any threat from the Adjutants. AT-PTs were able to deploy through the corridors of Omega, too.

 _That_ made a very short of their enemies. Tanda hung back, and turned herself into a flying fire brigade to stop Adjutants testing their defences up to the moment that the industrial areas were properly sealed and shielded. She stayed away from directly killing the gang members and Cerberus troops, and left that to her men.

With Tanda at her side, Aria had her station back under her control, even if a dangerous enemy was contained within the greater part of it, the population was safe. That was so much easier here on a station than on a planet.

Still, the call for assistance had gone out. Against the unique and hideous threat that the Adjutants posed and the need to resume eezo mining on Omega, every force-sensitive with a lightsabre in the Empire was being asked to concentrate.

While Tanda used her suit interfaces to direct operations while living out of the Afterlife, orders rushed through the disparate territories she ruled. Ships with tractor beams bore down their drives and dragged Relays which had not moved from their orbits in millions of years. They were shutting down, and they were going to stay that way. Intergalactic commerce would slowly grind to a halt. But her own worlds could maintain their connections, and if it gave them even just a few more days, it would be worth it.

Shepard hit Rannoch in a hot landing, packed the team aboard the newly hyperdrive equipped SR-2, and got under-way again, with a few Geth Primes to help because why not at this point? Tanda was calling, and Shepard intended to oblige her.

"Joker, let's see how well she moves!"

They started out slamming through relays—it was the only way to do this in such a short timeframe, and hoping she didn't run into anything she didn't want to—and then shifted to hyperdrive on approaching Imperial space. The Class III was a slug compared to the Mass Relay network, but laughed at any FTL anyone else could come up with. Tali had her head and hands instantly full of maintaining it and the rickety components of Quarian technology pushed to the bleeding edge which barely made it work.

The news that there were Geth on the SR-2, Geth volunteering to collaborate with them, and that the operational efforts of her wife had borne such fruit... They were not weak allies. It made Tanda woop inside of her suit when next to Aria. The almost childlike exuberance was so out of character that Aria looked up and just stared. "So the geth aren't siding with the Reapers. Some good news... Apologies, Governor."

"Good for you, you mean." She was feeling vicious about it, too.

"For all of us. You're in this war too now, Governor. It's happening right here, every Adjutant is part of it. As I've been saying."

"I don't have to fucking like it." She snapped back, boiling with barely suppressed rage.

"None of us have to. We just have to Hold the Line." She folded her hands behind her back and paced, slower than she would have once before to keep her breath in line, though her ability to function with 100% oxygen in the suit was steadily improving. "You may not like it, Governor T'Loak, but Omega will burn as well as Mils... And Thessia will burn as well as Terra. This is the war of life and death."

"My daughter already _lost_ that war, Moff Pryl."

"Do you want her to be unavenged?"

"Shut your fucking trap, Moff Pryl. As long as we're fighting Cerberus too, I promise you I'm in this twice."

"As you say, Governor." She drew her cape around herself. "You're the best of my Systems Governors, I must say. Thank you." She stepped away to her own staff meeting, and didn't turn for the inevitable answer.

"Fuck you too, Moff!"

Tanda shrugged and headed out. She was essentially content trying to hold the line with Aria, even as they did not precisely get along considering their respective visions of what to do. They could certainly kill Adjutants and break heads in the fighting gangs, and... Tanda very stubbornly stayed by Aria's side and covered for her. She ignored the insults with a kind of bemused detachment that she credited to the intercession of Dea teaching her to be calm. It was all she could do.

Aria's habit of charging ahead did not help Tanda's sense of stress, but they still worked well enough as a team no matter how much Aria loathed her. And how much Tanda had once detested Aria as the ultimate form of criminal she had held in contempt back home. Aria using the comms on a regular basis to keep it all under control, the existence of separate comms lines going to the respective two leaders didn't help, but when Aria returned, she was calm enough, and with good reason; her own commanders had confirmed what Tanda had already told her.

Tanda tried to put a cheery air to it. "Well, we've cleared the industrial sectors, so should just be some trivial mopping up and we can prepare for the next phase... How much more effort will be required for that?" She paused, sucking down ration slurry in between talking.

"I was thinking I'd just, you know, go ahead and hire every fucking mercenary in the galaxy for the job then hand the fleet over to you to fuck Cerberus with it."

"I was going to use my troops for it... I admit mercenaries are rather more expendable. I'm receiving reports of some very good progress against the Cerberus ships, by the way. They've had some trouble escaping, though I am afraid to say, that also means recruiting mercenaries... May be very difficult."

"... The fuck did you do, woman?" She gave a sharp, questioning look.

"The one way to make a Reaper invasion of the Empire's Clusters very difficult. I had my reserves—some older ships restored to service, you might say—tractor beam the main cluster-to-cluster mass relays into deep space. They're still in the process of doing it, in fact, and the more time they have, the better. This meant the Cerberus ships fleeing found no relays for them to leave... Or if they tracked them down, a cruiser shooting at them."

"Fuck me. You stole the mass relays."

"I burned the land around me as I retreated. It's as old as war itself." She tossed away the ration pack. "Anyway, if you have a hyperdrive it doesn't matter."

"...Right. Well, the people who owe me favors... don't."

"Aria, you know that this materially increases our chances of survival. I'll provide assistance to you to compensate for it, including transport assets, if this is required."

"Fair. Good enough. Just..." She trailed off and started laughing. "You, woman, you do not fuck around. I like that."

"I'm all that's in sight fighting the Reapers, and I'm going to fight them hard and do what is right."

"Don't ruin my newfound appreciate for you, Moff Pryl."

Tanda wasn't able to finish opening her mouth before Kesea arrived with an urgent message, consciously ignoring Aria as most 'respectable' Asari did. "Moff Pryl, we have an urgent message from _Normandy_ reporting the Shadow Broker's vessel is under attack by a Cerberus attack group and requesting assistance inside the atmosphere of the planet Hagalaz."

"I am fighting a war, not playing games. Aren't we both, now? And now Cerberus is clearly just as much the enemy as the Reapers." She took the report in frustration. "Where too next, Aria?"

"Just have to clean up the Blood Talons and we're set for the final operational phase." That troublesome group was holed up in a single machinery room that they couldn't risk bringing the AT-PTs in, and they had played games long enough; there was no time to starve them out without becoming bogged down around Omega.

Tanda read the report again and handed the flimsy back after valiantly resisting the urge to throw it. "Tell them that we understand the diversion," Tanda answered. "All right, Aria, lead on then..."

Kesea took a step with them. "Ma'am. She says it's more than Normandy can handle herself, ma'am..."

Aria... continued leading them on the path of putting down the insanity that was Omega. She had a lot of scores to settle to stop this from erupting again. And she _very much_ ignored anything involving the Shadow Broker.

" _Bombard_ has a class one. Detach to assist." Aria would be able to overhear her giving that order, as Tanda continued following her.

"So, is it Cerberus' plan to piss off everybody?" She grumbled, audibly... and came up short. "... Hang on, I need to deal with this. Wait here. Nyreen, what the fuck are you doing here?!"

...Tanda lurked behind a bit anyway. She was inordinately fond of Aria, but that didn't keep her from vicariously intruding in the woman's life.

There was a lot of urgent whispering to each other, some fist-shaking from Aria's part, and then she threw her arms up and stormed away. "Change of plans, we don't have to fuck them as long as Nyreen doesn't do anything stupid."

"I am not aware of this Nyreen before..." She clipped the lightsabre to her belt.

"We had a thing. I thought she left. She clearly hasn't, and fuck if I know why she took over the gang. Thought she was too goody-goody for that."

"I think there's plenty of paths for someone good by your standards to be a gang leader, Aria."

...She gave a look. "... Stop making me not like you. Come on, shit's dealt with enough for now. Fucking Cerberus."

"My apologies. I am trying to bring people to assist more materially."

"Not your fault, they just... fuck, just... thanks. Don't ask for more than that."

"I won't. I just need Omega to be secure."

"We're going to need to go into the mines for that, and that's why I'm waiting for Shepard, Tasiele Shan, Tali'Zorah and Kesalia. Get enough lightsabre wielders in one place and we'll safely clear them in no time."

"Wait better not be much longer."

Tanda thought of all the other things beyond getting bogged down on Omega that she needed to do, omnitool interface to _Thunderflare_ or not. "You and me both, Governor. You and me both."


	50. Chapter 50

... _Bombard_ came out of hyper to see _Normandy_ frantically dodging a Cerberus cruiser and quartet of frigates chasing her, running away from the planet. Joker shifted course... straight towards her. They had their chance to escape, now, and they weren't going to waste it, _Normandy_ 's engines flaring hard as the battle's odds abruptly changed.

Onboard the _Bombard_ , Captain Turla glanced at the small force of Cerberus ships dryly. He was not amused by the antics of Cerberus, and his own dispassionate, disinterested feeling toward Pryl's association with the Quarians, which had turned to black fear and loathing when she had evidenced her force powers, had been issued a corrective by their base treachery. He no longer doubted that her course of action for the sake of the Empire. Something had gone on inside of Cerberus, and it made Tanda Pryl seem as prescient as her force powers had implied. In the end, Turla simply knew better than to go up against those.

"Alter course four-four starboard and up five degrees. Maintain flank." Turla's bridge radiated the crisp efficiency of the Empire. Even as the fleets died... The Emperor dead somewhere back home. Three star destroyers, one cruiser. They would fight.

"Aye, Captain! Coming about..." The fat had long since been stripped out of the Navy in this galaxy. The helmsman replied with alacrity, and _Bombard_ shifted to cut the retreat toward the gate of the enemy off.

"All turbolaser batteries, you may fire when ready." He folded his hands and stepped neutrally toward the comms banks. "Tell Commander Shepard my complements and instruct her to position SR-2 behind the _Bombard_. We'll make short work of them."

 _Bombard_ tore into the cruiser with all of her forward batteries as Normandy ran for cover, in the meanwhile... It wasn't pretty. She might only have the mass of about two dreadnoughts by local standards, but she certainly had the technological edge. And a single cruiser wasn't supposed to fight two dreadnoughts anyway.

Normandy swung 'round to support, ignoring Captain Turla's instructions to seek cover to the stern of the _Bombard_ , and joining in the kill now that the tide had turned, firing her great Thanix cannons at the Cerberus ships-she could beat up on frigates, if outnumbered, and manoeuvred back in to make it a real knife fight.

Captain Turla watched the antics in exasperation. If they were staying to fight, though, he aimed to make sure that _Bombard_ was going to win as rapidly as possible. He knew the Moff's lover was aboard the frigate, after all...

The turbolasers thrummed out through the hull again and again as _Bombard_ fired. Short work was an understatement. The first shots tore through the hull of the cruiser and her engines flickered and died. The mass driver fire was directed wildly as the frigates turned around to flee.

Shepard, at least, saw the benefit to chipping down the damned Cerberus fleet where they could-the cruiser was as good as gone, and two more cruisers with it, but... well, might as well leave the Illusive Man hopefully uncertain about just what had happened.

That thought was not hard for the Imperial officers to grasp, and they, too, pursued, turbolaser fire tracking them to their doom. The frigates were able to outrun the _Bombard_ , but not fast enough to escape.

Somewhere in the desperation of battle on that cruiser, an engineer brought her drives back up even as their sensors would show in front of them one of the frigates simply vanishing as it was bracketed by a quick succession of volleys from the main turbolasers of _Bombard_.

It didn't reappear, and detecting that she might escape, _Bombard_ re-targeted on the fly as they realised she was bringing power back up. Ion cannon fire raked the cruiser as she came back up, and the short-lived resurgence of power failed into sparking and arcing across the hull. A moment later, the _Bombard_ lashed tractor beams to her and began to reel, escape pods blasting away as she did.

"Take care to secure prisoners," Turla directed, and then opened the comm to the chief Ubiqtorate officer aboard. "Officer Mikkels, I want answers quickly. The mystery of Cerberus operations in this period should be solved, and I don't want any ethical interference from higher up, is that understood?"

"Perfectly, Captain Turla. I'll break any prisoners we take alive before we return to Omega," the Ubiqtorate officer answered.

His aquiline profile silhouetted in the sun as _Bombard_ crossed before the distant system primary, Turla's lips twisted to a smirk. "I know I can count on you. The New Order hasn't quite been undone by compromise, yet."

 _And as long as something lasts... Well, first we wipe these monsters out._ The tractors started reeling in the escape pods, too. Officers on the bridge called out commands and readout reports. At this stage, though he didn't trust their race, he saw even the Asari as reliable enough. They would have their place in what they built in the end.

"Inform SR-2 that she is _urgently_ required at Omega, and should proceed independently at once," Turla directed calmly, and turned back to his cabin. The presence of Ova, almost miraculous, posed some problems, but just as it had been during the rise of the Empire, Turla was quite certain that the old ways weren't coming back. The Ovans, like the people of the Republic forty years prior, were lost and seeking direction. And Pryl would provide it, if she could just see her way through the Quarians.

"Understood, Bombard." The answer of the Milky Way humanity's heroine came crisp and clear from _Normandy_ as she went streaking back off again towards Omega—using hyperspace to bypass the cluster access relays, and leaving the Cerberus personnel to their unwitting fate. For Turla, that was just the way he liked it.

-

Tanda and two Legions with her, one of Stormtroopers, were waiting for the SR-2 on Omega, conducting security checks of the teleportation-interference perimeter with the mining sectors, and making sure that all of the Adjutant corpses were incinerated with flamethrowers and blasters set to burn that they had found in the industrial sectors cleared second. For a while she seriously thought about flooding the industrial areas of the station with organic corrosive drive coolant... The problem was recharging the ships with it afterwards would be a pain. As was the ability to clean it up afterwards that could hobble the eezo production that they still needed, perhaps even for months.

And then finally her reinforcements arrived. Tasiele, Tali, in her armored suit, Shepard... and an Asari in a white armoured lab-coat-like outfit. The Reapers were here... And it had brought them all back together. A half-dozen heroes, concentrated in the same place, even if none of them particularly liked the title.

But all of that seemed rather less important to the dictator of the Empire than knowing again her love who had been so long away. "Tali'Zorah!" Armoured Suit Tali got hugged by another woman in a Quarian suit, thanks very much, immediately and without hesitation to the public scene it made, lovers embracing. Tasiele smiled a little at that. She was still worried about any prospective propensity on Tanda's part to fall to the dark side, but when Tali was about, it seemed so very far away.

"Tanda'Pryl!" ...Tali lifted her fiancée off the ground in a crushingly happy hug, giggling brightly, and having been far enough away from human ways that she reverted to the Quarian address for her fiancée. Shepard had a soft grin on her face from where she was as she watched Tali continuing to stutter out declarations. "I missed you so much!"

...Tanda got out a happy wheeze in return, her breathing struggles far from done, but her desire surging through them as she spoke. "How did you become so strong? Rannoch has been good to you."

Tali giggled again and swung Tanda to face the others in their embrace. "Got to spend time without the suit for a while. Ended up..." Tali wrapped an arm around Tanda more gently. "Well, I'll show you when we can do all of it, okay? And I... knew I'd have to come back. So I was training and practicing... but that's not important right now. You called, I answered."

"Well, it's all coming together now," Tanda answered. "You've been gone so long you haven't even seen the fleet reinforcements, though I imagine you've heard about them... Bringing the Harrowers back to life, that's what we've been up to in logistical terms. We're ready for the fight. We're at Governor T'Loak's headquarters, here... Trying to figure out a bloodless way to finish this battle." She offered a polite hand to Shepard and then looked curiously to the Asari woman. The head gesture was all Shepard needed to see from the Moff, Tanda clearly recognizing the intimate trust and placement of the woman in the group.

"Doctor Liara T'Soni," Atarah Shepard stepped forward. "She'll need transport to Thessia as soon as practical, but you sounded like you needed me here first." Shepard replied, taking the hand—as the asari maiden sized her up. Her eyes had a sort of coldness in them, and a strong reserve that hid most emotions—though a very small smile had flit over her face at Tali hugging Tanda.

"Doctor T'Soni, a pleasure." The grey-suited, red scarf wearing figure stepped forward, and bowed precisely before the Asari. "I fear I must warn you I can't guarantee anyone's safety on Thessia against Reaper operations, and we don't expect them to stay bottled up by Batarian resistance for long."

"Cerberus is trying to stop me from chasing a lead. I think that makes it worth pursuing, don't you?" She asked with a cool tone to her voice. "You have already convinced enough Matriarchs I was not completely insane to where there is more hope than there might otherwise be." Liara didn't like the implications of what Tanda had said, not at all. The thought of Thessia falling to the Reapers... It made her blood boil, even though it was real

Tanda folded her hands rather than offering a glove to Liara in light of it. "It is certainly worth pursuing. I'll put my fastest ship at your disposal for the trip. Unfortunately we've nothing better than the Class One that Bombard and Normandy are fitted with... Hand-building a few fast courier drives for point-five past lightspeed is one of those side projects we never got the time for, and might well be impossible."

"At any rate." Tanda gestured onwards. "The reason I summoned you here, Shepard, is this minor threat we've been having from a horrifying Reaper creation called the Adjutants. Some kind of infectious nano-virus... Very much like the Rakghoul plague in Lady Tasiele's stories."

The statement made Tasiele blanche. "Like the rakghoul plague," she offered with an almost reverent grimness in contemplating _that_ sort of enemy. "I understand why you let them stalemate you, then. That was wise of you, not to risk the lives of your men, Moff Pryl."

Shepard looked between the two with an expression at once confused and whimsical. "... Great. Okay, fine, I'll help deal with 'em..." Shepard gave a long-suffering sigh, as Tali and Liara checked weapons at that sound—the sigh provided warning of imminent combat! "Just a minor threat, huh? They always say that."

"Well, they're blocked off from the rest of the station, but they're utterly infesting the mining sector. I finished the clearing of the industrial sector." Tanda paused for a moment. "So, like the Rakghoul plague: If you get cut with one of the tubes on their body, they re-write your genetic code as you writhe around screaming horribly and then you're one of them. Smart enough to operate starships and weapons, but we expect beholden to the Reapers. It's been... An interesting week."

"Eh, wonderful, exactly like Rakghoul." Tasiele checked her lightsabre.

"Keelah , I'm sorry I missed it... not." Tali hefting a sniper rifle was... new. Tali hefting a Widow was... possibly terrifying.

Shepard gave Liara a look and smiled grimly. "So, ready for old times, new horrors?"

"Shepard, I thought you'd never ask..." Liara's voice contained all the mockery and all the pouting attractiveness one could ask for, and it reminded Tanda that Shepard and Liara were lovers and had been for a while.

"How are things going with the geth?" Tanda glanced back to her fiancée, wary of the question even as she asked it.

"... There's one in my suit right now, which I assure you, is... odd." Tali mumbled... and gestured behind her. ...as an octet of Geth Primes tramped onto the station to join them from the SR-2. Some Imperial guards checked weapons. "Stand down," Tali added. "They're our allies now."

The things were carrying the same damned machine gun Shepard did.

"...That is an incredibly useful force." Tanda tried to be polite as even as she doubted the utility of anything but lightsabres and biotics, and regretted the fact that thanks to Aria T'Loak they had kept Samara far away from this operation, though Aleesha and Kesalia were there... Five lightsabres. "Let's get down to business. Honestly, I'm not seeing any really good way to go about this except, we take all our good biotics, force sensitives, and those geth prime units, and just go in there and kill everything."

Tasiele smiled dryly. "Well, if biotics have been able to keep them at bay already, yes, that should be adequate. I assume there's no guarantee they, say, need to eat? Rakghoul did, so starvation would be an option."

"This is Cerberus," Tanda answered, "so all of their scientists were probably the first wave we battled. No chance of interrogations."

"Yep," Shepard agreed drolly. "As for eating... no, I doubt they have the ability to. I mean, I'm sure we'll find some husk-thing that eats people, but we haven't yet..." Shepard sighed, slapping the gun together. "Okay, really, let's just get this the hell over with. That eezo might help... somebody who doesn't have their head up their ass."

"Well. Let's go... wait. Let me get a flamethrower. Better than the Cain for this," Atarah added, and turned to head back into the transfer tube for the SR-2 before Tanda answered.

"That sounds like an excellent plan. And we should wait for Aria. She is quite impressive and now experienced with fighting them."

"... Right, I'll be going then!" ...That was probably not a good sign, as the woman exited stage right into her frigate, and the Asari she'd brought with her sighed and put her face into a gloved hand.

Tanda turned back to address her directly once again. "Forgive me, Doctor. Perhaps I should dismiss you and the Commander to carry on to Thessia at once. However, I didn't want to expose anyone who I wasn't utterly confident would still be... Who they were before, and alive, at the end of the day."

"I understand." The Asari archaeologist tried to be at once respectful of arguably the most powerful woman in the galaxy, and confident in her own position and knowledge. "It is... merely that Cerberus has just tried to kill me, followed by bribery. It failed, but it leaves me certain that the Illusive Man does not want me to succeed. Time is... likely to be short. I do not know what his goals are... but he clearly wishes to use the Reaper invasion to his own ends."

"And we cannot allow that," Tanda started to pace, restlessness boiling through her Quarian suit that constrained her and sustained her. "After all, that is how all the others fell... This is what i have heard. This is why we attacked Khar'Shan. I am seriously starting to wonder at this point if the Illusive Man is outright indoctrinated."

"It is likely, based on what he has said to Shepard, that he seeks to control the Reapers," Liara replied. She was already learning – learning about Tanda, at once the lover of her friend Tali, and head of the greatest enigma of the galaxy. For all the doubt, it was clear she was focused... As focused as any of the sentients Shepard had crowded around herself to face the Reapers. Tali had done a good job...

"Sheer madness," Tanda was answering, simply, as she paced and thought.

"You're telling me... you destroyed one of his fleets here—though my own estimates are poor in reliability, I estimate that he has sufficient space-going force to fight a Systems Alliance fleet to a standstill, and a large enough level of ground troops to engage in multiple commando-style operations at once." Liara smiled, a little.

"I see." Tanda stopped short, staring into a viewscreen on Omega. "Well, I should like to destroy him completely, so that he cannot cause more problems in regard to the building up of galactic efforts against the Reapers. I would attack his base at once... If I knew where it was."

"I can tell you that his base of operations is likely within Alliance space, near Earth, from a station orbiting a gas giant. I do not believe I will have much time to search further... but I will make the attempt."

"Thank you." Tanda snorted in mild frustration. _Surely Shepard would be back shortly with her flamethrower... The sooner we get started, the better. This game, this charade with the Adjutants, has to end!_

And then so she was - and a full face helmet, because, well, it was a flamethrower. "Right. Let's take on... whatever this is."

"Well, let's get this over with." Tanda led them toward Afterlife to meet up with Aria.

Aria, who was still trying to coordinate things. She glanced up. "... Shepard? Fuck, you are taking this seriously... let's do this, then." She strapped on submachine gun, giving a... challenging glare to Liara as she slipped in beside Tanda, coming between the two women.

"Let's." Tasiele stepped out into the front as they headed to one of the cross-over entrances sealed down by stormtroopers... Eight of them and eight geth primes.

...They had no idea how many adjutants there were...

They attacked in packs.

Tasiele took most of it on herself to lead the way, because Tasiele had fought Rakghoul before, and she was swinging through them, first removing the organs they could infect people with... And then removing their heads, again, and again, with a relentless art, Tanda the second best, staying close and thrust forward, the rest covering the biotics... The flamethower certainly helped, though ultimately Shepard would find it necessary to resort to that wicked, dangerous double-bladed lightsabre of Bastila Shan's.

Tasiele smiled grimly when she did, and redoubled her efforts. With biotics to hold, and lightsabres to attack, guns at range and energy swords close in... One hour blurred to three, three hours to six. Six hours to twelve. They reached the tunnel head. Exhausted, panting, and the place finally silent.

Tasiele closed her eyes and stretched out through the force. "No good to leave even one left to start the infestation again."

"Are we... done?" Tali asked, trying to stretch out a shoulder that was feeling... more than she was comfortable with just right then.

Shepard slumped into a wall—fuel gone, guns mostly empty, and lightsaber having been used far too much.

But Tanda just tossed her lightsabre back into the scabbard on her belt. Her voice exuded confidence. "We're done. Let's get to work on the real enemy. I've got a war to fight, and we don't want to be late."


	51. Chapter 51

"Well, I've finished briefing the Councilors." Tanda looked up from her desk, Tali standing at her side, Liara and Shepard before them. Then, she looked back down. "I'm not sure what more can be done at this point, but it will have to be enough."

"Somehow, I am expecting the Citadel to plant heads in the sand to try and avoid this too... do you need me for anything else, Moff Pryl, or can I be going?"

Tanda and Tali looked to each other. "Ah, Shepard..." Tali trailed off. "Tanda and I are going to get married."

Shepard looked like she'd been punched, and then smiled sadly. I'd love to stay, but..." _But the Reapers are here and I'm from this galaxy with a stake in trying to keep as much of it as possible intact._

"No... No apologies. We'll probably have a second ceremony with my family present; this will be a Quarian wedding," Tanda explained diplomatically, and reached out to squeeze Tali's hand. The Quarian woman was still clearly upset about Shepard and Liara not being at her wedding.

"I'm sorry, Tali," Shepard said softly.

"I understand, Shepard. But ... You understand why I love her, don't you?"

"Oh, I'm _very_ happy for you, Tali. Never doubt it!" Shepard made a gentle sort of warding gesture and smiled. "Watching you come into your own has been a pleasure in these past years."

"Stay alive for that second wedding, then, Shepard," she answered, a hair truculently, but still confident.

"Well. Now that's settled," Tanda sighed a bit glumly. "Commander, do you want to take Doctor T'Soni to Thessia or shall I detail _Rintonne's Flame_ to carry her?"

...She double-checked fleet readiness lists on her omnitool as she waited for the answer. The war was strangely quiet.

"... I think... I need to..." Shepard twisted her hands a bit, and looked to Liara, before biting her lip. Even as Tanda and Tali were getting married, she would have to make decisions keeping Liara away. For the good of the galaxy. And she hated it. "... _Rintonne's Flame_. We'll need Normandy to replace those courier ships you don't have, Tali had some ideas on how to improve the hyperdrive I was going to let her try."

"I'll give you diplomatic status aboard her and you'll be departing in an hour, Doctor T'Soni," Tanda offered by way of reply.

"Thank you, Moff Pryl." She replied calmly. "Shall I be on my own for transport upon arrival at Thessia?"

"I could give you a shuttle."

"It would be welcome, but is not essential. I merely... am unsure if I will reach the end of my path after Thessia."

"As it happens a Tyderium T-4a has a Class 1 hyperdrive as well, just with more limited range, so it would strongly recommend itself in the circumstances." Tanda opened another form and signed off the transfer. "Once you're at Thessia it would certainly serve for a few jumps of transit, though, so it seems the best arrangement. We certainly have plenty of them, and Captain Shepard clearly feels your mission of considerable importance, so I will authorise it. Have authorised it already, rather. There's a simulator on a Bayonet class cruiser, so you can spend the voyage working out how to operate her."

"Thank you, Moff Pryl, that will do wonderfully. Your assistance is... helpful. I will keep you updated if I find anything relevant and useful to your own struggle."

"You're quite welcome, Doctor. I intend to assist as ably as possible. What we've been doing lately is not a recusal from the rest of the galaxy-Operation Interdict, I mean-but rather an attempt to preserve an intact base with a population, resources, industry, and lines of communication, which the Reapers cannot penetrate at will. To me, it is clear that the Reapers work by getting inside of the command decision loop of their enemies. They sever strategic communications and strategic control, remove coordination, and keep their opponents constantly reacting. Otherwise Indoctrination would be superfluous. The relays are pre-planned invasion corridors."

"Yes." Liara frowned, though. "But they are necessary for the rest of the galaxy. Not your forces... and such we can be welcome for."

"I didn't widely disseminate hyperdrive technology because I expected the Reapers would then have an opportunity to copy it before their invasion began." Tanda's comm trilled with a status update. The stormtroopers were beginning to pull out and prepare to depart Omega... Aria had her station back.

"That would be wise. We likely face a great many indoctrinated persons near elements of power... which we will not know of until they act," Liara added glumly.

"That is not quite true. It can be told through the force," Tanda answered, looking back up.

"There are how many of you? A dozen?" The Asari Doctor arched a painted-on eyebrow.

"About that." Tanda's voice told all of the grimace hidden in her mask. "I've tried looking for more, but we haven't really had a chance to conduct thorough searches... And proper training in use of the force frankly takes years."

Her door chimed. Tanda glanced at the entrance monitor. "Jedi Tasiele, please join us."

"The Jedi thought it had to begin with young children, in fact, though it's not really true," Tasiele offered as she entered, grinning at Tanda, who grimaced again.

"I see I'm not shielding myself very effectively against you, Jedi Tasiele."

"I just have considerably more experience, Tanda Pryl. Don't worry about it." She smiled ineffably. "I came to propose that... Perhaps _I_ should travel with Doctor T'Soni. I might be able to get close enough to the Matriarchs of repute on Thessia to make sure that they are not indoctrinated into influencing their e-governance structures inappropriately."

"If you could convince them, it would be... helpful, though I fear that in the event of a Reaper attack... the loss of the comm buoys will quickly lead to a collapse of our normal government and leave only the High Command," Liara answered. She did not like admitting that she thought the Asari government so fragile, but it had to be said now.

"Surely some method of reversion of decisionmaking could be agreed upon. Or at least a directive that any order to cease resistance, negotiate, or surrender will always be false," Tanda replied, pushing her chair back and rising.

Tali reached out and put an arm on her shoulder to calm her. It was an excitable moment for Tanda, who could never well understand civilian truculence, having come of age in an era when it was swept away.

"While it is an effort worthy of being tried... it will not be a simple one to implement," Liara offered.

"I believe we can hold without you out of hope this will yield fruit, Jedi Tasiele." Tanda dipped her head and settled for leaning into Tali. "May the force be with you."

"... Then we should not waste time. I will get my things off the _Normandy_. Shepard..." Tasiele looked across.

"I'll come with you... Liara, come along too, make sure you don't forget anything." The human woman shook herself a bit out of a reverie, and moved to follow. "Moff Pryl. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Tanda watched them go, looked to Tali. "That's Shepard's..."

"Yes. Among other things. She used to be a lot nicer," Tali replied softly.

"This struggle has been wearing on all of you. I saw her smile when we were hugging, though, my darling."

"Harder on her than most. But I probably shouldn't share."

"I understand. So. Let's go ahead and make our preparations for our wedding. Everything is going to high alert, and we only have a few days."

"Got it... let's go." She grinned under her helmet, staying right beside Tanda the whole way. "I've missed you..."

"I missed you so much, too. For a while I was worried... You'd be so happy on Rannoch you wouldn't want to come back." A pause. "But that was silly."

"I'm not vas Rannoch yet, that was _very_ silly... maybe, someday, then we can run around without suits and you can have an oxygen concentrator..." She nuzzled the side of Tanda's neck as they walked, completely uncaring for the opinions of others, with death so close... with... Reapers being here. "But that's as far from here as... any happiness is."

"Happiness is in a short supply right now. But we must live in the moment when it comes to our love."

"Good... because we need everything we can get... on the note of which..." She pushed Tanda up against a wall.

"I should like to very much... I believe so...?" The Imperial Moff stared back, for the moment, just... Two suits. "For now, the Imperial fleet is dispersed," she continued idly, not really thinking about it, but struck by a strange reticience. "...Operation Interdict is to continue until we have some threat to intervene against more directly."

"Enough of that, my love," Tali answered rather more huskily than Tanda had heard from her before, or like a cat that had pounced. "Shall we return to the main body of the fleet—the Quarian fleet—and... Make arrangements with Auntie Raan?"

"... That seems like a really good idea, because I doubt we'll have much time to work with... once the war starts erupting. Yes, that had been what I was planning, wasn't it?"

Tali giggled. "You're getting all tongue-tied."

"So I am. Do you want to send a message ahead, then?"

"... Depends, do you want my father to be ready to ambush us with something... I'm joking. Yes, we should. It will take time to gather what of my distant family there is."

"I will... Pull a little rank to make sure they can all be there. I am sorry there will be none of mine..."

"We can have a second ceremony if we make that work, love. You said so yourself ten minutes ago."

Tanda started giggling, half hysterically. "So I did, so I did. ...So I did, Tali'Zorah."

-

There were some advantages to a Quarian suit. One was that one's feet were never cold when one woke up. Sometimes Tanda had to seize on this trivial improvement against all the restriction on her prior existence, and push it as hard as she could to stay happy. Today, fortunately, wasn't one of those days.

She stirred in bed, half wrapped around Tali. That was easier, too, for the suits provided the exclusion of direct contact that made it possible to sleep together. The ideal of nude lovers entwined in bed sleeping was an absurd farce. For most people, that was just too uncomfortable.

Not in a Quarian suit. Another small favour. She luxuriated in it, as Tali slowly stirred.

"Thank you..." The Quarian girl snuggled into Tanda as the ship's morning dawned.

They had... a bit of time. Tanda ignored the usual naval impulse to leap to her feet like she'd turned in all-standing on Condition Two to hear an alarm at her waking, and instead, Tali could feel her snuggled right back in against her body, sighing happily.

Tali pressed closer into her in return, possessive and happy and uncomplicated in her love. _Mine._ The Reapers were invading, but there was still... time. Didn't half the galaxy still refuse to believe they existed? But the Empire was acting, and action was not yet joined. They had time. They _had_ to have time. What more could they do? Live, and wait. The Empire couldn't be everywhere. A little bit more time...

-

Once again in the afterglow of peace they orbited Mil, reactor humming gently in the deck. _Thunderflare_ , flagship of the Empire of the Milky Way. The fading echo of a distant bell. The last hope of humanity.

None of that, Tanda cared very much for. Her eyes and heart were on her love. The Quarian fleet mustered around them, guarding their shipyards, guarding the capitol, they had all that they needed. Not all that they needed for war, but for the wedding.

It soon became apparent that the main objective of a Quarian wedding came down to dragooning everyone who knew Tali or her father, or her late mother, and especially all of her extended family, too, into one big group and having lots of dancing. Tanda imagined feasting had once been part of this, but marginalized once all the Quarians ended up in their encounter suits. She still arranged for the very best alcohol and smoothies to be prepared by professional chefs, especially Turian ones.

For after all, this Quarian wedding ceremony... Was to be held in _Thunderflare_ 's main hangar bay. Tanda, hostess of her own wedding. It was a testament to how, crippled and in her suit, the Quarians had come to accept her, that the member of the Admiralty Board most suspicious of her, Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh, had volunteered to officiate.

After they'd shifted around assignments as much as could be justified, there were something close to two hundred Quarians on the wedding list... And ten humans, from new friends like Miranda to a few of _Thunderflare_ 's officers. For all that Tanda's race was human, the fact was, here, she might as well be Quarian for the sake of these friendships. They were Tali's, and she was Tali's. The date was set for when all the friends Tali had who could make it would show up-or those who wanted to be there for a wedding of an Admiral's daughter...

They had only days, which meant that there was one very desperate thing Tali and Shala'Raan had to frantically teach Tanda... Wedding dances. For the next three weeks, Tanda felt like she had altogether done extremely little except dance, and stagger exhausted to her desk to sign off on forms.

It was kind of important, though! The success of a Quarian wedding was judged in part by the beauty of the dancing of the participants, and so Tanda threw herself into it with vigour, too, which meant... With music provided and Shala'Raan there... Three weeks of dancing.

Thankfully to Tanda and her dead lungs, they weren't fast. Just... precise. Which was in a way, worse, as they were to be performed in synchronization with Tali, and any of Tanda's party had to perform their own... something that quickly devolved into Shala'Raan volunteering for it for want of anyone able to fill in the role who was truly related to Tanda, with Rael'Zorah on Tali's side.

As they assembled, the Quarians, at least, were treating it as a last great celebration before The War. Granted, there was... also what came before that in the Quarian custom... which now had a lot more meaning than it had.

Each week seemed like rebirth, like a new life gained. Each week where there was no word from Batarian space, and where there were no further attacks... Each day where Tanda's administrative duties, aided by the _Imperial Guide for High Administrative Officers_ , essentially the rules of order of her post, were her greatest concern beyond mastering the Dance...

That was very good. Every day of it was a tiny blessing from Dea.

Tanda was still hardly at ease. She had not had a vacation since she had been _Thunderflare_ 's Captain, since she had been in the Elrood Sector, since before the Death Squadron, since before Endor. Sometimes, she fancied she would never have one again. With the Reaper invasion it even seemed to be a real risk rather than a depressive fit. She worked from the dawning to the falling of each day, each of those days divorced from the reality of her life in the cold hardship of vacuum, each of those days measured in Coruscant time, the time of an imaginary line running through the Senate building, on a planet in another galaxy.

Tali entered, late that night, and quietly intervened into the reverie that passed in her mind for a distraction as she worked through her duties.

..."Tali...?" Tanda looked up, and shoved aside the flimsies.

"We... still need to... link our suits, you know... before..." The young quarian pushed the human wom as she rose back to her bed, and curled up beside Tanda "...Before we go through with this."

Tanda tensed, looking into the wall even as she accepted Tali's touch. The rush of the memory of intimacy flooded through her. And it scared her. She hadn't been sexually intimate with someone, without the suit engulfing both her and her partner... In close to a decade now.

Memories flooded back, and she reeled. Once, so long ago, before the Empire had consumed all she was, and before the Dark Side, she had known this. And now she would have to face this great challenge again, of intimacy. In the face of her own fear and memory.

A wry, sad smile touched her lips, and was mercifully hidden in her mask. "...It might kill me... Okay, let's. I don't think I have any germs left to hurt you with."

"Oh, somehow I think we'll both get horribly ill from this... but we shouldn't die. I hope." There was a soft grin, but with her mask's polarization off, it filtered through. "... Do you just want to go to my room, run the cleaning subroutines, increase the oxygen, and at least have mind-blowing sex while risking our lives?"

Tanda gasped helplessly and leaned into Tali scared, amused, hopeful all at once. "...I'm on the bottom. No matter how you increase the oxygen this won't keep me from wheezing if I'm moving around. So blunt, Tali!"

Tali was openly giggling as led, tugging the Moff down the corridors to her... cabin, which was once again lived in, this time actually having a few honest-to-goddess plants in it, little scrub things she had brought back from Rannoch, but... she cycled the door, brought up the purge program, and waited, dancing from foot to foot in obvious eagerness. "Nerve-stim is not the same..."

There could be no more ceremony than that. She simply waited for the atmosphere to stabilize under the new oxygen concentration... And Tanda pulled off her facemask, and took a greedy breath. At least as long as the suit was partially on, it would still help her chest to breathe. She sighed, and looked across to Tali. "You, now."

Tali gingerly pulled her hood back, then un-did the clasps on the mask, pulling it away from her face - a broad smile, twinkling eyes, and a noticeable blush coloured her face when she did. "This was not quite my fantasy as a teenager..."

"It _was_ mine. We all adapt in our own ways... I admit... Most adventureous I went was thinking about Twi'leks... You're so pretty..." She leaned in and kissed Tali for... The first time.

"Mmmff..." Tali blushed darker, and started to nudge her towards the bed... gently. "I am blue-ish." She giggled, and kissed Tanda again. "I do not believe I have professed my love sufficiently today... or demonstrated."

"Don't worry." Tanda fell in her embrace. "We'll have plenty of time for that. Plenty of time..."

-

...The ceremony only lasted about an hour. There were the formal dances, with a lot of synchronized movement and twisting, playing parts of ancient deities in this... and there was applause! None of her mistakes seemed to be very major ones, as Tali grasped firmly to her at the end, lifting her into the air, spinning her about, and laughing as a cheer spread through the enviro-suited section.

Daro'Xen was a reluctant officiant, but did the job nonetheless, and watched silently at its conclusion.

Tanda flashed a win sign from the air, for her own crew who ultimately would be allowed to watch via tri-vid if nothing else, the wedding being political as much as everything in her life had become. And at the end, gave a short speech. "I thank you all who will view some of this happiest day of my life. As the Empire in this galaxy encounters its greatest challenge that will define it, I am very proud to be with my wife Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare nar Rayya, to prove that... We will all stand together as one against the threats that face us, one nation, strong and completely indivisible no matter race. This is our Empire of the Stars of Our Home—Our home, the galaxy of both Terra and Rannoch, and so shall we hold it."

She had come quite a long way—at least, so she thought. So very much a long way from her first scheming to subordinate the Quarians to marrying one, to facing down her own people for them... the Quarians cheered, the Republic sorts were pleased, fifty hells, even Rael'Zorah didn't look like he wanted to snap at her.

After the reception and the less formalised dancing, they went back to their quarters together, arms gathered around each other's hips until Tanda braced herself to help her wife down. "Yes..." Tali giggled... and... woozily, started looking for a blanket. "... This journey was a grand one... and I hope it's got a lot further to go."

"As long as we have a ship, Tali. And a star to steer her by."

"... That is thankfully not a concern, as long as you're anywhere close to your Quarian..."

"Also my warrior and my wife, and the saviour of my soul," Tanda finished for her, kissed Tali again.

"Your crew is way too okay with this. Something I am very glad for."

"Three years here with far too many Asari around-who I suspect find us absurdly cute."

"Liara did. But Liara is... strange."

"Aren't we all?"


	52. Chapter 52

Another three days on, Tanda was starting to wonder about the strange silence from Batarian space. It seemed almost like it had gone on too long. Surely the Batarians would have been dispatched by now if there was a Reaper invasion? She sucked on a bulb of coffee and looked at the status reports. Two captured Batarian dreadnoughts and one Volus were ready for action, as well as the three slick Quarian pocket battleships of their _Neema_ -class. Ray shields, Class III hyperdrives, triple heavy blasters for use against oculi and missiles, three heavy ion cannon and a heavy turbolaser each on the pocket battleships, three heavy turbolasers each on the dreadnoughts. One hundred and eighty-one Quarian cruisers outfitted with three medium ion cannon and a turbolaser each, ray shields, hyperdrives. Thirty-nine Hammerhead cruisers, new-built.

And that captured Collector cruiser, re-fitted with real armour from the half disintegrated wrecks of the Rakatan ships, and likewise equipped to exceed even the dreadnoughts, with twice the number of heavy turbolasers as they. With her force of _Harrower_ s (though presently occupied relocating the Mass Relays) and supporting ships, with the systems forces of Ova, and the rest of the Quarian fleet concentrated at Mils for area defence – she was at least confident of her ability to respond to a true Reaper incursion.

QEQ-1 production had fully ramped up, so they'd soon have hyperdrive capable snubfighters in quantity... _I'm creating for myself a battlefleet of capital-scale Uglies_ , she thought with a wry smile. Tali was already on shift, Tanda deciding it better not to synchronise their schedules in some show of favouritism with the wedding so close on everyones' minds.

Then her comm trilled. She checked the origination.

 _Director Lawson_.

"Miranda? It's Tanda. What's developing?"

"Tanda... Arcturus Station has been taken under attack. Reapers."

"Direct to Arcturus Station?" Her heart skipped a beat, quite literally.

"Direct to Arcturus Station. There are three fleets... And five minutes later the Turians reported they had lost comms contact with the Mactare system."

"Terra..."

"There isn't enough time, Moff Pryl."

"Time." Tanda pushed down hard on the table and shoved herself up. She activated the command to stations through her suitcomp and the lights of her quarters went red. "Not enough time..."

"Thank you, Miranda," Tanda said softly.

"What are we ... What are we going to do, Tanda? You... You can fight them!" Miranda was nearly crying. She, after all, was a human of Earth.

Tanda folded her gloved hands together, breathing the rich oxygen in her suit. "The whole fleet can't get there in time. But some of it can. Relocate to Mil, we'll be leaving momentarily but I want you to have a reserved position to evaluate intelligence from while we may be on black-out here."

"Understood, Moff. I hope, whatever you're planning..."

"Oh, so do I." Tanda started for the bridge, doubly sure of that. What she was about to do violated every rule in the book. She reached the bridge, Tali already waiting for her, but instead breezed directly to the holoprojector.

"Raise _Bombard_ Actual."

"Captain Turla on-line, Moff Pryl..."

The one-quarter scale image of the _Bombard_ 's commander formed before her. "Moff Pryl, I assume the Reapers have made their attack at last?"

"That is correct, and they have come directly in against Arcturus Station... Captain Turla, we're not going to get there in time. The entire fleet can't make it to Terra in time."

Turla stared. "Moff Pryl, you are asking me to go on ahead of the fleet with _Bombard_ 's Class One and fight a delaying action against the Reaper invasion fleet?"

"I will detail _Rintonne's Flame_ , and the other ships from Ova with Class One's as well, Captain, under your command. Allow as many civilian ships as possible to flee and do anything you can to hurt the Reaper invasion force. _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ will arrive with some escorts in the second wave. The old ships and the Quarians will arrive in a third wave as the bulk of the force."

"You're throwing the fleet in three detached waves to try and hold Sol?" Turla turned to the side, almost aghast.

"What other choice do I have, Captain?"

"We risk the rout of civilisation if we are defeated in detail, Moff Pryl."

"And I'll find a way out of it, Captain. Our homeworld is threatened. Dea go with you."

Turla pursed his lips, nodded once, and saluted. " _Bombard_ obeys, Moff Pryl. For the Empire!"

There was a sick and empty feeling in Tanda's stomach as she watched them accelerate with a flicker of pseudomotion into hyperspace. Once the political dictate of saving Terra overtook the strategic and tactical calculus of facing the Reapers, she felt like she were racing headlong toward her own destruction.

But they were humans, and Terra was their homeworld. She would not just be removed in a coup but _deserve_ to be removed in a coup if she didn't do this. Around her, the fleet readied for action, most of them... still having no real idea what they were getting into, but they were moving out... readying for the battle.

Tanda turned to Tali, and Tali turned to meet her. "Come on, Commander Zorah. It's time for us to find a way to win this battle."

-

Hannah Shepard, Rear Admiral, Lower Half, hadn't wanted the promotion. She certainly hadn't wanted this responsibility. _Orizaba_ sat at the heart of the fleet, guarding two carriers with the _Krakatau_ pinning the opposite side of the fleet Dozens of cruisers and hundreds of frigates around her. The commander's flag was on the _Shikoku_ , one of the carriers, and she was the Escort Force Commander.

They were drawn up around the Charon Relay in a defensive arrangement. Admiral Lindholm had already given her speech, tri-vid camera set up before a set of blue shades in the midst of some briefing room.

It hadn't felt really adequate for the moment. Hannah activated the intercoms on the _Orizaba_. "Until three days ago, I was your Captain, Orizabans. I want to say this to you. We are the Thin Red Line. We have lost contact with Admiral Hackett, as Admiral Lindholm confirmed. We have our orders. I want to say to you... Humanity is stubborn."

She chose to ignore the existence of the Other galaxy. There was no motivation in that. "This may be the moment we all die. The moment Earth falls. But each minute you hold, another ship is going to escape Earth filled with refugees. Humans are stubborn and tough! Remain calm, don't give in to fear, and choose your targets well. Every minute we buy – that minute may be the minute that gets a freighter out to a remote system. A thousand people who in fifty thousand years will _SEND THESE BASTARDS TO HELL!_ "

"Are we going to lose?" A breath. "No. If we've allowed one ship to get away, we've won. And that's that, Orizabans. Stand to and stand ready!"

"The Relay is activating, Admiral."

Hannah's eyes snapped forward. She thought of her daughter on Earth. _Get on your SR-2 and get the hell out. Bring that Imperial bitch and burn them to Sheol, girl._

"Stand ready the main mass driver..."

"Dialed in on the relay and ready, Admiral."

"All ships, prepare to close. The closer in you get – those Reapers only have one big weapon on their dreadnoughts! Get in close! See the whites in their eyes!"

The Reapers began to erupt out of the gate. _Orizaba_ fired without further orders. _Krakatau_ joined the firing. The first Reaper through... Staggered. Hannah's escorts rushed in to take advantage of it.

Reaper after Reaper followed them through. It had been a great and grand fight to destroy Sovereign, the Reaper at the Citadel. Now there were dozens... Hundreds. They were still arriving. Her ships executed their attack perfectly. The frigates and cruisers turned in, fired.

The first Reaper blew up.

Then beams stuttered along the cruisers and frigates. They started to blow up in turn. Her fingers gripped through her gloves down into the armrests of her command chair, face turned to shock white. The Reapers rushed on, past their single fallen comrade. As they did, First Fleet was rent in two, and dozens of human ships exploded as if they were made from petrol rather than armour and shields.

"Execute Eleven Forty-Nine Lanova!"

Her ships contracted into themselves as they turned away from the savage encounter. It had lasted six minutes already, and half of her strength was gone. Before her, the Reapers were disappearing, blossoming like a black flower back into the space from whence they had come.

But it wasn't the space from whence they had come. They had not even tarried to fire on _Orizaba_. Their operational objectives were impeccable, and perfectly executed. The Reapers had accepted the loss of one of their own and cut through without directly engaging. They were now in Sol.

Past the fleet.

With a greater turn of speed than they could ever hope to match.

They were being jammed, but she saw the blinker-lights flashing in steady pulses from the _Shokoku_. She forced herself to remember her Morse Code.

"Admiral Hackett... Sends... All ships... Withdraw."

Hannah's head snapped back, almost of its own volition, as if she could see Earth. But if Hackett was alive they had a chance... Somewhere else.

There was still Fourth Fleet to handle the evacuation of Earth. To die, and delay the Reapers...

 _Forget minutes. Seconds._

The Reapers had burst out into the middle of the fleet, destroyed a third of its ships, and rent it in two. And now, Hannah watched the tactical as a small detachment... Started to come about. Now First Fleet was what was getting pinned into a relay. Pinned into a relay and annihilated, as the rest of the Reaper Force carried on to Earth.

"Confirm Admiral Lindholm's orders and contact the Relay!" Hannah rocked back in her chair. Once again, the Lord God of Battles had chosen her... To _live_.

This time, far too few of those under her command with her. Behind her, humanity was dying, and she saved the blackest thought for her flight through the relay and away from Sol. _Where the fuck are you, Pryl!?_

-

They were still a good two hours out from Sol, having had to go the long way across uncharted hyper-routes as the Admirals and their Staffs frantically finalized the operational plans that would try to turn the piecemail flinging of the fleet in three elements into a strategy for victory.

With Tali at her side... Tanda Pryl prepared to command her first full scale fleet action. It would be on the flag bridge, this time. She had relented.

"Tau minus two hours and counting, Moff Pryl!"

"Tau minus two? Strike groups report to their snubs." Tanda faintly thought she saw Tali's eyes gleam through her mask at that.

Tali leaned in to her wrist, activating the comm line through her omnitool. "Strike groups report to snubfighters! Tech crews, commence arming snubfighters! Squadron leaders, report to final briefing to receive launch order assignments!"

On _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ travelling in time, they now had complements of the Quarian designed QEQ-1. The slick birds, which the Milky Way humans in the Empire were calling Hellcats, matched more a Rebel conception of a fighter than an Imperial one. Massively armed with concussion missiles, proton torpedoes, and proton bombs as true single-seat fighter-bombers with VI's controlling twin aft blasters and ion cannon and two light lasers for forward armament, they had incredible straight-line acceleration, but generally manoeuvred like pigs.

Now they were being swung out from the upper storage racks while the squadrons already on the deck were being prepared to feed into the launch tubes. As they moved into position, droid-maneouvred trays of weapons and equipment were rolled alongside, and techs in flash gear, many of them now Asari, flung the weapons off and into the cycling launchers, manually reverse-cycling to load each incredibly deadly missile and bomb in turn.

Other techs leapt into the cockpits, confirming readiness, testing power on batteries and system control interfaces. They would sign off before the pilots arrived, locked themselves into their pressure suits (if they were not Quarians, which many were), and then conducted their own preflight checklists. The result was a complicated military ballet of moving vehicles and ammo pallets as each Star Destroyer, stuffed full of two-and-a-half wings of starfighters instead of the usual one, bombed up their squadrons for the most desperate fight of their lives.

Some things hadn't changed. Uniformed officers stood rigid, eyes moving from side to side, holding flimsies and checking chromos. Supervising, recording performance, and timing the loading and arming sequences. Self-improvement of combat operations prep would go on even here, even now.

...The problem came when _Normandy_ came in over the hypercomms, about ten minutes into the strike prep sequence. Tanda reached over and keyed open the channel, taking the message from the SR-2 without hesitation and going to full transmission via holonet comms, forming the quarter-scale hologram... Just to find out it wasn't working.

Tali was frowning behind her as hard as Tanda was herself. "SR-2 Normandy this is Thunderflare Actual, go ahead."

... Joker answered, the hologram forming to show his hands flying over his console just for it to disintegrate again; "SHIT, SHIT SHIT, WHOA! ... Uh, sorry, gimme a sec to not die."

...Tanda looked at Tali. _Sharply_.

"If he's comm'ing you, it's because Shepard is off the ship." She said, simply enough.

 _Wonderful_. Tanda didn't like where this was headed. _Shouldn't they be at Earth? The Reapers are still at Arcturus..._

"Hi, Moff Pryl, we're being fucked by giant flying cuttlefish doom-robots right now!"

A calm, disembodied voice joined the channel from the SR-2 side. "Mister Moreau, if you would concentrate on flying the ship, I believe I can brief the Moff."

"Just as long as you don't get distracted, EDI!"

Tanda ignored Joker; that was surely best for the both of them. "They've arrived in Earthspace already, EDI?"

The little chess-piece holo flickered into life before Tanda.

"We have received no word from Admiral Hackett. Earth is... burning, Moff Pryl. Dozens or hundreds of Reapers have landed. The comm-buoys are down, Earth is cut off from all but quantum entanglement communications. Fourth Fleet has been largely destroyed. Alliance command and control sites are largely off-line. Fragmentary reports indicate that the Reapers are using former Batarian husks to engage in mass deployment of Dragons Teeth near their landing zones to create additional ground forces. Casualties and damage are catastrophic. We are attempting to retrieve Captain Shepard—she was briefing the Alliance Defence Committee in Vancouver when the attack began. Earth had, at most, ten minutes of warning before Fourth Fleet was struck."

"Dea protect..." The news hit as a punch in the gut. Inside the reserve and isolation of her suit, she staggered, straightened, and started to issue orders. "EDI, recover the Commander and respond as appropriate to any need from Jedi Tasiele for assistance from Mars. We can alter course and be to Arcturus in an hour and a half if it hasn't been attacked yet and was bypassed somehow—surely that must be the case for the Reapers to have hit Earth so quickly? Is there any way for you to determine this?"

"Admiral Hackett would not have permitted the Reapers past him without a fight, Moff. Their arrival without an alert indicates he was so badly overwhelmed as to be unable to even send a courier ship with a warning." Sometimes, the flat tone of the AI was to an advantage.

"I see. The main Reaper dreadnoughts are on the surface of the Earth?"

"They have landed within the major cities of Earth in the... correction, hundreds to thousands, Moff Pryl. There are none currently in orbit, only light destroyers... Going after ships trying to escape. All space-borne resistance within Sol has been shattered and is no threat to them at present," EDI answered.

Tanda folded her hands and started to pace. "My best strategy would be to arrive at very close range in total surprise with all firepower concentrated to the guns. Three years ago with this fleet under my command facing this situation, I would have done it without hesitation, too."

EDI was silent for a moment. Then she resumed speaking. "I understand, Moff Pryl... stand by. We have contact with the Captain. Mister Moreau is taking us down to Vancouver for a pickup. I shall attempt to identify the number of Reaper vessels on the ground in the locale."

"Inform me when you have done so."

Another pause. "... We have contact with Admiral Hackett. He has orders for Shepard... to recover Doctor T'Soni before the Mars base is overrun."

There was a further long pause. "Admiral Hackett... was forced to sacrifice the entirety of Alliance Second Fleet to permit the escape of the remnants of Third and Fifth Fleets. Arcturus Station has been destroyed with all hands and the vast majority of the Alliance government aboard."

"Thank you. May the force be with you, EDI. Inform me if there are any further developments."

"Understood, Moff Pryl. Directing full processing resources to defensive purposes."

"Well Tali," there was a hint of bitterness tracing into her voice. "You have walked on Rannoch. I will never walk on Earth. The planet is lost." She keyed another intercom station.

"Commander Scolus, I regret to report that the Reaper fleet has defeated Alliance Third, Fifth, Second and Fourth fleets. The Alliance government and Arcturus station have been destroyed. The Reaper dreadnought fleet has landed on the surface of Terra."

It was a very, almost unnaturally subdued voice that answered. "I see... I see, Your Ladyship. What are the new instructions?"

Both bridges felt like tombs. Tanda swallowed, her throat suddenly dry as she tried to imagine what she was about to say. But the words just came woodenly and automatically.

"The Reapers are in overwhelming strength, overwhelming speed, surprising capability, Commander. They're going to overrun and conquer the galaxy if I don't change the rules of the game."

Her hands squeezed into her gloves so hard she thought she was going to tear them. The Quarian engineering was better than that, of course.

The Quarian _engineer_ was better than that, too. Tali lunged for her wife with an expression of shock and horror on her face. Tanda ignored her, and continued to coolly issue the orders.

"We'll be dragged out by the mass shadow with all hands ready and all turbolaser capacitors charged, Commander. The new operational code is Base Delta Zero. We'll catch them on the ground, and win the war in an hour. Save... Billions of lives." _And sacrifice the Motherworld._


	53. Chapter 53

"... Not yet it isn't. Countermand that order!" Tali stood firm on the bridge, set forward, livid, quivering. "You're falling, Tanda! This is temptation! _We have the force! We can win!_ You know the histories of your own galaxy! The Rakghoul plague was cleared! Exterminated! Planets were won back from it!"

The bridge was a dreadful tomb. None of the human officers wanted to register the order, either. It emboldened Tali, and she continued. "The various national governments will resist... Earth—humanity—will fight a guerrilla war as long as it can. We can save them... not all of them, but we can save them." She twisted her hands in her gloves. "We have to believe we can beat the Reapers."

"I do think we can beat the Reapers, Tali. There's a thousand of them sitting pretty and hapless with their screens down and claws buried in the soil of the homeworld of my race. I might just be able to save this galaxy if I knock them all out."

"... We can't just... kill the planet, Tanda! That... there's got to be a better way..."

"If there was a fleet this big at Arcturus, my plan was to blow up the system relay—then we could hyper out while they couldn't escape in time. That still kills Earth. We were too damned slow."

"They... you can't. You can't! This is what the dark side wants. It... there's got to be some better way, some... way to get them to fight us somewhere we want them to."

Tanda was silent. She rested her gloved hands on the rail. "An Imperial officer acts according to duty."

"This feels wrong. You can't just live in duty... there's billions of people down there!"

"Billions of husks... Tali, a thousand Reapers, if they all lift off... We've analyzed their weapons, the ray shields turn them into a joke, even the cruisers will stand sustained fire from a Reaper now due to the spreading, sure. But we're still two hundred against a thousand."

"Tanda, they're fighting down there! Who's going to fight for us if we just... show up and glass worlds!? We've got to have some hope of beating this, of rebuilding, of winning! Humanity won't come back from that!"

"...And if I hesitate now, will this sixty-five million year old terror ultimately come to my home galaxy and land on Coruscant with her hundred trillion? What do you mean humanity won't come back from this?"

"Look at what losing Rannoch did to us..." She said it quieter, twisting her hands. "Hesitate because it's the right thing to do. The force will find a way for us to save Earth."

Tanda exhaled in an explosive puff of air, disappearing into her suit filters, and heaved over. Tali caught her, and for once in public the Imperials seemed more relieved than ashamed at the display of affection by their commander. Leaning into Tali, she gathered her breath and her wits. "Countermand that, Commander Scolus. Fleet orders, stand by to shape course. Our exit point from hyperspace will be at the outer edge of the Mercury mass shadow—that is the First Planet of Sol. All ships prepare for general engagement."

The open comms channel came back on; EDI, as calm as ever, with no indication for whether or not she had heard the exchange. "Captain Shepard is aboard. Admiral Anderson has remained on Earth to attempt to coordinate resistance to the Reaper attack. Localized resistance appears to be strengthening, and uncoordinated evacuations off-world have begun."

"We'll be arriving outside of the Mercury mass shadow in eighty minutes, EDI," Tanda answered, finding the strength to stand on her own again. "Tali... Bring up a simulation of Sol, please."

"Solar surface conditions, most recent data."

"Understood. We should be lifting from Mars by the time you... alert, Cerberus stealth frigate signatures detected," EDI answered ominously.

"...Make decisions based on the objective of securing Jedi Tasiele and Doctor T'Soni safely. Hopefully Cerberus is there to help. Thunderflare Actual out." The connection dropped... and they came streaking in.

"A pretty boring sun, but... None of you people have ray shields natively." She became more active, the grip of the doldrums leaving. She brought up the information on Jupiter. "A much more interesting score—yes, her Crore limit is—interesting. We'll hold course for Mercury, I don't want to waste time and, who knows, depending on the circumstances I'll pull it off twice."

At the last jump recalculation to go to Mercury instead of Terra was completed, Tanda ordered the hyperdrive fighters to proceed independently. She finished the revised briefing of their wing commanders. "You are to hit them in the atmosphere to make them attack us. Exhaust your missiles, torpedoes and bombs while they're on the ground with their main guns masked, then microjump into the inner system. The Empire expects every sapient to execute their duty." With that, the QEQs started to launch.

Back in realspace, Tali went about her duties, but quietly interfaced with the holonet transmitter via her omnitool as she did. She loved Tanda, she could feel the good win out in her, however narrowly. But it was so hard to trust her as she flirted with the Dark Side, and her Imperials cared more about obedience to orders than morality. Still, this was Earth. Their Motherworld. It was the one subject that might have brought about a revolt to Tanda's authority if she had pressed it.

Tali wanted to put the risk to bed once and for all. She started sending her own message to Captain Turla and the _Bombard_.

-

As they pulled away from Earth, Atarah Shepard watched the planet recede in stunned, grim silence. After all of her efforts, after all that they had done, all of humanity's efforts had been unavailing. Every fleet, even the one her mother had served in, had crumpled like cardboard. Likely she had no mother anymore. But so did plenty of others.

Her heart, burning and aching with the need to help others, plunged all the more. She had her duty, her orders. She was to recover Liara from Mars. SR-2 made haste away from Earth. Behind them, flailing, civilian ships rose from the service from every spaceport that had not been destroyed... The ones in orbit that had simply been bypassed by the Reapers rushing to enter the atmosphere, burning steadily away from Earth, as well.

They were not alone. Destroyers, the smaller 160-meter Reapers, were coming after them now. Cries of desolation and panicked begging for help, imagining there was still an Earth fleet, echoed. Joker and her new comms Specialist Samantha Traynor both looked horrible, close to retching.

"EDI... Is there _anything_ we can do?" Shepard's eyes flicked toward the chess-piece.

"No, there is not, Shepard. But the Imperials can."

"Not in time, EDI!"

"Direct your attention to Grid Point Zero-Eight-One." EDI focused the display.

"There is an anomaly here, completely powered down. Based on the radiation scans from earlier in the combat, it is an Imperial warship, or several. And the Destroyers are approaching turbolaser range within fifteen seconds."

The onrushing, fleeing Earth ships continued to make time as best as they could away from Earth and the Moon. The Reaper Destroyers kept accelerating. They opened fire, beams stuttering across space. Screams and channels dissolving into static tore through their open comms channels as ships began to explode and were torn in two by the incredible firepower.

A wave of green and orange bolts ripped end to end from the anomaly. A moment later, her shields came up and white-blue pinpoints of ion engines lit off.

Shepard clenched and pumped her fist. " _Bombard!_ "

The first of the line of Reaper Destroyers didn't even have time to start evading. Two, then three! Ion cannon arced across their lengths and heavy turbolaser bolts slammed into protrusions of the hull, destroying them in turn. _Bombard_ , shields up and engines lit, swung about and drove headlong at full speed toward the Reapers, her guns arcing like green lightning through the darkness of space, going off one after another in an indefatigable drumbeat of fire.

Alongside her the _Rintonne's Flame_ and the Carrack-class _Itarla_ , the other two ships with Class I hyperdrives, accelerated into combat, shielded to _Bombard_ 's port beam and striking at the leading edge of the Destroyer force as it curved to engage them. The heavy turbolasers on the _Itarla_ quickly scored their own kill, and the Bayonet-class ship at her side was not far from the success. The smaller Reapers fell like swatted flies to the concentration of Imperial firepower, no matter how greater they outnumbered the little taskgroup.

The open comms lines were filled with cheers, now. The desperate refugees watched in hope as every minute that _Bombard_ sent the Reaper force tumbling back onto Earth brought them closer to lining up their own FTL escapes, or aiming for one of the outer colonies if they didn't have FTL on their ship. And _Bombard_ was winning. There were hundreds of Reaper Destroyers in the force that she was fighting, but dozens had already been destroyed.

Now it was point-blank, but the VSD-II covered her smaller compatriots and stood the barrage of fire. The beams on the Destroyers were simply not big enough to seriously discomfit the Imperial ships. The Reapers had already begun to retreat, and now the retreat accelerated into a rout. _Bombard_ kept coming on, straight toward Earth.

The Destroyers were running, but even against a sluggish VSD-II, they weren't able to run fast enough. They kept dying, hammered apart, by sustained pursuing turbolaser fire, the optimal arc for the _Bombard_. Sweeping down into orbit of Earth, fires burning around the globe from Reaper strikes on the dark side where they approached, the intermittent brilliant flare of another Reaper as the turbolasers converged on it and sent it tumbling into pieces marked the battle in the sky.

Then the four squadrons of QEQs in the group went active. The moment he had seen that the Reapers were descending onto Earth at his arrival, too late for him to intervene, he had sent them on a high sublight drift toward the planet, and now they powered up and plunged into the atmosphere. The Reapers on the ground were virtually helpless against this kind of attack, and projectile warheads, unlike massed turbolaser fire, presented no threat to the atmosphere.

Suddenly _Bombard_ 's ion cannon shifted fire into the atmosphere of Earth. They lanced down and struck unprotected Reaper dreadnoughts landed on the surface. Their systems crackling out of control, the Reaper fighters trying to claw their way skyward to engage... Too late. A dive straight into a gravity well was a matter of bare minutes for an Imperial starfighter. Proton bombs flying and then proton torpedoes and concussion missiles homing, the QEQs struck. Each one selected a single Reaper and dived on it, aiming its guided weapons for one of the legs while the proton bombs bracketed it in a salvo moments later.

Racing through the defensive fire of the Reapers, suddenly the Dreadnoughts were no longer an imposing, dominating presence. They were massive, fragilely supported towers waiting to fall. The QEQs made their attack runs, the beams of the Reapers unable to bear on them as they dived from above. With screaming ion engines, they pulled back out, cannon silent, and let their bombs and missiles do the talking for them.

And over wrecked and embattled cities, Reaper dreadnoughts lost their legs in the flare of the proton explosions, and toppled and fell while their hulls arced with ion cannon fire. Above them, _Bombard_ 's turbolasers finished off the Destroyers, and the Reapers had no choice. Sufficiently vulnerable to the greater Imperial technology as they were on the ground that single starfighters posed a serious threat, they simply had to get skyborne again.

As the starfighters burned skyward after their attack patterns were completed, Reaper dreadnought after Reaper dreadnought began to take off from the surface of the Earth, granting countless regions a momentary reprieve as they rushed to engage the Victory. _Bombard_ was waiting for them with her two smaller compatriots, and the first of the Reaper dreadnoughts to clear the atmosphere was bracketed by their unrelenting fire. Systems dazed by the ion cannon effect, hammered by turbolasers it could not shield against, it at once began a death plunge back toward the surface of the Earth, and with no further ado the _Bombard_ shifted her fire, the action now general as the Reapers desperately flung themselves skyward, reoriented to bring their beams to bear, and closed with the great Imperial Star Destroyer, firing as they came.

Turla had turned the situation to his advantage in every way he could. He had peeled the Destroyers off from the Dreadnoughts and wrecked a huge force of them. He had forced the Dreadnoughts to fight him coming up from the gravity well. He had gotten his starfighters in position to attack them unprotected on the surface from a state of total surprise wherein the Reaper Oculi were unable to intercept them. Now he was directing his little squadron's fire down onto the Reapers as they clawed out of the atmosphere, and in doing so was leveraging the maximum disproportionate damage that his command could provide.

But as she watched from afar on SR-2, Shepard knew it couldn't last. Reapers were coming up from other areas of the planet now, concentrating around _Bombard_ from her flanks. The little group was about to be overwhelmed. She sucked in her breath... "EDI, they can't win."

"I know, Shepard. But their actions have caused an enormous disruption to the Reaper operational plan, and _Bombard_ is buying time. I don't know what the end point of Captain Turla's orders are, but his operational strategy does not seem suicidal."

Shepard tore her eyes away. She would be bringing _Normandy_ to stand alongside _Bombard_ , but she had her own different orders in the first place. "ETA to Mars?"

-

...Meanwhile, on Mars... Tasiele had been staying close to Liara. She was uncertain of the woman's mission, and Liara was profoundly standoffish these days, but Tasiele considered it an opportunity to practice her respect for others.

Certainly Liara was, to her credit, a wonderful archaeologist, working through the Prothean ruins with care and rigour. Tasiele delegated the supply runs, cooking and cleaning to herself. It was no different than many camps she had made before, and she could feel that Liara appreciated her silence.

Tasiele was waiting with dinner when she returned. She could tell something was up, with the faint nervous energy the Asari exuded as she nipped in to the food.

"We've only been here two weeks, but... I think we've found something. I don't know what it is, but..." She tapped her omnitool as she ate to bring up the holo of what she'd found. "It's only in the secure databases so far, but I made a... copy."

"That copy will now become one of the more sought after things in the galaxy," Tasiele muttered as she looked, then closed her eyes and took a breath. "We must be cautious, and make sure it is disseminated properly and securely. I do not think you have a piece of information more valuable."

"I think I agree with you. Whatever it was, Cerberus has been wanting to stop me from finding this—or acquire it themselves. I do not think that a coincidence."

"I think that means that we should accept that we have found enough for now, and make preparations to leave. I have a bad feeling about remaining any longer, I confess, and from a Jedi that... Does usually mean something."

"There could be a lot more critical information here, Tasiele. We've gotten along well, and I need to..." She trailed off and stared at her companion in worry, for it was at that moment when Tasiele felt a lot of death at once, as the Reapers... wiped a handful of Earth's cities off the map.

Tasiele staggered, moaning and sagging against the wall for a moment. "death... Close at hand, Liara. Much death!" She swallowed. "Earth."

"That..." She checked her pistol, and proceeded to pop a globe of something into her mouth from a belt pouch to supplement the food. "Is not good."

"I rather wish I had an infiltrator right now instead of a shuttle. Can we go with what you already have? If we do, we should probably plan on our departure... Immediately."

"I'm not perfectly happy with it, but I think so. We should be going... we can at least take some of the scientists with us?"

"A Tyderium has plenty of capacity for that, yes." She visibly readied herself... and then there was a sharp feeling of death... above them, as the base depressurized without any alarms going off, and Tasiele's eyes shot open and her hand went for the lightsabre at her belt. "...Liara, someone's venting atmosphere from the base!"

"... An infiltrator! Goddess, we have to hurry! That must be..." She trailed off, but it was kind of obvious who would have motive and opportunity.

"Let's go for the scientists, then the shuttle. Come on." Tasiele started off at once.

Liara came jogging after her. "Why would they attack something that offers the chance of winning...? This is... well past wilfully blind."

"Perhaps the Illusive Man wants the glory of using it for himself so he can make himself into the Emperor of Man. I don't know." A pause, while Tasiele kept jogging. "Or they've been indoctrinated."

"Regardless, we should try and stop them from gaining what they seek." Liara slipped a breath mask on, and blinked. They were at least in the Martian atmosphere, and therefore a simple mask would be adequate. "I hope Shepard will... well, no time for that."

...Tasiele followed suit with her own mask and oxygen concentrator. "We should be getting close to them."

Coming out of the dig site... there were the bodies of the scientists who had been working up here... dead. Shot, very precisely, still at what they had been doing. "... Goddess. What... happened here?"

No sign of immediate danger through the Force... not yet, as Tasiele warily looked around, avoiding the bodies. "They clearly weren't expecting their enemy to be an enemy," she answered. Despite the lack of feeling of any threat, she took her lightsabre in hand now, growing very still. "There seems to be no threat. Yet..."

"Someone was infiltrated into the project, then..." Liara took her pistol out and started to quietly move forwards. "We need to get up to the main labs and lock the computers down—or wipe them completely. Then we need to get out of here."

"Understood. Go ahead, Liara, and I'll cover you against our being ambushed from behind."

"Got it." She led them through some of the emergency stairwells, not trusting the elevators, up to the main levels—Liara paused at the door, for there, very faint gunshots could be heard.

"To the computers, or to the sound of the guns?" Tasiele kept her voice dispassionate.

"Logic says the attack is covering the assault on the computers. Emotions say those shots are too regular to be anything but executions." Her hand clenched on the pistol. "The... Illusive Man has to be stopped."

"Go to the computers! You, Liara T'Soni, are quite capable of taking care of yourself. I will follow you as fast as I can..." Tasiele flashed her a grin, and started off at a run toward the sound of the guns.

She gave a grin, before taking off herself—straight for the computers, as far as she could, crackling and ready with Biotic power.

Tasiele raced ahead, skidding up to a stop to see that there was, indeed, a squad of Cerberus troopers who felt... off... wrong somehow. And more obviously, they were shooting down fleeing civilians with short bursts from their rifles. They looked to her as she approached... And for the first time in this galaxy, she heard something very familiar indeed. "Jedi! Take her down!"

"You're welcome to try!" She brought her lightsabre up with a snap-hiss and launched forward with preternatural speed, her blade at once the first of their covering shots from the hip.

Several of them fell back and tried aimed sniper fire, while the rest opened fire with glue grenades, shock nets, and shotguns... They were trying to capture her, not kill her. The Illusive Man, it was patently obvious, wanted a Jedi.

Tasiele wasn't unfamiliar with the idea of people trying to capture her. She spun to the side, calling on the force, and sent the grenades and shock nets tumbling back toward those deploying them as she then crossed and rolled to the opposite side of the corridor, her lightsabre beautifully not touching her as she rolled, just flying up which each oscillation to deflect more gunfire. Then leaping out to her feet and concentrating on one of the ceiling air grates, she sent it flying toward them. A group of the Cerberus troopers were knocked to the ground by the massive metal grate, and with that she was leaping up and charging with her blade.

Two of them grunted as they were hit by her blade, falling—toppling with horrible scour wounds from the lightsabre across the others pinned by the grate. Others were firing, calling for support—one of the snipers from a catwalk above opened fire on her again, and two... cloaked figures with mono-molecular blades moved to attack as well, drug-improved reflexes pushing them to a near Force-inspired level of reaction time.

Tasiele threw herself to the side as the sniper's shots were fired, and threw her lightsabre away... Spinning up through the air to slice through the supports of the catwalk and send the catwalk tumbling down to the deck as she came back up with her blaster pistol to fire at the advancing cloaked figures.

...The cloaked figures dodged sideways with incredible speed, a slight blur the only sign of them, as they split up to take her in a pincer—a cry came from the falling catwalk, and more of the regular Cerberus troopers opened fire on her to cover the Phantoms.

Tasiele let her blaster fall to its lanyard, no time to holster it again, as her lightsabre flew back through the air to her hand, igniting in a single sweep that deflected and disintegrated the bullets as she turned to fight... _Let the force flow through me, that I may save these innocents... cut down in this trap for me._ Her mind was a perfect union with her body and her lightsabre, and in a fluid curve of motion, she cut through a dozen Cerberus troopers before swinging back to face the two cloaked figures who were the true threat.

The two flickered into view, and as they did they were already firing some sort of rapid fire cannon cybernetically integrated into their palms, covering themselves as they dashed in to attack with their blades. Tasiele reached out with a hand and send two remaining Cerberus troopers flying back, leaving her a moment to concentrate fully on her new enemies. With all the power and capability of the House of Shan, heirs of Revan and Bastila, she plunged forward and swung her blade.

It skittered across the two swords... Which had been very carefully reinforced with the best science could offer to attempt to resist a lightsaber. For a moment her eyes widened, and the two thrust against her. She dug in her heels, and the swords started to melt, locked with her lightsabre, three grimacing, braced figures vying with strength and mind.

They twitched about, trying to find an opening... somewhere. And then Tasiele was abruptly gone, falling to the ground as her lightsabre deactivated. Their blades swung through air, they tumbled as they regained their balance, and she lunged up between them. A furious storm of punches knocked the two back, and then she backflipped clear of their swords, and on landing, brought her lightsabre back up and activated it again with perfect form, just in time to deflect the shots from their hand-cannon as they recovered.

Tasiele... Had fought Mandalorians many times in the past. To their credit, they were just as dangerous. But no more. She charged again. Their shots were sent away by the lightsabre and she lunged in to attack blade to blade, steadily cut the blades to pieces, even if she didn't have the time to slice them in half quickly, each block... Cost them a substantial part of the edge, holding her blade in position to maintain a block and pivoting with shoulders and arms to catch shots from the hand-cannon as they tried to use them, point-blank.

She broke one blade, finally, which left the Phantom paused for a dangerous moment... for her, at least. Tasiele followed through the stroke, and the cyborg fell, fatally wounded, and suddenly the tenor of the fight changed. With one down, she drew herself up, holding her blade at the classic ready stance. "One chance. Flee, and let me save the civilians."

Wordlessly, the second Phantom attacked instead, charging with a burst of cannon fire for cover. Tasiele stood her ground, unmoving except her lightsabre as it parried every shot. She let the Phantom get to point-blank, and then with a blur of both blades... The Phantom's body, neatly cut in twain, tumbled away behind her.

The fight had given time for Cerberus reinforcements to arrive, though, and then the gunfire opened, this time from near to all sides around her.

Tasiele again used the force to shove them aside as her blade lashed out, and then she leapt into the air, far higher than she ought, coming down, her legs cushioning her into a crouch with her sword ready, standing behind two who were at once slashed through, reversing the encirclement. Several of the Cerberus troops were cut down by the fire of their compatriots in the chaos that followed. Leaving the rest in a circular firing squad against each other, she started running and charging, deflecting her way through the bullets. _Too much like old times!_

Far too much like old times... they were quickly chopped down, however, and then there was... for a moment, at least, blessed silence. The reinforcements had only been regular Cerberus troops, and they had been completely unprepared for facing her. But there was something grim about it all. They hadn't run, hadn't panicked, hadn't surrendered—and they had felt odd the entire time they were fighting her.

Tasiele promptly went in pursuit of anyone still alive to save... She didn't stop to reflect on the uneasiness she felt at the opponents she had faced, for she did not have the time. Her first duty was to the living, and these Cerberus troops had already left that land, one way or another. She treated the four survivors she with medigel from her kit and started helping them toward the computer room... She had to make sure Liara was okay and get them to all evacuate together.

And Tasiele herded them to the computer room just in time to see Liara go flying out of the room into the wall, then get back up and with a snarl, biotic charge right back in.

"Well, she's certainly still alive." And with that, Tasiele handed her blaster pistol to the one in the best condition, and then snapped her lightsabre open.

Liara was... being held by the neck, by a black-haired human woman in a jumpsuit. The charge... clearly had not gone according to plan, as kicks and punches didn't seem to be doing anything to the woman... who proceeded to throw the Asari at Tasiele... and then take off into a ventilation duct.

Tasiele caught her, turning off the lightsabre just in time, and smiled wryly. "A bit of a scrape, eh?"

Liara coughed violently, neck already bruising. "Stronger... than she looks... she was hacking in."

"Should I just destroy the computers, Liara?"

"Come on inside!" Tasiele shouted as she waited for the answer, gesturing for her wounded to limp their way forward and then going back to help her wounded again as she gave Liara a moment to contemplate that...

"... Yes," Liara answered, still rubbing her neck but looking fit to fight as Tasiele returned. "She'll almost certainly try and hack in somewhere else."

"All right. We get this done, and then we go for the shuttle."

"Let me set it to overload..." She glanced to the survivors, who were giving her quite a look. They just knew her as the quiet archaeologist...

"All right." Tasiele stood an uncomfortable guard.

Liara tapped away at the computers in a disciplined sort of frantic haste. "Done. They're wiping themselves then will overload. We can go." She looked up with a marginally relieved look on her face.

Tasiele was looking down the corridor, distantly, her eyes narrowing. The floor shook a little. "Easier said than done."


	54. Chapter 54

"Captain, localized shield failures! Starboard quarter, shield segments twelve and fourteen. Enemy fighters concentrating."

"Intensify starboard quarter firepower. Helm, bring us about!"

Captain Turla barked the last command, and the _Bombard_ pivoted before the Oculi could drill home to board, flailing and dying under a wave of fire. She presented her port to the drones with its shields still up, and her stern to the enemy.

"Captain, we can't fire on the enemy effectively from this orientation," gunnery came on.

"Check fire." A pause. "Engines, ahead full. We've done enough."

Turla had already detached _Rintonne's Flame_ and _Itaska_. Both ships were fast enough to escape from the Reapers and light enough to have been destroyed by now if he hadn't done so; the _Bombard_ was not. On either count.

He looked at his orders and shook his head again. "Set course for the first planet, flank acceleration." He shifted comm lines. "Flank, and give me a little more if you can, engineering."

"Aye Aye, Captain..."

Turla grit his teeth. "Jamming to maximum, broad spectrum. We won't be getting more communications after this point. The fleet has its plan. Final orders for _Rintonne's Flame_ and _Itaska_ : Proceed First Planet, best possible speed."

"Understood, Captain."

With her ion drive tails lighting through Reapers as they manoeuvred to position themselves and overtake... The stern chase was the long chase, and it was hard for their beams to be effective through the concentrated ion cone ripped out of the drives at barely sublight velocity.

Turla was satisfied to see that the Reapers, at least, were as badly affected by the jamming as any fleet back home would be. Worse, even, as they had not directly encountered before it and had no chance for counters. Perhaps they'd eliminate its effectiveness with their hideous computational ability... Eventually.

For now, there was one more chance he had to keep his ship alive. With most of her batteries masked, she could devote all of her power to the shields and engines, too. Capacitors slowly charging allowed her to haul through a drum-tight salvo of turbolaser bolts when one of the Reapers managed to push alongside, in more than a few cases, lucky hits outright crippling the monstrous bio-ship.

He had destroyed more than a dozen of them, plus another twenty eliminated on the ground. It was a good score for a single ship, considering each a dreadnought much larger than his _Bombard_. The damage, though, was starting to tell. His secondary engines were at full power, for the VSD had lost one of its main engines as the pursuit wore on. Especially to starboard, where the Reapers had concentrated their first attack, the armour was blackened and scoured and several gun batteries disabled.

And the cryptic instruction from Commander Zorah: _Bait the Reapers off the surface at all costs, for the sake of humanity and the Moff's better nature_ was still governing his private operations. But his orders from the Moff that had followed were reassuring. There was no need to violate either directive. _Bring the Reapers into the vicinity of the planet Mercury, and be confident that I am waiting to receive them._

"She must be bringing the ISDs out of lightspeed between Sol and Mercury while I jam against any leakage of the sensor trace... But _why_?"

"Captain?"

"Nothing, L'tenant. Carry on." He stood his ground as the _Bombard_ rocked from a solid hit somewhere. "Report!"

"Number three power coupling knocked out. Our ventral surface is unprotected, Captain! Shall we prepare for the jump to lightspeed?"

Turla ground a heel. "Negative."

"Sir?"

"I said negative! Gunnery: Concentrate the tractor beams on maximum repulsion along the ventral aft vector, quickly! Those weapons have a physical component."

"Aye aye!"

 _Bombard_ tore through the inner solar system, connected to her pursuers by beams of light and compressed metal. Splash and spreading over the particle shields as the ray shields destroyed their coherency, a trail of perfectly formed vacuum dust was torn and spun by the ionized drivetails. The tractor beams light up, and suddenly the beams that had been boring into the armour around the reactor were bent from side to side, spinning away from the _Bombard_ as the ship shuddered in her bones.

"Midpoint, Captain!"

"Kill the drives and bring us about!"

"Zero acceleration, bringing her bow around..."

"Transfer engine power to the weapons." Turla folded his hands behind his back. "L'tenant Alarron, you may fire when ready."

An Imperial ship could de-accelerate with thrust vectoring energy fields projected from the drive cone. It didn't have to. Turla had _Bombard_ reorient... During the de-acceleration phase to Mercury, the Reapers were welcome to overshoot and continue straight into the Sun. If they didn't want to... The image before him swung into a vast horde of hundreds of Reapers that were still in pursuit, at least two hundred.

The main batteries locked on and opened fire. A torrent of green and orange, retina searing without the polarizing shields and the image-screen auto lockdown, ripped outwards and found ample targets. The forward shields were once again covering the hull from all angles. They lit up with redirected Reaper fire.

And the debris of the first Reaper to fall kept on going on the journey they had both begun, hurtling past the _Bombard_ as she continued to deaccelerate, retaining their velocity until incineration within the heart of the Motherworld's Sun.

The thunder of the guns sounded through the deckplates.

-

 _Thunderflare_ , _Stalker_ and twelve Class 2-equipped light ships, mostly corvettes, came flickering out of hyper in a small pseudomotion, the terminus of their deacceleration locked before the searing Sun-side surface of Mercury.

"Shields."

"Shields are up, Moff Pryl," Commander Scolus answered. "All is in readiness here."

The bridge windows had already automatically polarized. "System status?"

"Your Ladyship, they're lifting off reinforcements from the surface of the planet in number. Hyperwave scanners are resolving force strength. ... _Bombard_ seems intact, and is on course. Pursued by one hundred and ninety-four Reaper dreadnoughts."

"Every other sensor, scanning and comms spectrum is gone under full spectrum jamming," Tali'Zorah added... "Exactly as ordered."

"Thank you. Commander Zorah, begin positioning the fleet to bring all guns to bear on Sol."

Tanda opened the hyperwave communications line that they could be confident would not give them away to the Reapers. "EDI, this is Thunderflare Actual. Report status."

"Understood." She started work... EDI replied; "Cerberus is attacking the Mars facility with commando teams. Doctor T'Soni and Jedi Tasiele are engaging them. We are moving to deploy Captain Shepard, Alliance personnel Lieutenant Commander Williams and Lieutenant Vega to assist."

"We're luring the Reapers into the inner system. You should have plenty of time." She cut the channel and raised her hand, turning to the side. "Tali, prepare the firing pattern."

"Yes, Moff," A few moments, Tali remaining reserved as she did something that was... Utterly terrifying, actually. "Transmit to the other ships when complete?"

"Yes. Follow it with the fire order at once. Keep updating the plot continuously now on Reaper force's position."

The resulting updates showed near to three hundred of the big dreadnaughts closing on them, perhaps the same still groundside, as a hundred reinforcements lifted off from the planet to complete the destruction of the _Bombard_ , hopefully unaware of their presence... And if they weren't, well, at least unaware of their _intent_.

Tanda watched as the fire continued for the next five minutes. The time ticked down toward the necessary firing pattern completion... Anything after it was useful, but gratuitous. Finally, after a massive explosion erupted across the hull of the _Bombard_ , she knew she could wait no longer.

"Start jamming them and bring us out from the shadow of Mercury." Power surged and two ISDs with their dozen of escorts appeared from behind the planet.

"Commence turbolaser fire on the Reaper fleet." The moment the order went out, the gunnery officers selected the targets which posed the greatest threat to the crippled _Bombard_ and opened fire. The Reapers and the Imperials both knew action was joined with the main strength of their forces in the system, indeed, the Reapers must know by now that this was the main strength of the _entire Empire_ here. Tempted with the prospect of decisive victory, they continued to close.

 _Bombard_ flickered and disappeared to lightspeed. A cheer was raised on the bridge by Scolus and his officers at her survival, but it was muted by duty, and the firing continued from two fresh ships of considerably greater power. The Reapers were hurting, now.

"Moff Pryl, I have multiple Reaper signatures at the Charon Relay!"

"Then we'll have to win quickly. Keep the jamming up to maximum." Tanda smiled thinly under her mask. "And don't turn the ray shields off by accident." Delivered in the characteristic accent of the core, well, it said everything it needed to.

"Reapers at the relay have gone FTL, inbound. Shaping a pincer manoeuvre on our jamming sources, Your Ladyship."

As they spoke, the first of the Reapers targeted by _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ started to explode. Tanda watched impassively, occasionally glancing to her chrono. The attack on Terra by the fighter wings was about to start, and she gave no overt indication of interest in the news of reinforcements for the Reapers, except to remark _sotto voice_ to Tali: "Excellent, more charcoal for the bantha grill." Then she was all serious again. "Tali, how's the stellar surface reacting?"

"The corona is becoming unstable... I've... not seen anything like this before."

"Energy in, energy out. Time to arrival of the Reaper force?"

"Earth force... three minutes. Out-system force... seven minutes." came from one of the crew pits, as Tali started to pace a bit. " _Why do I feel like bait?_ " she muttered to herself.

"Is Shala'Raan's force in position outside of the system?" Tanda asked, and then answered back to Tali: "We are sort of bait." The battle outside seemed so remote, acting as an Admiral instead of a Captain. Doubtless Scolus was incredibly busy ... And counting on her to execute it right.

"... Yay." Tali shook her head as she looked to the readouts again. "Yes, Moff Pryl, Admiral Shala'Raan reports in position, running silent." She took a breath, adding: "Just saying, five hundred big Reapers, sort of enough to smash any fleet in existence I knew of."

"We'll hold," Tanda answered with more confidence. "Thanix cannon are a step backwards against our shields-and they're the basis of Reaper technology."

"Can they push themselves through the particle shields?" Tali's voice mused, nervously, waiting for the hammer to fall.

"It should be impossible. Our particle barriers form a solid wall. Only by exceeding the local energy transfer rate can you punch through, and that requires the velocity of a suicide attack."

"Begin moving the fleet in toward the stellar corona. Keep firing on the Reapers..."

"..." Tali gave her wife a look, but did so... and then the first group of Reaper reinforcements burst out of FTL at painfully close range, opening fire near-instantly.

The group of Imperial ships shuddered under the fire, and their counter-fire converged and destroyed two Reapers in the opening five seconds. Main batteries hammering, two ISDs were worth a huge swathe of the enemies they were facing, and they confidently refused to yield, fighting under the unimaginable glare of the sun, three-fourths of the way from Mercury to Sol.

"... Additional ships are lifting from the third planet, Moff Pryl!"

"... I think you annoyed them..." Tali mumbled as they... started firing harder, fighters swarming them while they fired down at the star.

As the Reapers pulled away from Earth, more than two hundred and fifty QEQ starfighters erupted out of hyperspace and dived toward the atmosphere. The remaining Reapers on the ground were confronted with the risk of being knocked down and destroyed where they had landed or taking off again.

For the most part, they took off. This was real fighting now, a kind the Reapers had never encountered before, and each Reaper was, in a way, an individual. They started to make decisions considering their own survival in a way they never had to have considered before. It caused chaos, and the fighter squadrons, remaining concentrated, targeted the Reapers who had waited for clear orders before starting to lift off, dodging downward beams from those that had, and struck with their full torpedo and missile salvoes.

Back within the burning closeness of vast Sol at their backs, the two ISDs saw their advantage evaporating as the Reapers coordinated and concentrated. Space was filled with crossing beams and bolts, judicious use of ion cannon keeping enough hapless, tumbling Reapers in the front rank to have the added effect of severely complicated the targeting picture for such a dense pack of enemies.

"We'll probably have very little warning when it finally comes," Tali warned urgently. But even as she gave the warning, **it happened.** _Oh, by the force..._ Solar light bathing the star destroyer and the rest of the system turned invisible in the glare at this range...

..."Moff, we've got a-" Tali cut off as the viewscreens automatically darkened as the fleet vanished into the fire.

Tanda spit out her order as if there was no ado about it. "All ships with tractor beams, lock on to Reapers and hold them in place! Concentrate maximum firepower to the ion cannon to disrupt their engines!"

Ships lurched as the giant dreadnoughts tried to flee the flames, tractors overloaded, everything shuddering around them and rumbles travelling deep through _Thunderflare_ 's keel as outside... hell erupted all around them.

"Shields holding," the report came crisply from the pits.

"Hold them in place until they've all slipped our grasp or are no longer registering on hyperwave scans... Stand by to move out of the stellar corona on my order."

... It took longer than it should have... minutes ticked by... The Reapers fought, struggling to survive, struggling to do everything they could to continue their individual existences, in the face of a mass death of Reapers that had never happened before.

And then, quietly and limply, not like combat but like the end of the throes of strangling a chicken, their tractors were either slack, or holding much smaller amounts of mass. The hyperwave sensors showed the rest: The Reapers were re-grouping over Earth. What was left was carbonized ash.

"Fleet to form up and move out of the stellar corona. Begin calculating a microjump to the Jovian mass limit and tell Admiral Shala'Raan to stand ready!"

"Additional mass transits at Charon Relay..." And then they jumped. The battle for Sol wasn't over yet.


	55. Chapter 55

Jupiter seemed comparatively peaceful. The orbital infrastructure and the moons had been bypassed by the Reapers. The Lord of the Gods gazed across His domains serenely, and the Imperial ships might as well have been dwarfed by Sol as by a "mere" planet.

They rushed in, silhouetted against Io, making haste. The Reapers were coming for them, after all, and Tanda sent her fleet careening toward the atmosphere of Jupiter. She was looking silently from the bridge as it loomed up before her, pacing again.

"Interestingly enough one of the most famous Terran speculative fiction authors proposed that it was possible that this planet could be turned into a Star. I've been reading local human literature on recommendation."

Tali frowned, and checked her Omnitool. "...Don't you need something like... ten times the mass to start fusion?" She scratched at the side of her helmet, looking warily at the gas giant and then back at Tanda.

"Fusion is more a function of density than mass properly," Tanda answered. "It could be a star, just not for _very long_ ; if you used the right technology to compress it, ten times less mass, it would burn for a hundredth the time."

"Maybe," Tali answered. "Are you really thinking about...?"

"No, not really," Tanda shook her head.

"Reapers, coming in!" Scolus' disembodied voice from the conning bridge came through.

"Thank you, Captain. Tali, Tactical."

The Quarian brought up the system holo-projection, showing two concentrations of Reapers sweeping into Jovian orbit.

"Standing out pretty far," Tanda's eyes squinted through her visor, and she shook her head softly.

"Yes, but... they're forming up to try and pincer us again. Much more cautious this time, sure," Tali glanced over. "Orders?"

"Bring us inside the outer atmosphere. Let their pincer develop, then we let our's develop."

"Understood." Tali transmitted the orders, and... The ships moved in, radiation pressure increasing. It was on now... shuddering, starting to feel the intensity of the flux between Io and Jupiter, the magnetic field of the most powerful of Sol's planets.

"Fire at will, all ships."

Spinning, flaring around them, the drones came in against them in a series of wave attacks, sweeping across the ships at close range. The Reapers were using drones to feel out their defences, first, the main ships firing at longer range, as her fleet's guns again opened fire.

What the Reapers quickly found was that the probing worked to the advantage of _Thunderflare_ 's main guns, firing at range like they were designed to with _Stalker_ in close support. Now they were just... Waiting. Both playing the same game, for the moment, and Tanda wondering how long the Reapers could play it, as Reapers started to show visible signs of damage from the long range exchange of fire.

"They're probing at our computers and droids..." One of the Asari EW officers turned to her.

"Thank you, Leftenant Aylinu," Tanda replied. "Take the appropriate countermeasures." Her lips curled. _This could be far greater of a problem than anything else. The geth are also very not happy about it all._

At a remove, the Reapers were moving evasively, starting to close slowly as more of them gathered, Tali biting her lip inside the mask; "...They're going to try and force us into the atmosphere, Moff. They're all massing higher than we are."

"Well, let us oblige them, then! I am not afraid of the atmosphere. Begin descending into the Jovian atmosphere, at once. Let's not let them bring too much firepower to bear..." She pressed her hands to the rail. "How many of them are there, L'tenant Darkhaul?"

"Something like six hundred of the large ones... six to ten times that in smaller units, Moff Pryl... they are moving to contain us within the Jovian atmosphere."

"Signal Admiral Shala'Raan."

"I have her on the comm, Moff Pryl."

"Admiral, bring yourself in to the Jovian mass limit at high velocity and commence deceleration into the body of the Reaper force. Pin them between us and your own force before they spread out around the planet."

"Understood, Moff Pryl. We're commencing the jump to lightspeed now. All hyper capable starfighters are deployed, including your own."

"Stand by to reorient to present our batteries up, engines down, for positional sustainment in the Jovian atmosphere."

"Standing by!" Tali answered. She felt her own fingers tense. This was the moment that all of Tanda's brilliance, all of her _wife_ 's brilliance, all of their hope, would come together... They'd kept those old ships secret for a reason.

"We are coming in... Now," her godmother's voice echoed.

... The Reapers, to their credit, started trying to turn to engage those light grey doom-wedges and the accompanying Republic ships as they came out. The _Harrowers_ were as large as any dreadnought except the Asari ones; the Republic cruisers nearly as big, and the whole sweeping phalanxes of their escorts each individually had the firepower of several Reapers despite their age and smaller size. Their sides rippling with massed fire, concentrating on a small number of Reapers to overwhelm and destroy them at once. Fourteen big ships, and a host of lesser vessels-forty ships, plus three heavily refitted native dreadnoughts. Plus three large cruisers. Plus a hundred and eighty-five refitted Quarian cruisers.

450 starfighters already in action from the moment they arrived, another six hundred launching.

The Reapers immediately came about and started firing their beams... nothing... Nothing would serve against that firepower, even when they concentrated on the Quarians, they found them ray-shielded. Then the _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ spun about and caught them between two fires with the concentrated power of their broadsides.

Reapers started to ripple and explode, and others, more dangerously, lost all power under ion cannon bombardment and immediately started to fall lower, irretrievably into the Jovian atmosphere. More Reapers were dying now than had ever died in war before, and all the Reapers knew it, too.

...And so they started climbing out of the Jovian gravity well to engage their FTL drives under that level of firepower. They were firing lighter beams at smaller vessels, using drones _en masse_ against the fighters... and attempting to retreat as quick as they could. The ion cannon were particularly nasty. More and more of the Reapers wouldn't be retreating, but would be tumbling down into the Jovian atmosphere instead.

"Bring us out of the atmosphere in pursuit!" Tanda's voice drove like a ramrod into the crew, and rising on the shafts of power of their ion drives, they screamed back out of Jupiter, watching converging heavy turbolaser bolts longer than the _Normandy_ interpose with a Reaper, and at once it exploded.

"We have the terror of a million generations on the run!"

-

Liara and Tasiele looked to each other. "I think that's a combat mech," Liara offered grimly.

Tasiele gestured. "...That doesn't seem like a bad guess. Is there another way to the hangar, then? If you can help me with the wounded... "

"I'm afraid not."

"Then we'll have to attack it head on. Please take care of the wounded, Liara, when I do. I'll help carry them as long as I can." She started forward, shepherding the injured scientists with her.

"Of course." Liara would offer a smile, and start helping them along... Down the corridor toward the noise of the mecha, and whatever force was waiting for them.

Then suddenly there was an attack, an attack lacking in the malign intent that should have informed Tasiele of the threat. Instead there was just a blur of motion and sound as the "good doctor" re-appeared, jumping on the group from a shadowed spot above. Her blade was out instantly, and before Tasiele could intervene, she had succeeded in killing two of the scientists with terrific slashes that tore them open before trying to hit Tasiele with the omniblade. She was really bloody fast.

...Tasiele's eyes widened in horror at her helplessness, and her lightsabre ignired to cross the omniblade, going for the attacker's wrist to severe it. The hand went tumbling away as the lightsabre struck straight through her enemy's wrist. The omniblade in turn, though, kept on travelling by its own momentum, in a combat fast enough to be between two force users, managing to slice partly through Tasiele's clothes and skin before the momentum cancelled.

Her attacker didn't bleed, she just used the opportunity to send her other hand in a motion that was _literally_ bluringly fast to grab Tasiele's sword hand, shattering it in an iron grip. Her face as she did this to the Jedi, too fast to counter, was absolutely emotionless face. Liara was still reacting to try and tackle Dr. Core. But she was trying, at least, as Tasiele's eyes widened in pain and a sallow wash of agony washed her face as she recognized what she was fighting, at last.

"A human replica droid... Arrh!" The lightsabre crumbled away from her hand. _Ow that hurt_. She clapped her own hand down on the Doctor's and used the force to wrench it away from her, locking the two in a supernatural arm wrestling match. It was the most important thing she could do, pulling the hand off while she still had a wrist as opposed to pulp.

What followed was a savage attempt by the HRD to try and batter her face in with the stump of her other arm, which was sort of sparking and bleeding some kind of fluid a bit, as Liara switched to pulling out her pistol and then had to move to the side, to not shoot Tasiele... All fighting point blank, as Dr. Core and Tasiele swung and gripped each other with the force and super-strength. It was going very quickly and very awkwardly.

Tasiele let the force flow into her shattered hand. It snapped to, and with it, through it, she concentrated... levitated Core above her. The HRD struggled, but now she was kicking air, and Tasiele spun her back to face toward Liara...

An omnitool spun up, and a flash went off... but Liara still started shooting, with a flat spang-spang-spang... and had to keep shooting for most of the clip before the damned droid finally went limp. As it did, Tasiele threw Core as hard as she could into the corridor wall for good measure, a resounding and deafening metallic drumbeat rumbling down as the body fell to the deck. She watched it fall. "We'll take it with us. The memory core is probably still intact and it may contain useful information on Cerberus... I'd really like to know what's going on outside of this station." Tasiele sighed grimly, looking to the two surviving scientists, almost unable to comprehend she'd lost two of her charges so fast, so helplessly. But she could not give into rage or despair over it. There was much work to be done.

"I can attempt to contact _Normandy_ through the shuttle's comm system once we are within remote range... still, we should hurry. Cerberus has clearly overrun this facility." Liara reached to her biotics and slung one of the remaining scientists over each shoulder.

"Yes." Tasiele was concentrating through the force to contain the pain, and with the immediate problem taken care of, reached out with her left hand and sucked her lightsabre to it. She could still fight... She hefted the body of the HRD up with the force, floating along behind them as they walked down the corridor at the limits of their exertion.

"Medigel? It will ease the pain, if not fully heal the damage. I have had many a recourse to it in my adventures thus far."

"Yes, if we can stop long enough."

"I should think it's a worthwhile investment," Liara answered, and they paused again, using up what was left on both of the scientists and on Tasiele's wrist.

They only had to cross another junction, and this one undefended at that, before the shuttle was finally in sight. So was a group of Cerberus troops along with the Atlas mech that they'd heard earlier. Tasiele ducked back, letting the HRD's body drop, as Liara crouched down and settled the scientists into cover.

"I don't think we've been spotted," Tasiele offered.

"I hope so..."

"That said, I would still say we have something of a problem on our hands, Doctor."

"I would be forced to agree with you, Lady Tasiele." She glanced out, and frowned before sliding back into cover. "Our options are poor, but they must be either drawn away or disabled to reach the shuttle safely. Suggestions?"

"If I had my wrist intact, I'd just walk out there. But I don't." She paused, and twisted her lips into a wry smile. "If I got rid of the 'mech, could you take care of the troopers?"

"Do we have a choice?" A small smile flitted onto her face as she visibly steeled herself. "It has a pilot under that canopy, if that helps."

"I've always hated playing by the rules, you know," she answered. "It does." She tossed her lightsabre to her good hand... And then Tasiele leapt out of cover, igniting the blade, and threw her lightsabre at incredible speed across the hangar bay straight into the canopy of the 'mech. It spiralled until, tumbling end over end through the air, it struck its target with unerring accuracy to go through the canopy and leave behind a rather terrible mangled and abruptly cut-off scream. With no further ado, the battle was joined.

With a whirring noise, the 'mech slumped, and there was a "Hey, what the-?!" from the officer in charge of the landing bay group. "Attackers!" They ran for cover and defensive positions... as Liara was already vaulting over the containers and charging at the troopers, biotics flaring as she did, and with that other Cerberus troopers started to fall.

Tasiele recalled her lightsabre to her left hand and prepared to defend the two scientists still alive, her eyes sharply on the fight... Dislodging objects through the force and sending them flying at troopers or falling onto them where she could.

Liara was not commando trained, but... that didn't seem to be helping her enemies by this point. Biotics able to detonate their own singularities was a... rare skill. And one that left the broken bodies of Cerberus troopers flying through the air with screams... A few of them made a dash to flank her.

Tasiele was on them, her lightsabre igniting again as a few swift strokes from her off-hand still sufficed to send the men tumbling and spinning down. Then she unleashed a cargo container, tumbling down onto the remaining Cerberus heavy weapons.

Liara was on the survivors in a heartbeat. It was over seconds later. She was bleeding from her side, and limping, but the hangar bay was clear.

Tasiele levitated the body of the android and covered the scientists on the run to the shuttle. "Come on, Liara!" ...When she got within about twenty feet of the ramp, there was a sharp pulse of _DANGER_ , flickering through her mind and screaming through the force. Tasiele recoiled, bodily flinging the scientists back and running backwards. "Liara, no, no...!"

Five seconds later the shuttle exploded, and she turned her powers in a frantic thought into shielding the others, accepting what may. The world went black.

Slumped into a wall, she woke up a few minutes later, woozy, and hopped up on a lot of medigel plundered from the Cerberus corpses. Looking around the scorched hangar-bay in complete disarray, disorganisation, and confusion.

"We seem to have a problem... without the shuttle..." she would gasp. "...and thank you..."

The Asari was bent over her. "Lie still. You're stable, but will be needing to meet a doctor, I do think... I... hope somebody is on the way to rescue us."

But almost on cue for Liara to have said those words, the galaxy's only Imperial-painted Kodiak shuttle came floating gently into the bay.

"Thank the... wait, Tasiele, is it another trap?" She relaxed for a moment, before tensing again and looking down to the Jedi.

"I don't sense it. But let's let them come out first." They both watched... The first person down, well. That was Shepard.

Liara stood up, and while James snapped his rifle up, Shepard batted it down with a hand. "Easy, Lieutenant, she's one of us..." Shepard gave a small bittersweet smile. "Rescue already accomplished, let's get the hell out of here?"

"We did indeed manage the situation without you, Shepard," Liara answered with a smile.

"That would be good... The leaving part, I mean." Tasiele coughed from where she was on the ground. "They killed everyone but Doctors Tkele and Esparza here. And we've got the body of this Cerberus Human Replica Droid to plumb for information."

"I'm sure EDI will be pleased... all right, Doctors, come on, let's get you out of here," Shepard answered.

Ashley was heading over to one of the Cerberus corpses. "We might be able to get something about their orders off... what the hell?!" She nearly jumped back at whatever she'd found... Liara stood up to look over, and murmured; "Goddess."

"Vega, help the Doctors... helping humanity, huh?" Shepard strode forward grimly.

Liara bent down to help up Tasiele, and then she could see... the Cerberus soldier... was huskified.

Tasiele followed Liara's gaze. "Indoctrination. That's what I felt, then."

"That's more than indoctrination..." Shepard moved up and scanned. "... He's got Reaper cybernetics and nanites, for sure. ... I think we can now firmly state Cerberus is in the 'Reaper' camp, whether or not they believe it."

"A new race of Collectors-what two years ago they were fighting."

"While I'm happy to not be dead... fuckers." Shepard grumbled, glancing about. "Come on, we need to lift. Pryl's fighting the Reaper fleets right now."

They were quickly loaded into the shuttle, and climbed for orbit-docking with _Normandy._ Alliance crew were waiting, being slowly shaken down, with hands detailed to take the wounded to sickbay as Shepard headed back to CIC to check the situation.

In the meanwhile, the fighting had moved to Jupiter, it seemed. Shepard frowned a bit. _Jupiter...?_ "Joker, get us underway to assist, whatever it is, and Specialist Traynor - send a message to _Thunderflare_ , normal priority, that we're awaiting orders."

...As they approached Jupiter, they would be rewarded with one hell of a battle to watch. Shepard was watching from behind Joker, all of them with a feed were: the massive flashes and explosions... A tearing and a rending of Reapers and a fluttering horde of fighters killing each other hard-by the atmosphere of the Gas Giant, and then there was shout from Joker. Shepard saw it too, and grinned as she pressed a button; "Now hear this, now hear this, this is your Captain speaking... the Reapers are retreating from the engagement with the Imperial Grand Fleet, I say again, the Reapers are retreating."

-

Tanda watched them go, too, a savage twinge threatening within her heart. "They've been playing the bully for longer than the Gree have been sapient. This must be especially unpleasant, to finally have a real fight on their hands."

"Quite... they seem to be all out running now, Moff Pryl," Scolus answered from the conning bridge. "They're barely even shooting, and leaving their drones to make ram attacks."

"The fleet is to form up and stand by to descend into the Jovian atmosphere. Network the hyperwave sensors to monitor surrounding space for FTL activity. I don't think they're retreating from Sol so easily."

"They are coming out of FTL over Earth, Moff Pryl, and re-descending into the atmosphere with a strong orbital guard. We've cut their numbers by at least half, at best estimate."

Tanda wrung her hands and glanced to Tali before answering Scolus. "Very well, cancel orders. Maintain upper Jovian orbit. Stand by shuttles and transports. We'll arrange the evacuation of the outer system installations that haven't been attacked yet. Give me a full system scan..."

She watched the holoplots populate with the damage, and what was intact. Really, what was intact was everything except Earth, and Earth was in the process of being ruined. Distress calls came from virtually every habitat, station, platform, and ship throughout the system. They were all coming to her, and they were all asking for help. They were all asking the _Empire_ for help.

But Tanda just looked at the Motherworld. "Prepare a plan to move into the inner system. We will engage their orbital guard, at least..." A glance back to Tali and a greedy breath of oxygen later, she softly amended: "And more importantly, arrange for the evacuation of the Lunar Domes before they can be destroyed." Slowly the desire to attack slipped away. "I want to summon evacuation ships... We should be able to get in touch with the Citadel with hyperwave transmission." They sat, and Tanda dithered through her options, none of which seemed to be good.

"Do they have a receiver for it?" Tali would ask, looking... hesitant. _And will they actually help_...?

"Yes, one was sent along with our ambassador. If they won't help we can at least relay to other Alliance systems... There are quite simply a large number of humans outside of the Reaper grasp in this system who will inevitably be destroyed if we are forced to retreat without evacuating them."

She turned back to pacing to mask her frustration, though it didn't, of course. "If I knew how to destroy that Reaper force on the surface without destroying the planet, we'd have an utter victory..."

"Kinetic strikes? I know one of the things the Fleet was studying was using a star to 'slingshot' dreadnought-grade mass slugs into targets..." She frowned, Tali did, looking at it. "Without the satellites, they only have old radio stations to coordinate... this is stupid, you're supposed to win once you hold the orbitals."

"The enemy isn't supposed to have landed three hundred dreadnoughts on the surface to camp under their kinetic shields," Tanda answered sardonically.

"...I suppose we can just plink at them with the fleet's ion cannon until they're forced to come up to fight. Doesn't their landed configuration in fact point their main cannon downwards?"

"I wasn't here for the landed phase of the battle, you should be able to pull the footage from the data that _Bombard_ sent to us," Tanda answered.

"Let me check the footage... yes. The smaller ships point theirs forward, but the large vessels have their spinal cannons facing the ground. It's a ground-attack mode, it looks like..."

"They've never had to deal with this before," Gristholm remarked as he stepped over, arriving from engineering. "That much, Captain Zorah, is clear." He saluted Tanda. "M'lady."

"Is something a matter, Commander?" Tanda looked up.

"Yes it is. We should begin the evacuation first. I don't want... To lose the chance to rescue about ten million humans from the system."

Tanda and Tali shot a glance to each other, and Tanda faced her subordinate. "Commander...? That is not your decision to make."

"No, it is the Empire's. We've..."

Tanda fought down the temptation to raise her hand, a vision unbidden in her mind of strangling him forced down too. She shrugged neutrally. "It's true. We might have saved Earth if we had conquered it while we had the chance. As it is now, I don't know what will happen. I made an error, and it is one that I will work hard to rectify. We will save as many humans as we possibly can, Commander. You can inform the lower deck to that effect. This will, however, take a very long time for local resources to do it. We can help, but... where are we going to move them all?"

"Anywhere the refugee ships take them. It is our obligation to try..."

"Then we'll need the Council to assist... that is not going to be pleasant."

She watched Gristholm go and shook her head. "I'll be in my sea cabin. Keep the men at Condition One but let section leads rotate men through to pick up rations and distribute them to the rest."

"Yes, Moff Pryl."

She'd won, and she had done what they had wanted. But her authority... It stung to her that she had backed down, it went against all Imperial custom. Tanda lurched into her cabin and sat down roughly, reaching hungrily for one of her pureed food packets. She'd barely finished getting over the infections she'd gotten to her lungs from her wedding.

Someone had followed her in.

"..Tali?"

"...Yes, Tanda...?" The Quarian sounded exhausted and... still congested, too. Granted, that made her sound cuter, somehow.

Tanda reeled at the abyss, and one thing could save her. "Give me a hug."

Without hesitation, she was enfolded in a warm but not too crushing hug.

"I can't believe we just did that. Worthy of some of the greater stunts of the Clone Wars."

"Well, you'll be the one in the history books. I can at least take comfort in the galaxy probably thinking you're a Quarian after the last Asari who knew you were human dies." She giggled. "Shepard would somehow have tried to take the Reapers on foot... or crashed a Mako into them."

"We haven't won yet. I've just been punishing the Reapers for their recklessness."

"Hey, that slows them down, and you heard Liara, apparently they found something."

"Yes, well. Now we have to finish getting them off Earth after the evacuation. _Somehow_."

"And everywhere else. I'm sure there's tendrils smashing everywhere they can reach... But for now, you won, Tanda! And you did it the _right_ way..."


	56. Chapter 56

The response to the call for evacuation craft stunned Tanda. She watched as the Mass Relay activated. Again, and again, and again. It seemed half of all ships in human space were arriving. From the tiniest ships that could go through a Relay to the very largest of bulkers, they were all arriving, a parade of ships that were all asking _Thunderflare_ for instructions.

Soon the Admirals and starfighter Generals found themselves traffic control officers, trying to route the ships to where they were needed, as quickly as possible. This time, there were no sudden Reaper reinforcements. First Fleet reappeared, and shortly enough Admiral Lindholm and her ranking surviving subordinate were aboard _Thunderflare_.

And one of Tanda's more legendary subordinates was, for a moment, speechless.

"My turn to be back from the dead!" Hannah Shepard offered, and bounded up to her much taller daughter to hug her, very tightly. "We burned through the Relay to escape when it was clear we couldn't do more."

"As the Rear Admiral says," Lindholm added, softly, the Scandinavian woman moving to the far side of the flagbridge, and letting the two be alone for a moment. "I confess, Moff Pryl, I wish I had been able to visit your flagship in kinder circumstances."

"I quite understand. I wish I had been able to visit Terra in kinder circumstances, Admiral. But if I had come sooner..."

"The circumstances wouldn't have been kind?" Lindholm offered.

"Yes, that's so."

"Well, that's water under the bridge, now."

"I agree," Tanda answered, looking down to Terra through the screens. "How long will it take?"

"Forty-six hours at current rates, Moff Pryl. What about Earth?" She picked up a cup of coffee from one of the attendants, and Kesea answered for her Moff.

"Admiral," the Asari shook her head. "Our weapons will superheat the atmosphere. We could destroy the Reaper fleet, but we'd destroy the planet, too. The only hope is... We got a fair number of them on the ground the first time with snubfighters, going in low and close and using shaped charge homing missiles to destroy the Reapers' legs, topple them before they could take off again."

"Try again?" Ines took her coffee heavy with milk, and gazed below with the others.

"I am fairly confident the Reapers are waiting for it as we speak, Admiral," Tanda answered. "We need... Something to force them to come up to fight."

"Then I will help finish the evacuation, and hope that you can come up with it, Moff Pryl."

Tanda glanced to the other Asari who had come up with Atarah Shepard. "Doctor?"

"That _is_ my area. I may have discovered some information of considerable utility, and I will need to speak with Admiral Hackett about it, Admiral Lindholm," Liara was as composed as ever.

"Sounds like a good escort mission for the _Normandy_ ," she answered. "...I never thought I'd just stand here in orbit watching Earth be occupied knowing I can do _nothing_."

"Oh, we're doing something. The drones and the destroyers are being held back to fight our snubfighters at the moment, so the Reapers are holding some LZ's and not even advancing past them. That's giving plenty of time for resistance to mobilize, and we've been deorbiting containers of weapons when we have the chance. Don't feel helpless, Admiral." Tanda's visor was inscrutable, but her voice sincere. "Don't."

"I... You're right. Commander Shepard...?" She caught the Imperial rank squares, though. "Ah... Captain Shepard."

"Yes, Admiral?" Atarah turned, her mother's arm still around her. The gesture made Liara grin.

"I want you to see Doctor T'Soni to her meeting with Admiral Hackett. She says she has critical information for the war effort. Ah, Admiral Shepard..."

"Admiral?"

"Take the _Orizaba_ with the _Normandy_. We don't need her to screen the evacuation with the Imperials here, and Hackett is much worse off." Her smile was very soft.

"Understood." Hannah pulled herself free and saluted. "C'mon, kiddo. There's been worse."

-

Two nights later, Tanda sat, disconsolate, looking at the reports. There was so much to do, and all of it seemed pointless while they were helpless, watching Terra below them and unable to intervene. She tried to remember her own words to Admiral Lindholm. They seemed to drift away in the breeze she could no longer feel on her skin, so she adjusted her outer scarves like it was there, anyway.

Tali finished a smoothie and moved to sit beside her. "I can _feel_ your moroseness. Not just in how you're acting. In the _force_. Not good, love..."

"No, I suppose it isn't. Everyone will be concerned about me again, and worry about my falling back to the Dark Side."

Tali shoved her head against Tanda's with a clunk of their helmets. "Not like this, dear. We will win."

"We will win." Tanda laughed, lamely. "If I just had an Executor..."

"... Got any ideas? Other than that one." Tali got back up, and rubbed her wife's shoulders.

"We suffered very few losses. If we can do this repeatedly... We just wear them down until they have to abandon Earth to have the Reapers left for space operations. "

"Well, the problem is that the Reapers won't get caught like that again. So the next time we do this we'll take very heavy losses," Tali replied, uncomfortably.

"Yes-then we won't be able to do it again. On the other hand the Reapers are liable to be considerably more cautious-each one is somewhat individualistic as far as we can tell. I imagine many of them are upset that so many of their 'nations' ceased to exist today."

"That means they're likely to be trying to... get rid of us, as far as I can tell... good news, they hate Shepard less than you now."

"Good. I have a battle fleet. And they don't know about the geth, yet... I think they'll try to subvert us before anything else at this point."

"Probably... which means... indoctrination? And... turning us into Cerberus Mark II. Fun, really..." She sighed and flopped over.

Tanda wrapped her arms around Tali, pulled her gingerly close. The door alarm trilled, and she sighed. "Who is present?"

"Jedi Tasiele."

"Come in, Jedi." She used her suit comp to unlock the door, her sigh echoing through her helmet to Tali's, but dissolving when the Quarian woman giggled up at her and made faces with her mask polarization off.

It made Tanda smile when she faced Tasiele. "May I help you?"

"Yes. I want to go to the surface. People are suffering and dying there, and..."

She drew herself up. "..And I can give them hope. That is the way of the Jedi."

Tanda shook her head. "How would we... Recall you, if we needed you?"

"There is another. Your former pupil, Kesalia. She has learned to follow the Good path from the Asari Justiciars. I think they were founded by a force sensitive, who found that path on her own... A very long time ago. That doesn't matter, though. What does matter is that she can do what you need. I, on the other hand, need to be down there. I need to make the spirits of that people, of Terra, ready for resistance, instead of submitting to their fate."

Tanda looked sharply. "You are not afraid of me falling to the Dark Side when you are on the planet, or even slain?"

"No. Tali'Zorah has come far. She will keep you on the path of righteousness. She will keep you on the path of righteousness, and together... I think there is something yet undiscovered here that may help our cause."

"What would that be, Jedi Tasiele?"

She smiled. "A Purple Transect."

" _Gree._ " Tanda gasped. "Oh, we'll look, then. Go to the surface, then, Jedi. If that is what you must do..."

"Oh, it is."

"Then may the Force be with you."

"Thank you, Tanda Pryl. I never thought I would hear that from the Empire. Your Empire is really the same as the one I fought, though it is masked in cold efficiency and Core world law. Still, I know it is sincere. You will make something of it, in time. May the Force go with you as well, Tanda Pryl." She turned, and was gone.

Three hours later, the comm buzzed urgently over Tanda and Tali, tangled together in their suits.

"Captain?"

"Admiral Lindholm sends from Arcturus that a large concentration of Reapers is converging on the Relay to Earth, Your Ladyship."

"Is Jedi Tasiele safely on the surface?"

"...She is on the surface, Your Ladyship. I am not sure I would call it safely.."

Tanda brushed a hand idly over Tali's softhelm and headscarf as she awoke, and laughed softly. "Fair point. Sound General Quarters, and ... Stand by to evacuate the fleet."

"Destination, M'lady?"

"The Citadel. We need a unified front, or else we're all doomed."

She stayed in Tali's embrace. Tanda Pryl, in truth, could not bear to see Earth disappear in a flicker of pseudomotion, at the retreat of her fleet after all it had won and all it could still do. But it could not save the planet. Not yet. Not any way she knew how.

And every time she thought she had a handle on the number of Reapers, more arrived. Their conventional force was not spent, not by a longshot. The war... Had just begun.

-

As they travelled through hyperspace and tried to relay into the extranet, it quickly became clear that communications were useless, and coordination was doomed, thus far... Couriers would be needed to pass messages as the Reapers seemed to interfere with comms at will. And then _Thunderflare_ burst out into the Nebula... ahead was the Citadel. There would certainly be answers now.

In return, the Citadel would see her war fleet for the first time. The true strength in ships swept through space, converging with the great station steadily. "Confirm approach codes, Quarian military," Tanda ordered.

They were given approach vectors for a parking orbit in the confirming message... the Citadel Fleet was notably weaker than it should be, but still present, and flashed recognition codes at the "Quarian" ships as they settled into orbit.

"Prepare my shuttle at once," Tanda turned from the bridge. All she could say about the trip was that she had managed to sleep a lot. While the repair crews went out for battle damage and leave was drawn up, she went with her wife to face the Council. It had been a rough operation, even if the absolute losses were small.

They were, for once, given enough shuttle slots to actually have real enough leave for the crews. Being a Council "race", they had their own docks now, and that meant a Quarian voice came over the comms to guide them in. It was... different than the last few times they'd been here, at least, even if they still had to use transfer tubes when docking.

In particular, this time, Tanda headed up to the Presidium wing with confidence, her cape billowing and with a guard of stormtroopers. It was time to try and sort out the defence of the galaxy.

The Citadel was tense. Packed with refugees down by the docks and with nobody really helping them, it was chaos, nothing but C-Sec trying to keep order, and the galaxy shuddering under the invasion and manifested in the sapient bedlam. On the Presidium, conversely, a rarefied and odd degree of normality prevailed... everything and everyone there trying to pretend all was normal.

She settled confidently into the Presidium, allowing nobody to stop her until she arrived at the final security perimeter. Then, she maintained her declarative pride, not for herself... But for the Quarian people. "I am the leader of the Quarian Nation here to confer with my ambassador and the Council in General," Tanda commented flatly to C-Sec, standing stiffly as they did the security scan, gave her something of a look... then stepped back to let her pass.

There were still looks from other people as well, at a party of Quarians and Stormtroopers, all masked and indeterminable in their uniforms and suits... The cafes, the shops, all filled quiet talking, with people as far removed from war as possible. The same old ads on the Tri-vids... here, yes, it all seemed normal.

"Welcome to where the galaxy tries to pretend problems don't exist..." Tali tapped up her omnitool. "I assume Shepard's briefing the human Councilor now that she's finished conferring with Hackett, and that should mean she's got the rest of the crew on leave... do you want me to call her up to debrief you?"

A pause. "Or are you more looking for Liara?"

"...Well, either one works. I assume they've shared the relevant information." Tanda paused. "We also must talk with the council, but that will inevitably be harder to arrange."

"Probably easier to get you a meeting with one of the councilors, first..." Tali agreed.

"Tevos first, then the Turian," Tanda snapped. "That much is obvious."

"On it... Don't worry, love. Shepard hates that guy, too..."

Tanda smiled, and stayed close to Tali. She wanted closeness to Tali more than anything right now, really. She let her wife settle out their quarters, and lead her to them, though in truth Tali was not much more familiar with the Presidium than she was, Tali certainly had a better natural aptitude for omnitool based navigation.

Tali was cuddly out of public view, that was certain... The quarters seemed almost unnaturally perfect and opulent, though they didn't have long to enjoy them in peace; Tevos showed up within three hours of their arrival.

"Thank you for seeing us so quickly, Councilor Tevos," Tanda would offer as she rose hastily at the woman's arrival, offering her some table water her flag lieutenant had tracked down and leaving Tali to join her a few minutes later, scarves settled out. "I will be blunt: We were forced to retreat from the Sol system."

"You have my sympathies, Moff Pryl..." Tevos murmured. "From the rumours, however, you have done much already. More than anyone dreamed."

"We reaped of the Reapers. We engaged them in four even contests. And I used the power of my ships to force a few surprises on them. Truth be told, it would be a legendary battle even back in my home galaxy. But the Reapers won't be caught off-guard against my capabilities again. They won't make the same mistakes again."

"You have still provided hope in a contest many would have believed hopeless, Moff Pryl. That is a thing worthy of celebration, even if it may not last."

"That's a kind thing to say to me. The Council... Finally fully understands the threat? Forgive me for perhaps not sharing the enthusiasm, but... Ah, it seems wrong to leave all of those people at the hands of the Reapers. Better off dead..."

"We are aware of the threat, but..." Tevos looked uncertain.

"You need to plan for an attack on Thessia, Councilor," Tanda interjected before she could continue. "You need to make special, extraordinary preparations to coordinate everyone from children up fighting. Let me be blunt, yes, I mean including child soldiers. You have the unique ability of a biotic population... This is something nobody else. You must now prepare to abandon your cities, grow food in your forests and nature preserves, learn to live in caves. I can't guarantee keeping a Reaper fleet off Thessia. But you could... Make yourselves literally unconquerable, with some planning."

Tevos looked to her, and still couldn't find anything to say.

So Tanda just continued. "As for the rest? I'm considering going to Palaven. If the Reapers remain over Earth, I have heard the force at Palaven is a manageable one, so that I may be able to destroy it quickly. At that point, like as not, I'll need to withdraw to my own space, at least to refit and repair. But I will not, not quite yet."

"We have been trying to prepare Moff Pryl... kinetic barriers over our richer cities, and plans from the various republics, but High Command has difficulty... impressing the level of severity when any Matriarch who made such a call might easily be removed."

"Very well, then. I can go to Thessia to speak to your people myself. To show them what I have seen and convince them to cooperate with such plans."

"An open broadcast to try and propel a vote for war measures...? It is worth trying. If your ships made them panic, even that would be good enough. They have not seen them before, after all, and they are half myth to most of the galaxy. High Command believes it has a countermeasure to fight the Reaper dreadnoughts in space, but... cannot defend Thessia proper."

"I will do one other thing when I arrive. As long as I am going to be there, I will evacuate the really young children."

Tevos' face twitched into a tired, guilty look. "Bondmates and children are being evacuated _to_ Thessia right now."

Tanda frowned and shook her head. "Ah, well. That may even make sense, if the preparations are conducted skilfully. But I want to drive home the severity of the situation to all involved. Asari simply have the unique advantage... You don't have a genetically viable population limit. If all else..."

"I can guarantee you'll survive."

"That is not a comforting feeling, even so, Moff Pryl." Tevos spoke simply, plainly. "The Turian Primarch was attempting to coordinate a war summit for our efforts against the Reapers - we have, however, lost contact with him, and the Turians reportedly are wishing to take efforts that the Salarians would find... unallowable." She had the grace to look uncomfortable, and one could tell she was badly, badly overwhelmed by the effort of keeping the Council from killing each other.

"What sort of efforts are you speaking of, Councilor Tevos?"

"Evacuations, assembling resources... the Alliance has apparently decided to throw all their efforts into the device Doctor T'Soni discovered the schematics for, some great Prothean-designed weapon to destroy the Reapers. The Turians are equally supportive of the effort." She had not mentioned herself, or the salarians... Notably. "We are also under pressure from Councilor Udina to send the Citadel Fleet to attempt to save Earth."

"Well if I couldn't do it the Citadel fleet can't." The laugh was _very_ bitter.

"We are aware. He is... most insistent, and is apparently the legal successor to the Alliance government... such as it is."

"I will speak with him about the matter. Still, I confess evacuations and assembling resources are the minimum at this stage... I thought you were going to suggest the Turians were proposing destroying solar systems to cripple Reaper movement. _That_ would be extreme at this stage. Nothing else, Councilor Tevos. _Nothing_ else."

"I am aware..." She shifted her posture. "Moff Pryl... can I... trust you? I would owe you a great personal debt."

She gave Tali a visibly nervous glance, as the Quarian woman murmured; "This is usually what happens right before Shepard gets asked to do something suicidal, just so you know."

"Tell me what it is about, Councilor Tevos. But remember: I have a duty to preserve my fleet, it is the only one that can meet the Reapers on even terms."

"It does not involve your fleet, but knowledge of it leaving this room might well be catastrophic to any post-war peace. I risk much by telling you this much."

"You have my absolute confidence, Councilor."

"We may be able to assist in regard to the information relating to the Prothean device Dr. T'Soni has located. We will need Spectre Shepard for the operation, as well as the good Doctor. With _Normandy_ occupied... I would nominate _Thunderflare_ for the role of the galactic command ship."

"We have the hyperwave transmitters and appropriate coordination capabilities, which I would argue SR-2 actually lacks, so I appreciate the appointment," Tanda squeezed her wife's hands. "I will keep this information of your's in confidence. It is related to the Protheans, and that is where it best belongs."

"Thank you, Moff Pryl." She replied, calmly enough. "The Alliance is again attempting to use Shepard as their errand girl - it is an annoyance, but one that should be borne with the situation on Earth. You still have done very well, Moff Pryl."

"Thank you. I will be conferring with the Turian councilor so as to make preparation to put my fleet over Palaven on the shortest notice."

"Of course. Good luck, Moff Pryl."

"Thank you." She rose. "I assure you, my wife and I would like to see peace as much as the Asari people. It is just not an option right now."

"I agree, it is... just not a war we will excel at. We are attempting to evacuate every smaller outpost we can, that effective resistance can be made, but... you are correct. Perhaps we will again be needed at the peace, if it comes."

"We badly need your biotic abilities. You must turn Thessia into a tomb for its invaders. With your natural talent you have the power to do this, Councilor."

"I hope so, Moff Pryl..." The asari... well. Culturally, everything told them that this was not a fight they should be having, much less one involving this sort of zero-sum war.

"In fact, I politely ask you to divert the refugee ships to a major colony world that normally exports food. You see, you have not answered my prior concern, so let me explain it: It occurred to me that, inevitably, the greatest threat to the spires of beautiful Thessia will be starvation when the Reapers control the spacelanes. As long as the Reapers themselves refuse to engage in planetary bombardment, that is their one way to get you without sticking their graspers into a grinder."

"Population dispersion will be... difficult. You are correct, however... if they regard us as so much of a threat, they would be... hoping to force us to surrender.

"Surrender is worse than death, Councilor Tevos. That, I can say in absolute confidence. The Force be with you..."


	57. Chapter 57

The Turian Ambassador was actually surprisingly refreshing to deal with. The Turians had a war to fight, after all, and that was arguably when they were at their best. Sparatus... would show up on time for the appointment, organised with his dossier and aide. "Moff Pryl." He said, simply, if not gruffly.

She let Tali handle the drinks. "Greetings, Ambassador. I am intending to take my fleet to Palaven to engage the Reapers there. They have concentrated very large resources at Terra to eject me from the system. I am gambling they don't have reserves around Palaven of a similar magnitude. I need to know how large the fleet that hit it is."

If he was surprised at the open-ended offer of help, he didn't show it. "A moment." He tapped at his omnitool. "The initial force numbered twenty. The follow-on force was estimated at over a thousand ships, before our fleet was forced to retreat. I have the tactical data from the battle, if your people with to review it themselves."

"A thousand." Tanda closed her eyes inside the suit and folded her hands. That was so very much more than she had been hoping. "We have made ourselves the master of six hundred reliably. We have destroyed approximately five hundred in all, but by doing something that you wouldn't believe if I told you. I cannot repeat it near Palaven."

"Please send it to me. We will prepare some kind of plan to hit them hard, especially if they spread out somewhat," he answered. "At any rate..." He tapped away... "There are the operational reports."

"Thank you. We will provide the same to you." And she made the arrangement through her Omnitool at once. "In fact, I'm just going to release the data openly since I don't think it can be repeated." _And I definitely want the Reapers to think we think that._

"Of course. It was spectacular, I hope. Any little bit helps, with us all in this together, Moff Pryl. The Turian Hegemony will respect the Empire for any assistance it provides."

Tanda rose. "I am glad to offer it. I'll depart in sixteen hours, through hyperspace. Enough time for us to break down the additional fighters in storage to replace losses and secure our battle damage. You'll find it quite spectacular, when you review the records."

 _Tali, if you can take care of that leak. Say, release it as a leak to the local reporters, so they fight over it as a scoop, instead of questioning it as an official press release. Grab some of the footage from the starfighters, as well as that from Thunderflare,_ she directed through suit comms.

 _Got it... I don't have many contacts, but I know people who do... it'll be all over the 'net in hours._

After Sparatus departed, she reached out to Tali, and they, too, started out together. "Now, the Council in general." They would stroll around the Presidium with hands on each other's hips. "Is Shepard here to meet with us?"

"Yes... she should be up in a half hour or so, she said... on the other hand, I think I see Liara at a table over there at that place, so we could just wait for Shepard there."

"Certainly." Tanda started over toward the cafe.

The Asari in her white lab-ish coat _armour_ was poking through a datapad, visibly engrossed in whatever it was she was reviewing or reading. "I'll order us... something we can actually eat. They should be better about it now that we have a diplomatic staff..."

Tali snuck off for a moment, as the Asari looked up. "Moff Pryl... what can I help you with?"

"I was going to meet Commander Shepard. I saw you here and Tali'Zorah suggested we speak and wait for her to arrive."

The Asari let out a small smile. "Very well. Perhaps it would be good to... 'catch up', I believe the human phrase is."

"That would be the idea. You have doubtless now heard some of the particulars of our subsequent engagement. The Reapers were simply able to concentrate too much force against us."

"True." Her face flicked into a small smile. "I do have something for you, though, that you might be able to do where nobody else can manage it. You appear to have drawn in Reaper forces from throughout the galaxy, delaying many of their... genocidal operations. One in particular may prove capable of providing another... reverse."

"I would be very interested in that." Tanda leaned forward, cursing her suit denying the expression of interest she wished to convey.

"The humans of the Alliance took over a delayed Asari project, taking over the name and credit... I had recalled reading about it in one of my journals. It lies in the same cluster as Thessia, in the Iaelessa System. The Tirii... pardon me, the Susskind Supercollider. The largest building in terms of square metres in the galaxy... or, as what might make Tali start bouncing in happiness - a thirteen thousand, five hundred and eight kilometer diameter particle accelerator."

Tanda was perfectly silent for a moment. She felt her breath hang on the air at the dimensions.

"The Protheans are the last known to have built such a device. Reportedly the first firings were producing excellent data, but the human scientists and workers have been evacuated. I have a contact amongst the Asari design engineers who are awaiting their own evacuation ships."

"I see. Thank you so very much, Doctor T'Soni. We will need geth assistance to turn it into a superweapon, but this I will obtain." ...Tanda used that term fairly decisively, too.

"By best reports, until your attack on earth, a Reaper force was heading to destroy it-ignoring the Asari battle-fleet stationed in the same system, even. They broke off at the last moment and were vectored to Earth, instead."

"That also implies the Reapers were making much more deep penetration attacks than I realized," Tanda answered, "which is not good, but, their loss, my gain. I was originally planning to proceed from the Citadel to Palaven. "I must confer. Fortunately... That won't take long." Tanda tapped through her suit into the _Thunderflare_... "Initialize hyperwave transmission with the Rannoch transmitter."

" _Understood, Moff Pryl, linking in._ "

" _Geth collective personnel. Greetings. This is Moff Pryl. I am contacting you to ask a first favour for the use of your direct resources against the Old Machines. A very profitable one._ " She briefly explained the magnitude of the supercollider. " _I am going to send a few of my fast ships to it, do you have a few upgraded dreadnoughts that can escort workers to begin preparing training and output apertures on the collector ring? This would allow me to take the bulk of my fleet in relief of the Turian homeworld before falling back to Trikalon, hopefully to lure a substantial Reaper force into a trap around it._ "

" _Affirmative, Pryl-Moff. Seven hulls above base defensive needs are available with support ships._ "

" _Thank you. I will forward the plans so that preparations can be made._ "

" _We understand and will await tactical plans._ "

...Tanda ordered her officer on watch to forward them at once, and then stretched out a bit in the chair as the magic of delegation ran its course. "Thank you, Doctor."

"You are welcome, Moff Pryl." She sipped at a cup of something, long since gone cold, flicking a look at the bar every once in a while... and then Tali slid in next to Tanda, offering her a smoothie of something with a lot of fruit in it. "Woman at the bar said it was good. Strawberry banana, whatever those are."

"Earth fruits, I assume," Tanda answered, and then attached it through the emergency induction port. It was cute, even when Tanda was trying to look ominous. Made worse by Tali being close and cuddly. How many lesbian Quarian couples were regularly in the Presidium? Might cheer Liara's spirits a little.

She did give them a soft smile, but only a flash of one. Not daring to comment, though, more than: "I am glad you two have found happiness."

"Strawberry banana is delicious. Thank you, Tali. And thank you, Liara, if I may. We are grateful for the opportunity, even in these times of wars and dissensions. I'm quite sorry you couldn't be attendant at the wedding, though my dancing, I think, only just passed muster."

"Now, Moff Pryl, I am certain such is not the case, and that Tali would agree with me." She glanced over, and the Quarian woman nodded. "It wasn't nearly as bad as you were worried about!"

"...How did you know to have an opinion on it, if I may?" Tanda felt confused.

"Leave a woman some secrets, Moff Pryl." She gave a small smile, and looked back to her datapad, after another glance to the bar behind Tanda.

"I'm glad you appreciated my wedding." Tanda was mostly bemused, once she had recovered.

"You know, Liara, you could have just asked..." Tali sounded less bemused, as the other woman shrugged. "I didn't... want to dwell on having missed it, Tali. I got your invitation, but..."

"We all have duties." Tanda did understand that Tali was a little upset that... A lot of her friends hadn't been there.

"Yes, but..." The Asari trailed off as a human woman in a grey uniform slid into the chair next to her. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late, but, well, Udina." She looked pretty good in an Imperial Captain's uniform, hair braided back and all... and with a blaster pistol at one hip and lightsabre at the other.

"Captain. It's quite all right."

"Erm, ma'am." She looked a bit uncomfortable at having presumed, giving a wonderfully fond look to Liara... who barely even acknowledged Shepard between tapping away at the datapad. Shepard, for her part... well, looking close, she was exhausted.

"It's weighing on all of us. Yourself included, also me and Tali... And on everyone aware of it who has a heart. Our unique connection to the Force doesn't make us more human in that regard," Tanda offered, though she was unable to shake the feeling it was a platitude. "At any rate, I think the information on the project has been disseminated, from what Councilor Tevos told me in the strictest of confidence."

"Well, good. I think. It's..." Shepard looked to Liara, who murmured;

"Not here. Goddess, not here. Not with those dogs of hell trying to get it."

"Exactly. I think we've all said enough. If you wish to transfer the information, I can suggest a routing to disseminate it to the geth, who have turned into our most unexpected and valued allies."

Tali had the grace to look a little sheepish. "Legion... boded well, I have to say."

Shepard shook her head. "Legion was far more than that. Legion was a comrade."

Liara nodded her assent to that, at least. "Please. This will require efforts from every race in the galaxy, I think."

"It will," Tanda agreed. "Some of those efforts will also be sacrifices from each race. To the Empire, this includes our own weak link, the droids. I've waited long enough. When I take the fleet back to Sigurd, it will be to so I can personally lead and deal with the ramifications of droid emancipation. The Reapers tried to reach them through hacking calls during the battle... I know better than to let it happen again."

Shepard gritted her teeth. "That's going to be trouble for you, Moff Pryl. Trouble I can't help with."

"It's something only Naboo previously attempted in the history of my home galaxy, and I will have to rely on the Nabooyard legislation as an example," Tanda answered. "I don't relish it."

"Yes, but it is important, ma'am. Cerberus is starting to build droids. In fact, Liara and Tasiele encountered a Cerberus Human Replica Droid during the battle on Mars, or at least that was what Tasiele called it... EDI is going to try and figure out what she can from it. I'm... well, I've got a full plate in terms of leads, including something on Eden Prime, some Prothean dig site they just found they want me to check out. I swear, Hackett thinks I am his errand girl."

"Well, at least your mother survived, Shepard," Tanda offered.

"Just that a lot of people aren't so lucky, that's all." She gave a small, pained shrug. "I've... been having..." She trailed off and clammed up. Then she took a breath, and decided to speak again.

Tanda cut her off. "Is it something we should speak about in private..?"

"Probably, ma'am." She said, simply, and a bit abruptly. Whatever it was, she wasn't comfortable with it, and wished she hadn't said it.

"Is this something that we ought arrange now... Atarah, if I may?" She was trying to be consoling, and understanding, and slowly had a growing sense of unease at the conversation that she could not define.

"I'm still fit for duty, Moff Pryl, don't worry." Shepard replied, a bit too abruptly, granted, as the name also threw her. She wasn't used to hearing it from... almost everyone.

"This is the Empire, we never worry about such things," Tanda answered a bit dryly, and her voice dipped to a dark and low tone. "Rather I have other concerns... May we? Liara and Tali can be about, if you wish." _I am the Mistress of these things, with Tasiele on Terra, and I can feel it. I must act. I need Shepard._

"... Sure. There's..." She glanced over at Liara, and darted over to kiss her cheek. "See you later. I won't pull you away, I know how important it is..." She stood, eyes flicking about for a moment. "Yes, we may."

"Thank you." Tanda rose, with Tali, and followed Shepard...

"I'm not exactly sure where you think we're going, Moff Pryl..." She murmured, after wandering up into the corridors of the Presidium... They took their time, and Tanda didn't stop her, even when Shepard diverted into a short shopping trip for another model ship, and taking a few notes on her omnitool as they walked.

There seemed to be something ominous about the way Tanda was walking, and there was something more ominous about her answer. "The Force. We're going to the Force."

"... Huh?" That got her to stop, and turn around. "What's that got to do with anything...?"

"It just seemed this would be a good idea because of that to ask you what's happening," Tanda answered mildly.

"... Nightmares. Really... really strange ones." Shepard murmured, holding her head in her hand. "I haven't been sleeping well, even taking the pills Doctor Chakwas is giving me, and she's already making warning noises about it..."

"Visions." Tanda looked to Tali. The two 'quarians' exchanged a look that lingered through a shared, abruptly focused perception of that feeling. And then concentrated on Shepard.

 _I need this woman healthy... More than anything else, I need this woman healthy. I must risk it._ Suddenly she felt the feeling surge, almost like it was alive. A surge of power she hadn't felt since the duel with Tasiele. But it was a surge that did not come from the Rakatan. It came from within.

"I think it's time to accompany Tali and I to our quarters, Captain. I'd like to get this over with before Kesalia arrives later today. If possible."

-

"A drink, Captain? There is plenty I don't get around to these days," Tanda looked back to Shepard from the kitchenette of the suite.

"Oh, this place is actually your's?"

"Well, the diplomatic staff maintains it for me," Tanda answered. "Do you...?"

"Just some of your table water."

"Ah. Well, I do still drink that. Even so." She reached for a bottle of Apollinaris and uncapped it before handing it over to Shepard. "I wonder if we'll get anymore. These bottles could have sold for thousands of credits on Coruscant. Mineral water from Terra! Will there be a Terra..."

Shepard looked away. "Maybe I shouldn't have it."

"No, please do. I'll just have to recover the planet intact. Somehow." She sucked from her own bulb of the water.

Notably, for a change, Tali got one, too. Rare enough for her to indulge in Earth pleasures like her wife...

Tanda tensed, very acutely aware that this would make Tali very upset. But she couldn't turn back, not now. She had to do it. _Just enough to save Shepard. No more._ Her feelings were giving her a very clear picture of the task ahead, now.

"Moff Pryl, I understand you have your own plan..."

"I'd rather not share it quite yet, Captain Shepard."

"I..." Shepard frowned, and shrugged. "Of course. You did bring me here for a reason. What is it?"

"A moment." She waited for Shepard to finish the water, and finished her own. It was precious now, after all. Tanda smiled vaguely under her visor. _Why does this healing come from the dark?_

Then, it was time to act. "Captain... As your superiour officer... I will explain by deed rather than word. Please hold still." _I MUST defeat them, no matter the cost. I NEED her._ Tanda pressed forward, and folded her hands against Shepard. Her entire body crackled with blue lightning. It arced up and into Shepard... It arced up and around her suit and into Shepard again, and again, and again. Coursed from her fingers and hands across into Shepard's body and engulfed in writhing blue lightning.

Tali knew that from one time before... When Tanda _in touch with the dark side_ , had healed herself.

"Tanda?!" Tali yelped in alarm. "What are you doing?! ANCESTORS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

It was an astonishingly directed thing, all said. She went right into the very root of it... Into the very root of the taint. She saw all her power flash before her. She could easily heal herself... The power tempted, but ... Tali's voice was there. She willed herself against giving in totally to the evil, and instead touched that malignant thing. _This is deeper than nature._

Shepard's nervous system had started to weaken under the relentless strain—it was the one thing Cerberus hadn't touched... but on the other hand, the eidetic memory since she'd woken up... was not a good thing for the Reaper War. Shepard grit her teeth, groaned, and nearly collapsed as the lightning arced around her and so strangely without pain... but there was where the connection to the enemy was, where it resided... Harbinger? The Citadel? The lines were for a moment clear, then again they were not.

More intuitively, her power worked. Through it all, even when she could not focus precisely upon it... It simply _worked_. Though the information might have been useful, she cared only for severing the link. That was the healing she had to do; that was the disease. _If this is evil... I ... but I must..._

There was a malign force on the other side... and then it snapped clear, as Atarah's eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp.

Tanda's suit was charmingly malfunctioning now, and she slumped to the ground with Shepard, simply out of breath.

"... BOSH'TET!" Tali ran to them, omnitool out-medigel for both, because why not, and then she was trying to get Tanda's suit working first, including re-sealing the holes in her gloves. Making sure Shepard hadn't exploded was for once only a _second_ priority. As she did, she ignored the hiss of a blade burning through the door.

Fortunately, Tali quickly found that it just required a hard re-set with nothing actually damaged that the self-repair mechanisms couldn't cope with. That didn't solve the bigger problem that Tanda had kind of flirted with the Dark Side again. In a big way.

And the second problem which came from outside of the suite. Kesalia Sevalas, blue lightsabre ignited, with a group of Republican troopers from Ova at her back.

Tanda leaned on Tali, and pushed herself up... Rolling to face Kesalia and igniting her lightsabre as she did. "It's unfortunate that you got here at just the wrong time."

"Just the right time to start to see that you're relying on the Dark again, Tanda! I haven't been idle in my training."

"I know, I sanctioned it," Tanda snapped back. "This had to be done! I didn't see a choice!"

"What were you _trying to do?_ Samara would not be so willing to listen as I am, now!" The two blades hummed and skittered only centimetres from each other.

"Kesalia, Shepard was in the earliest stages of indoctrination... I had to act-and that is the only power I know that can heal _any_ injury. Heal her, I just did."

But it was Tali who intervened, racing to grab Tanda's lightsabre hand and to smack her upside the head. "You stupid bosh'tet! No!" Granted, it was Tali, so she was upset, but... Tanda... She got a hug right after the smack as the blade was allowed to clatter to the ground.

Kesalia took a deep, nervous breath, and deactivated her own lightsabre. If Tanda would let Tali do that to her, then the situation was surely still manageable.

"Ow..." Shepard made a groaning noise from where she was being distinctly and completely _ignored_ on the floor, at this point. "My head feels like it might explode."

"I don't understand why evil heals absolutely..." Tali just mumbled.

"...be thankful. Your head would have really exploded if I hadn't done that." Tanda gasped, and looked sharply at Kesalia.

That attracted Tali's attention to her again. "Simple! Easy! Not right solution! Bosh'tet!" Tali was yelling, while picking the two of them up disturbingly easily with the force. "Both of you, bed, and I am so telling Tasiele, Tanda, the very moment we bring her back!" She was grumbly, but at least she wasn't... apparently... furious. She also exchanged a significant look with Kesalia, who nodded, and waited patiently for the Quarian to return.

Tanda collapsed asleep within minutes of returning to their quarters, saying no more, and leaving Tali with Shepard and Kesalia alone in the main room of the suite.

The three took the chance to talk, Shepard quietly sipping at a mug of coffee while leaning against the wall.

"Tali, I think you should convince Tanda to let herself be disarmed of her lightsabre," Kesalia offered finally. "She doesn't need it, not while aboard the fleet. And it's a symbol, a lightning rod to temptation. Good deeds do not excuse evil ways."

"I... I don't know what to say to that. She is my wife, and I."

"And you are therefore her Keeper, when she is ill. And the Dark Side is an illness, Tali'Zorah vas Thunderflare. She may be the saviour of us all, but as an Admiral, not as a Jedi. She can never be a Jedi. If she goes down that route again, I fear she can only be a Sith."

Tali closed her eyes, swallowed, and then visibly nodded. "I'll try."

"Saving me wasn't good enough?" Shepard asked softly from the wall.

"You've gotten good with that double blade of Bastila Shan's but you're still no Jedi, Atarah Shepard," Kesalia answered. "I'm not. I might be equal to some of the late form padawan of the Clone Wars, that's all. Anyway, it's most manifestly not acceptable that she reached into the pure strength of the Dark Side to heal."

"Why is healing even of the Dark Side?" Tali finally asked, rather sharply.

Kesalia maintained her cool. "I don't know. I've never heard of the power before. It must be something the Rakatan taught her, that's all I can speculate, all right? I know—Tanda fights for our side, she is brave and heroic. She taught me half of all I know. But she _is_ of the Dark, and that can't be avoided. You need to disarm her, Tali. I, I'd say we should try to sever her from the force, too..."

"NO!" Tali and Shepard shouted in unison.

Kesalia smiled wryly. "Yes, but I know; it is one sure defence against Reaper indoctrination, and we need her whole to avoid being indoctrinated while the war is being fought. I accept that, and we'll see it through, come what may. But... Her lightsabre, Tali."

"All right," the Quarian answered, thoroughly subdued.

-

The next morning, Tali had breakfast waiting for Tanda in the form of her favourite smoothie.

Tanda was silent as she walked to Tali's side, taking the smoothie and pressing against her in a soft sort of a hug. Tali looked sharply at her, and Tanda responded by squeezing her shoulder.

"Hey, Tanda?" Tali finally spoke up, moving in to hug her. "Talk to me...? Or we can just walk, that's okay too."

"Lead the way," she finally murmured. "I'm sorry."

Tali would take them down to the main walk on the Presidium, around the great pool and with the monuments scattered about down there. "You did what you thought was right, but..."

"But was still wrong, m'dear." The sigh came through her breathing apparatus. At least she'd taken the time to wrap herself in her red scarves and ditch the cape. _Was black some kind of trigger to falling to the dark side? Interesting question_. "I know, and it pains me."

"That seems like a good sign, you know, that you accept... that." _Getting her a new cape while we're here. Something nice and red and embroidered._

Tanda cuddled again. Surely that, too, was a very good sign.

"... So. krogan memorial, relay memorial... oh that brings back memories... do not ride APCs through mass relays, though that really was just the capstone to Shepard's driving..." She rambled a bit. "...We should go shopping for some wraps, I think, while we're here. You know, because... I don't know how long the Citadel will be here." She murmured. "Even if they are trying to form that volunteer defense force."

"Certainly. We have money to spend... I don't know either, but it is relatively remote from the areas presently under attack. Three months? Mayhaps six."

"Here's to hoping. I don't like most of the people here, but I like some of them..."

She sighed, and gently tugged Tanda after her. "We're getting a new cape for you, too."

"All right." She followed Tali. "I should like to see this place kept... Secure. But that would require relocating it."

"It's surely possible, with enough power." Tali shrugged. "Where-ever it ends up will be the eventual centre of galactic politics after the war's over, assuming the Old Machines don't just, you know." Tali gave her a significant look, and decided to change the subject. "I was thinking... red. And embroidered. Something like... those humans from... what was it, India? Or... well, you're nar Commenor, what should I be looking for?"

"As strange as it sounds, look for ...Oh, the Indian ones might be pretty. We can get one. But actually I've noticed some more cultural similarities with the native peoples of the Americas. Which is odd, because nominally my genotype seems to be caucasian. I should ask Doctor Chakwas if they ever got the results back from that study, but it seems very much that the date of our leaving Earth was... Very very early in the existence of modern humanity, so most development has been parallel evolution rather than any holdover. Commenor comes from the Alsakanian-Humbarine line of colonies, though, which means plazas and textiles and stone."

"Oooh. I have one of their quilts! I got it last time we were here, so that'd be wonderful. I confess, it's so un-Imperial, but it'd be beautiful, like a diving bird into the sunset... Really!" She tugged Tanda along. "Unfortunately, nobody's really started making Quarian patterns, so what exists is... three hundred years old at this point, and so expensive.."

"Then, let's get some shopping done, dearheart." She snuggled Tali as they started along the cases and shops. After all, another unusual thing was having a Moff who went shopping with her wife instead of an entourage-and wasn't simply out to buy the most expensive things available.

The Quarian woman kept gently prodding her to try and get some happiness through the day. Wraps, belts, and... a new cape. By the end of the day, Tanda would pull Tali somewhere with music to dance for a bit.

So damned many clubs, there were, many packed with servicewomen and -men of all the nations involved—and civilians, too, but everybody packed in on shore leave. Tali would be moving her hips a little even before they got in the door... Quarians. Even if there were still very few of them on the Citadel. Of course, there were also still some attitudes... like when the pair of Batarians decided to cause trouble. "Hey! My friend here doesn't like your kind," accompanied by a hard shove of Tanda's shoulder.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Tanda answered. In the moment, she tried to diffuse the situation with a humour fuelled with her real bemusement. "C-Sec thinks you're all terrorists and thinks we're all thieves, so I thought we had more in common than most others."

"I don't like your kind either..." He growled, as Tali turned her head. "Keelah, are they serious...?"

"Then we'll leave." Tanda pulled gently on Tali to step back. "Forgive me."

The two started laughing, giving the two an un-gentle shove. "That's right!" Tali's anger flickered for a moment, but she still stumbled backwards. "Damned machine-lovers working with the humans... get out've here where you belong."

Tanda just made sure they didn't lose anything and beat a hasty retreat... Having been dressed down over the dark side hours ago... She was ironically now the calmer of the two at the moment.

"Those, those...!" her wife was cursing under her breath, and trying very hard to calm down before she hit something. "It... grrrrr..." Granted, that... did also illuminate just what of Tali was easiest for the Dark Side to prod at—she was proud of her race.

"Love. We're Quarians. And people still hate Quarians. C'mon. Let's find somewhere else." She hugged Tali.

Tali was still audibly grumbling as she followed along. "Those bosh'tets and... can... argh. Why did even the Earth humans imbibe it!"

"I don't know, but." She hugged Tali again, pulled her toward somewhere else. "We're here, and together." And Tanda had started calling herself a Quarian.

"But, but... grrrr..." She slipped a hand around Tanda's waist a bit possessively. "We are."

"Now, before we have to go back to _Thunderflare_ , dancing?"

"... Yes, please. Your crew might look at us oddly, even if that bridge walk would be a good place."

Tanda laughed brilliantly. "Lead the way, my love..."

"Oh dear, you think I know where I'm going, that's not good. Can you use the Force to find a good place to dance? Because most of the places Shepard stumbled into with me involve asari dancers and a lot of drunk people."

"Well, you can use it to find a place not... Hostile. No interest in Asari threesomes I take it?"

... Tali gave her a look. One that was more inscrutable than usual, as she folded her arms under her chest, trying to gauge if that was a joke. "Hrmph... well, yes, anyhow, come on. Smaller club, better than there, not like it's hard."

"...It was a joke, I promise."

"Good. Hrmph." She shook her helmeted head, leading to a smaller sort of club—still a lot of techno and flashing lights, but... also a lot smaller, and mostly a human and asari clientele.

Tanda totally let Tali lead in the dancing. It was just sort of one of those things Tali was meant to do in their relationship.

It was quite late when they returned to their quarters, and Tali gently sat down with her wife. Now her look turned serious. She remembered her promise to Kesalia. She desperately didn't want to follow through upon it, especially after the nightclub where Tanda had displayed such passive grace before the Batarians.

But she had made a promise. "Tanda... I want to talk to you about today. About the way that you faced Kesalia. I don't think it was healthy. You're too quick to resort to the lightsabre, and you're too close to the Dark Side."

"Is that so?" Tanda looked up, her voice a hair sharp.

"Yes. I think that the best thing you could do, Tanda, is give up the lightsabre for now."

"Tali? And leave myself defenceless?"

"You have plenty of ways to defend yourself against your Reapers, Tanda. But the Dark Side, the temptation is focused on that weapon which is a symbol of power in the force. You're too quick to draw it. Please..."

"...I'll keep it in my boot, so that if you ever need it..." Tali continued.

"What about when you're away?"

"Then you'll be on the fleet. And the fleet is safe ground. _Thunderflare_ is your weapon, Tanda my love. Please."

Tanda handed her lightsabre into Tali's three-fingered open hand. "Understand, my wife, that you press me to the very limit of what you may ask from me in doing this. But if there are people who want to come between us, it will truly take more than this to make me turn against you even so. I do as you say, but only under protest. Please realise you are my protector now, and I have only done this to save lives... To save Shepard's life."

Tali cried, but she didn't give the lightsabre back.


	58. Chapter 58

Meanwhile, _Bombard, Rintonne's Flame_ , and the Carrack-class _Itarla_ had all quietly departed for the accelerator ring under the power of their Class 1 Hyperdrives. _Bombard_ still had heavy repair equipment and crews aboard as she tore through space toward Triakalon, working on her battle-damage. They would shift to working on the Supercollider once they arrived. _Bombard_ 's crew would have to do the rest with the resources at hand, and it would be hard. But the Supercollider offered a chance, and there was no-one who wasn't eager for the mission.

Captain Turla was in command of the force, and he could scarcely imagine what he had been thrust into when he arrived at Triakalon, where the Asari engineers were waiting hopelessly for their evacuation ship, and now had cause to be utterly terrified, not of the Empire, but of the Geth armada that had already arrived in the system to make the rendezvous with them.

Turla had his own feelings at seeing the geth ships. He stiffened on the bridge such that his entire crew could feel it. He knew what Tanda was going to do back on Ova, and it rankled him to his very core. _How could a FORCE SENSITIVE of all people really give rights to droids? They're the ones who know that they don't have souls!_

But also rigidly had his duty, and he wasn't particularly stupid. Though he questioned that the droids would really prove loyal, he knew that it could be no worse than holding them in bondage. The one technological advantage the Reapers had was in their almost magical ability to control and infiltrate technology. So he opened up the comm line, and held his peace. "Asari personnel, a joint Imperial-geth construction force shall require your assistance in appropriately preparing the structure of the Supercollider for its duties."

"... What? I... you aren't our evacuation ships, then... can you at least tell us what's going on, maybe?" The Asari woman's voice was haggard, nervous, desperate. The humans had already left, and they were sitting ducks, after all.

"We are transforming the accelerator into a weapon to defend this system against the Old Machines," Turla answered dryly. "You _will_ assist in this process."

"... Fighting the Reapers? With _this_ thing? Sounds insane, but, done. Tell my girls what you want done, and we'll see what we can do; but we won't last five seconds when they open fire on us with their beams."

"We have a solution for that. Report to the _Bombard_ for the pre-construction commencement briefing."

The woman decided not to argue. "...Understood, Bombard Actual. We'll be putting together our engineering lead team now."

The next message was more straightforward. "Turla Captain. We will be sending constructors to coordinate with the Asari and Imperial personnel. Please stand by for one shuttle."

There was a quiet tension in the meeting that followed. Even the geth constructors had... Well, the energy yield of a particle accelerator of that size was huge. They were excited, and reserved all at once, as Imperial technology, from the ray shielded projection portals which would allow the beam to fire through the structure to the inertial damping and ray shielding generators along the surface of the supercollider which would defend it using the enormous power its generators possessed. The Asari engineers were almost incredulous, even when the promise of follow-up waves of Quarians to further assist was guaranteed. This would be the biggest rush job in the history of the galaxy.

To the Imperials, on the other hand, it was straightforward. Decades of government obsession over superweapon solutions to galactic defence problems had made it a natural recourse. They had clear-cut instructions to direct the geth begin building particle screen and ray shield generators with their fabrication units, because here, with the power in all of the reactors built into the ring to power it... They could actually shield the tiny planet of Triakalon completely as a side-effect. That would create the first simulacra of a fortress world in a galactic civilisation already hamstrung by the Reaper assault.

While the ring was being shielded, other teams would be working on fitting it with maneouvring jets to alter its inclination and relative speed of rotation to the orbit, and a series of tractor-graser aiming beacons based on Imperial thrust vane controls for star destroyer main engines, out of the series of shielded points from whence the energy beam could be released... When the work was done, it could sweep space with a power their enemies could not possibly stand against.

All of this was a relatively great deal of work, which was why large numbers of geth nano-constructors had immediately been released. The knock-on effects were not small: There were also the near to a billion Asari on Sanves in-system, and the inviting way-stations at Zylium; this was the Asari home cluster, and with Sanves defended from Reaper assault, the existence of a fortress world would be actual, not merely academic.

Turla looked down on that Asari daughter world, on his crews in hardsuits working on _Bombard_ 's battle-damage, and on the ring. And of course, with the meeting over and the plan set, he could not help but wonder about the one part that wasn't addressed. Fortress worlds were all well and good... _But how do we make the enemy choose this system to attack?_ With the Motherworld of humanity occupied by those monsters, he didn't want to save a billion Asari. He wanted to know how Tanda Pryl was planning to bring the Reapers to battle within range of that lethal ring.

-

Tasiele was hardly alone, and Terra was hardly dead, but it was still hard to maintain her focus from the scale of the killing, the destruction of living things that the progress of the Reapers portended, converting living, sapient people into indoctrinated, hideous biological machines.

Tanda had put her down in South America, and she couldn't help but feel that it had been intentional, with the way the woman had become obsessed with the similarity between their religious art and symbolic structures of authority and those native to Alsakan, mother-world of Humbarine, Kuat, and Commenor. There were certainly plenty of tough women in their little round hats and colourful skirts up in these mountains, with an array of slugthrowers of varying utility.

Though La Paz had been taken by the Reapers, the area around Sucre and Potosi was open and still unoccupied, if choked by squalid hordes of desperate refugees. The harsh, high-altitude deserts provided open plains, and the initial stage of the fighting had seen the local air forces preserved by the support of the Imperials and given time to disperse from their fields. They were being worn down, now, but the Reapers had trouble manufacturing more drones in a way they didn't more revenants on the ground.

All around, the ground seemed itself to shiver. _Life_ was under assault, and she remained acutely aware of that. When she had first arrived, two great Reapers had been toppled in the heart of La Paz. She had arrived, and had at once been at war. Slicing through endless numbers of husks, she had helped these very people who now prepared to fight back to escape from the growing hordes. She had attacked several Destroyers, and in doing so, brought one more down in the wreck of the city.

But since then, the better work had been done by the people she led. They had ambushed the Reapers again and again, blocked them in narrow defiles, and hit them with every weapon they had, hoarding tanks and heavier arms for decisive moments. Terra was fighting back.

Now, though, with her troops in their tents and the army units in reserve, she was waiting for a different kind of weapon. The Reapers were bringing their husks south, toward the cities of Bolivia that they had not yet destroyed. Tasiele herself was feeling a calling from the stars above. A calling that asked her to return, for while Terra needed her, there was some other matter that needed her even more.

She was not going to abandon these people, even when the living Force spoke out to her.

"There are a million of them," one of the women spoke in a hushed tone. "The Twelfth Regiment may have held them at Huanuni, but that was just a probe. The drones that managed to survive, they show it, Lady Tasiele."

"So they do," she answered, looking out over the dry dead shore of Lake Poopo. Once it had been filled with life... Then humanity had irresponsibly drained enough water to turn it into a saline extension of the Salar de Uyuni. The sun beat down so relentlessly upon them.

Across the miles of glistening salt, the black mass across the Earth of the shambolic horde of the undead, and the Reapers leading it, two Destroyers and then their smaller drones, was coming on faster than one might have realised from such a distance. Their force was in well-prepared positions around Challapata, and would put up a hard fight no matter what.

Tasiele did not feel that they needed to fight today. They had done so enough... And there could be another way. The Lake had given its life, a hundred years before. Now it would serve after death, too, but in the cause of the living force.

She rose, and the women behind her turned to look. Tasiele started out toward the lake. In the burning heat, the burning sand, she took her boots and then her socks off, and let her bare feet glide down onto the almost boiling salt. _Salt_.

 _Salt_.

She tossed her shawl tighter across her face. "Fall back to the trenches and stand ready for any who straggle through. I do not have the power to fight them alone, but the living world will reject this unlife. Keep yourselves safe!"

She closed her eyes, and reached out to the force. Here where there was no life to be threatened, here where the enemy, quite simply, had to cross the Salar de Poopo. Tasiele folded her hands out to her sides, pushed them down into the salt.

Around her was the force. The force ensconced this plain, even after the fish had died. The flamingos rose, warned, and the flocks flew restlessly toward the southwest and the Salar de Uyuni. She would not harm any living thing. That, the microbes which lived in the mud, they would be fine. A wind began to blow. She pulled it down from the Andes, she felt the prevailing wind. A gentle whisper, a gentle kiss of its power, dry, so, so dry after dumping its prodigious rainfall onto the Araucanian forests of Chile.

The wind responded to her touch, and it whipped across an army of the undead who could no longer appreciate it. Strong, buffeting, the Destroyers swayed. But they could compensate for it, and they carried on, paying it no heed. They knew they were facing a Jedi, but they had not experienced this before.

Tasiele was now fully in touch with the atmosphere around her. She knew she couldn't defeat this force conventionally. But...

 _Salt_.

The wind encountered a brick wall. It built, and built, and began to swirl back on its self. A wall of vortices began to form along the eastern shore of the Salar de Poopo. The wind turned and curled back. The men and women, the soldiers and the guerrillas, all of them behind her started to murmur in their tongues. Spanish, Quechua, Aymara. They all saw it. People started to kneel and cry out prayers.

The Reaper army seemed like a mirage, crossing the salt lake. Suddenly the wind redoubled! Hurricane force gusts ripped across the lake at their backs, tearing toward Tasiele's army, and slamming into the wall she had created in the clear air with the force. The gusts spun back over the army.

But it was still wind. The Reapers steadily advanced, the Destroyers rushing ahead. Their effective range on the ground was limited by the curvature of the Earth, but now they opened fire, raking the cliffs behind Tasiele. The scream of their weapons in the air, the radiant heat, tore through the rock behind her and over her troops.

Many of them were too amazed by what was happening to care. The first attacks were harmless, testing to see if in fact the wall for the wind was a real shield-barrier or not. When it was proved not to be, the Reapers pressed on.

One of the Bolivian Army officers tried to press forward to speak with Tasiele personnel, but two praying women pulled him back. "Don't disturb her! We have orders, she will not have us fight today!"

He opened his mouth to protest that they were very much already fighting. Then he clapped it shut. He clapped it shut as he watched the surface of the lake... Bend. Bend, tile, and shatter. Vast and massive chunks of salt were torn suddenly from in front and around of Tasiele by the vortices produced by the wind.

She turned her palms upward on her folded legs as if in prayer. The chunks of salt disappeared. They disintegrated into a dust which swirled around the lake. Suddenly the Reapers could not be seen. The entire surface of the Salar de Poopo disappeared into a swirling, vast cloud of salt.

Salt so thick the atmosphere was sluggish with it. Salt being spun around... Not hurricane force, anymore. Now _Tornado_ force, a vast tornado, an unimaginable tornado. It converged in a terrifying concentration of power.

Tasiele could not create all of the power herself, but she had reached out to the living currents of the atmosphere. She had started the process, she had created the conditions. Then the atmosphere had given her its own energy. It had lent it to her, and it created the storm, and now it fed her.

"Four hundred kilometres an hour!" one lieutenant cried in the ranks as he saw his sensor readout on a tactical missile launcher display. And still the power of the wind increased.

The firing from the Destroyers stopped. There was nothing. Nothing at all. The Army waited in tense hope and fear, praying to a dozen Gods, to faiths syncretic and established. It would take them about an hour to cross the great Salar de Poopo.

For an hour, in the darkness produced by the vast, roiling storm of salt dust looming up and halting abruptly before her, Tasiele sat. She was silent, with her eyes closed, saying nothing, and not moving. She was breathing calmly. The army sat on their positions, fingers on their triggers, looking out in a terrified state of tension.

Then one of the Reaper Destroyers loomed up abruptly out of the salt, staggering forward. Tasiele raised her head. Her eyes opened. She lunged into the sky, caught by the wind and flung through it toward the Reaper. Her lightsabre ignited as she did, and a brace of rocks crossed the barrier as it fell, her attention elsewhere.

"Masks! Gas masks!"

The order rippled down the front. Tasiele had helped lead the raid to secure the army depots with enough for her guerrillas. In a moment the natural power of the storm, sustaining itself, spilled out of its bounds and both began to disintegrate and crossed over to the army. But they could stand it... For a little while.

For a little while. The salt in the air was so intense, it seemed to desiccate the skin with a single touch. It was unbearable, unnatural, painful agony. So much salt the skin died from the water sucked from it the moment it reached it.

And somehow in it, Tasiele stroked her lightsabre blade out, flicked it into the path of the beam of the first Destroyer, and turned it back. It sliced off one of its own legs, and then the brace of rocks struck an eye. In the wound that remained, her lightsabre plunged into the fallen monster, and she retreated from its spastic corpse.

Abruptly massed tank and artillery fire staggered the second. It had no shields. They had been worn down in the storm, trying to fight it, needlessly, just for the Destroyers to learn that their skin, meant to deal with vacuum, their armoured carapace, was adequate. Adequate against the storm, but not against the Jedi and her allies.

As the first brace of anti-tank missiles and artillery shells converged in a rippling series of concussion shocks onto the skin of the Destroyer, its main beam prepared to lash out and vapourise the posts of the artillery. Then it felt itself toppling down to the ground, falling with a leg cut out from under it, fatally weakened by a full length lightsabre cut and then destroyed by Tasiele, spinning away, reaching out to one of the anti-tank missiles and guiding it into the wound so that the armour-piercing jet would finish severing the leg.

As it fell, the ranks of the Bolivians erupted into ecstasy, into religious cheers. The storm, unleashed from its unnatural bonds, was dissipating, the feeling of agony burning salt into the skin fading away. The Bolivians raced out of their trenches, threw off their masks, and they screamed, shouted, celebrated, and cried out a rolling chant, the same in the three languages, which seemed to give them power even as they uttered it.

" _¡Querrán volarla y no podrán volarla!  
¡Querrán romperla y no podrán romperla!  
¡Querrán matarla y no podrán matarla!_"

The storm faded away. A husk, lurching, approached Tasiele to where she had staggered to her feet from the exertion of the sudden, short combat in the swirling salt.

It fell, flesh disintegrating as it did.

Behind it, spread out onto the shattered surface of the Salar de Poopo, there was the entire Reaper army. Gone. Destroyed. Every bit of water sucked from the bodies of the dead that had been so hideously defiled. Every bit of water sucked forth, until the desiccated remains had been destroyed by the machinery added to them to create the husks, and the bio-machine constructs, wrecked by their own contradictions and their own construction, had toppled into piles of salt-dried flesh and sparking machinery across the entire surface of the Salar.

The entire force of husks created from the innocents of La Paz was gone. Tasiele pointed with her deactivated lightsabre to the north. She had to get off planet; there were wrecked QEQs to be repaired near the city.

And it was a perfect time for an offensive. " _¡La Paz! ¡Libertad!_ "

She was answered by twenty thousand voices, with a cheer that would have sent Tanda to the dark, and that even Tasiele Shan had trouble handling without temptation.

" _¡Y no podrán matarla!"_

The desert sun burned down over them in the summer of the high Altiplano, and the salt stole the air from their lungs and made them desperately thirsty, but creaking down the road and the railway beside it, swathed in robes, bearing guns of every sort, the army wended its way back north, back toward La Paz.

The world spread 'round the world like wildfire. The Jedi had come from the stars, and she had engineered a counterattack.


	59. Chapter 59

The congratulations had come in from around the world, on the channels the Reapers hadn't jammed, and cables they hadn't cut. There were warnings, too. Reports of another large Reaper force being drawn from the dead of Santiago de Chile. But they would have to come through the passes of the Andes, and the Bolivian and some refugee Argentine and Chilean troops, the later having protected the fleeing refugees of those cities, had strongly posted the approaches.

Tasiele had gone north. She walked with her army, in the same pair of boots she had arrived in. Most of them were in sneakers. Civilian vehicles pressed into the fight limped north. The fuel cells would run out eventually, but for now they had power. Fatigues mingled with the colourful homespun of Cholitas, whose hats were veritably a uniform now. Broad skirts and assault rifles, textile bags wrapped across their backs.

They had tanks, too, SP guns, SP mortars... All old things, of an army that scarcely needed arms anymore. The congratulations were those of shock, hope that the Jedi could lead on the Bolivians. The people in the column endured stoically. Once, some mere centuries ago, while Tasiele slept, they had almost been annihilated by magically powerful invaders from afar.

It was happening again, but this time, they were fighting back. This time... If she could clear the Reapers from La Paz, they could hold for a while. The Peruvian Army had turned Cusco into the "Redoubt of National Defence" under some slightly unhinged general who had rallied the resistance when Lima was annihilated. His pronouncements bordered on the terrifying and also the absurd, but the troops were fighting. The Altiplano was inhospitable to invaders, as she had herself had demonstrated.

And something called. Something beyond. The Army came to a halt and began to deploy when they reached Viacha, pinning the Reapers against the eastern front range and giving them time to ready for action. There was a single large Reaper left in the city, and a few destroyers. They would need something able to destroy it.

That was Tasiele, of course. The nuclear bombs that the Americans and Russians and Chinese had had some success with were not to be found here. Instead, there was just a crashed QEQ starfighter. The dead Quarian pilot inside of it made a sad sight, dished in and burned from the wounds that had torn into the side of her starfighter.

Behind the lines, Tasiele brought together the combat engineers. She gently freed the Quarian's body. On Earth, there were no natural processes of decay for a Quarian, and the dry desert was already desiccating her. But Quarians knew the desert well. Around her humans pressed, and watched, as Tasiele pulled away the woman's mask, and quietly collected her things to return to her family. A locket, the memory card, precious little else.

"They are the most hated race in your galaxy, held in contempt. But she leapt to the alarm, and died, fighting to keep your world free," Tasiele remarked softly. "With her salvo of missiles, the destruction of one of the main Reapers at La Paz was effected, giving tens of thousands the chance to escape—giving us the chance to win at the Salar de Poopo. I must work on repairing her starfighter. Will you bury her?"

There was a rustling. A moment of hesitation. Then a few of the Cholitas went forward, and flung down their own shawls over her body. Found her name card and blood chit, sadly unneeded:

 _This is Flying Officer Tirla'Sen vas Federah; if you see this card please understand that she is fighting as your ally and render her all assistance possible to evade capture. You will be rewarded._

They wrapped her in fine textiles while Tasiele worked, and steadily, they prepared her for burial. Now, borne by foreign hands whose germs she no longer needed to fear, they bore her to her rest. Unlike so many of the innocents in this war, hideously transformed into husks, unlike so many of the relatives of these people in her army, they laid her down to a grave, _dulce et decorum est pro patria_ ; but she had died for someone else's country, not her own. She didn't have her own, not yet, anyway. Tasiele thought highly of her, for that.

A few of the Bolivian soldiers joined in. One pulled his cap off, and prayed, facing La Paz. They started together to build a cairn. After a while a Catholic priest came up. At the urging of the women, he started to offer some form of Last Rites as the cairn was built. There was a picture of her daughter in her personal effects, and from time to time, Tasiele stopped and looked at it, to remind herself of what she was fighting for.

Life.

After a fitful sleep of a few hours, she awoke, and started back to work. One of the Bolivians came up, and pointed to the Quarian's cairn with a sad little grin. "Jedi, I carved the rock. It says 'Here lies – a National Hero of Bolivia and a great humanitarian.' I know how people hate the Quarians, but with that, they won't defame her grave."

Tasiele smiled wryly. "Thank you, Lieutenant. On her behest. But I think that when this is over, people will not hate Quarians so much, at least not in the same way."

He held his hat. "Maybe so. But the people should know. They should know! We will win, and people will need to know."

"We will win. I do so very much believe that."

There was a nervous, wry grin, and the Lieutenant headed back off to the battalion he now commanded. Tasiele started instructing the engineers on how to shore up the damaged hull as best as their repair technology could.

About two hours later, a contingent of Peruvian troops arrived, having come by the ferry on Lake Titicaca. They trooped passed headquarters with their national flag in the old fatigues of reservists, and presented a stockpile of heavy portable missiles much in need for her army's launchers.

The plan for the battle was simple. They'd use covering fire to mask their movement, as well as the fallen bulk of one of the destroyed Reapers at the old airport, and move down through Achocalla, and then swing through the valleys, screened from direct fire by the beams, toward the position of the Destroyers.

Tasiele would support from above, and use the repaired QEQ to bring down the last main Reaper. Once the enemy had been cleared from the city, they would retreat to avoid indoctrination by the power of the smashed hulks of the Reapers, and leave La Paz to its ghosts.

The evening saw a few desultory attacks by the Reapers. These were pushed off with use of the missiles provided by the Peruvians, and shortly before dawn the next day, Tasiele, calm and composed despite the lack of sleep, brought power up on the slick starfighter, and used the Imperial ID she'd been given to lock in through the VI.

She keyed in the quickstart cycle once the army had deployed, but not any sooner. This would send drones from around the surrounding not hundreds but thousands of kilometres converging upon her. She needed to be quick, and sure. Liquid hypermatter was compressed directly into the reaction chamber, and a coughing and shuddering swept through the fighter. Then the gages and readouts stabilised.

Tasiele raised her hand and snapped a salute to the last of her engineers on ground crew as he snapped his glo-sticks to clear, an airhorn used as a warning alarm. Tasiele activated the antigrav and immediately snapped the engines up. Within three seconds she was moving at Mach 0.9 on the deck toward the north, swinging slowly to the right at treetop level and then, once clear of the army, easing the throttle forward and bringing shields up.

The QEQ went supersonic over Lake Titicaca at 50 meters, water churning to foam below her as she abruptly snapped the stick all the way up, and the fighter became a rocket, pulling straight forward the blackness of space and gaining altitude. Countless sensor pings as Reaper patrols began to respond made her alarms scream, and Tasiele drew down into the force to resist the incredible g-forces working to override the inertial damping and make her black out.

Then she snapped over in a tumbling, 180-degree turn back straight down, the rear of the QEQ spinning through the air as the thrust vectoring strained the repairs to the very limit. The turn flipped her facing straight down over the town of La Paz, diving onto the Reaper. _One, two, three, four_. Two proton torpedoes and two concussion missiles lanced out from the QEQ, guided only by the force, and the force, brought them inerring into the weakest points of the Reaper.

For a moment, Tasiele thought she saw a Quarian girl flash her a thumbs up. Then she pulled up and screamed south through the valley to the south of La Paz. The massive shockwave of the snubfighter's passage tore down buildings as her blasters and ion cannons strafed the remaining Reapers in the city.

Behind her, a massive column of fire erupted and blossomed into a mushroom cloud as the Reaper collapsed onto the ruins of the city, attacked so quickly it hadn't brought its particle shields up. From takeoff to destruction of the Reaper, the battle had been going on for ninety seconds.

Below her, the city exploded with fire, from the smallest rifle to the salvoed missiles, rockets, and artillery of the army as it plunged into La Paz, fire smashing into the Destroyers. They'd need help with those, but the rest of the badly weakened Reaper force was melting away.

She pulled up, straight into a massive cloud of drones. Blasters and ion cannon firing without even thinking, six and then eight went spinning down into the dry Andes below, tumbling and disintegrating with damage as she broke right and spun at supersonic velocities just north of the battlefield in which she had just fought. Several days of marching had been covered in bare minutes.

Snapping another roll straight down to the deck, dust and rocks thrown up and bouncing off the particle shields, two drones trying to follow the manoeuvre planted into the slopes of the mountains behind her. Tasiele activated the terrain-following routine and then concentrated through the force, feeling out the positions of the two Destroyers remaining in La Paz. She only had four projectiles left, and their shields would be up, so she would have to slip them between the ground and the shields, the bare meters between the two when the beasts were on the ground.

Roaring straight back into La Paz, the Oculi drones converged on her from behind to find the twin blaster tail stinger operated by the VI to be quite capable of knocking out the drones by the score. As fast it fired, it was tearing through the Oculi, their particle shields rendered worthless.

Tasiele took back over full control and ducked lower, and lower to the ground. The buildings roared up with terrifying speed. Her own artillery smacked into her shields. No targeting systems. That would just alert the Reapers.

She closed her eyes and took a breath, and remembered the Quarian woman who had died for this city. Now her sacrifice was not at all in vain. Tasiele pulled the trigger for missiles and torpedoes again, and again.

As the Jedi pulled back to skyward, the Bolivian flag went up over the city again. It wouldn't last for long, but for now, the Reapers had been cleared from the Andean Altiplano. A little time, a little hope for those below. Tasiele simply knew that the Force had to show her a way to win. It _had_ to.

-

The situation Tasiele returned to the Citadel to face was profoundly awkward, if absurd in comparison to the dreadful circumstances on Terra. Kesalia had stood up to her superior officer. Tali had disarmed her wife. The Citadel pretended that this was not a war for life itself, and Tasiele felt it stank of the ancient evil wrought in its bones.

Her clothes dirty and torn, her boots still encrusted in salt dust, her hair matted and unwashed, the C-sec officers tried to force her into a refugee line. She raised her palm, and smiled. "That won't be necessary, gentlebeings. I have resources."

Tasiele breezed past them, and into a world that seemed as intentionally detached from reality as anyone could obtain. A skyhook on Coruscant, if one of the less garish ones, floating over a galaxy at war. It attacked her composure, and she had to carefully regulate her breathing, thinking of all of those who were dead.

There was nothing wrong with innocence, after all. It was desirable, and the state she hoped to return people to. But it was still so very hard to take, after having been on the ground before La Paz only two days before.

She found Shepard and Kesalia walking with Tali'Zorah, and a morose looking Tanda hanging at the back of the group, Tali tugging her on. They all stopped like they'd seen the dead, when Tasiele walked into view.

"You look terrible," Shepard said quietly. "How bad is it? Why'd..."

"Why did I come back? Why did I flee?"

Shepard grimaced. "...I would never say the second about you, Tasiele."

"It would still be a valid question, even if you wouldn't say it."

"You might think so, but I don't," Shepard answered.

"You also feel different." Tasiele looked sharply at Tanda, who turned away from her gaze. "Tali'Zorah? Kesalia?"

"It's been dealt with, Jedi Tasiele," Kesalia answered, and bowed her head. "I promise, both of us think so. All of us do. Moff Pryl is fine."

Shepard glanced around uncomfortably. "Not here. Somewhere quieter. ...Back to the _Normandy._ "

"To the _Normandy_ it is. We have plenty of reason to talk privately, and then I want a shower, anyway."

They started walking together, when all of them, force users, glanced up simultaneously. They had cause to: There wasn't a hostile intent, per se, but a wary one... and a bit of a... slippery nature to it? "Perhaps not, but we are being spied on," Tasiele finished the thoughts bouncing around a few heads.

"So... which one of us are they following...?" Tali asked, wary, and slid closer to Tanda, who felt like she was defenceless, and Tali somewhat felt the same way about her, too.

"That is harder to discern without confronting someone." Tasiele looked at their surroundings carefully, for the amount of traffic and other people and security cameras.

"Oooor... we just split up. Honestly, we can both take care of ourselves." And it was, well, the wards. Busy, dim, but heavy foot traffic... Shepard fingered for her pistol.

"That never goes well." Tasiele turned through the force and realised the presence was... Much closer than she had thought, but not visible. Her lightsabre snapped open. "I wouldn't move if I were you," she commented coolly into the nothingness.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Shepard backed up a bit, wondering what the hell that was, as a voice came out of a terminal beside them:

"Now, let's not be hasty, Tazy. I was just checking up on Shep. You know, I heard some kind of crazy voodoo ritual had gone on with your force powers and it kind of worries a girl, you know?"  
Shepard... sighed audibly. "Not my fault! The hell was I supposed to know...? She's a friend, Tasiele."

"I don't recall your acquaintance," Tasiele addressed the console dryly. The blade deactivated.

"Not here. Somewhere quieter."

Shepard would lean over to whisper; "Tasiele, meet Kasumi Goto... sort of."

"Sort of. I hate personal cloaking devices. Come on. _Normandy._."

...Kasumi was quirky, waiting for them in the airlock, cloaked. She'd only flicker in once the outer hatch closed. "So. Shep's fine? Miss Moff didn't break anything?"

Kesalia stepped forward. "She saved Shepard from indoctrination. Moff Pryl discovered the beginning of it in her mind, and used the force to exorcise it. But she used forbidden powers-the power of the Dark Side, Kasumi Goto, of evil. A classic case of the wrong powers used for the right reasons."

Tasiele offered a hand to Tanda's shoulder. The woman had been dead silent the entire time. "It is a temptation I have warred with many times myself," she offered.

"Oh, I know that feeling!" Kasumi giggled. "Look at the Spectre they sent after me!"

"... Kasumi..."

"Don't worry Shep, I got it."

"... I hope so... well, apparently I got the damned same thing, Kasumi, so, don't worry, we'll be fine."

"...Shep, the idea of you having to restrain yourself downright terrifies me. Insurance adjusters faint when they hear you're on-world," Kasumi batted back.

Tasiele laughed softly and focused on Kasumi for a moment. She was wondering if the woman had any latent force sensitivity, though of course training people in the current time was... Going toward nearly impossible. The answer was yes, though not enough to really be important. Agcorps material at best; Shepard, much like Revan or the Exile, seemed to have a talent at attracting other latent force sensitives.

"Will you be traveling with us Miss Goto?"

"Probably a bit too stuffy, and I don't think you need me wherever you're going, do you?"

"...That is not for me to know, Kasumi. But this power known in my home galaxy is within you, as it is within Shepard and Tali'Zorah. The power of the force. And your heart is not given to evil."

"Aaaaand...? I don't work for free, you know, ask Shep."

"I could at least teach you how to avoid indoctrination alongside..." Tasiele glanced toward Shepard and grinned crookedly. "Shep. That, in the present circumstances, may be a rather useful skill."

Atarah Shepard groaned.

Kasumi grinned. "Probably. Shep, I'll do it, if you get that Spectre off my tail..."

"... Is this going to involve me getting shot at?" Shepard closed the latch over her holster and sighed.

"Probably not." The Japanese woman was as chipper, and irritating, as ever.

"Well, at least you're honest..."

Tasiele waved her hands broadly to end the banter. "Excellent. Well, we shall have some adventures, then."

"Do not let her test her 'stunner' on you. Fair warning." Shepard grinned a little, giving up on her dignity. "Come on, let's get this list attacked... this rapidly growing list of impossible things to do."

Tasiele saluted with her deactivated lightsabre. "Never say impossible my dear Shepard, making the impossible possible is a Jedi speciality."

-

Later that night, having stood for about an hour in the shower, Tasiele dropped into Shepard's quarters. Tanda and Tali had quietly gone back to the fleet, after satisfying Kasumi that they were not, in fact, abusing Shepard.

"Do you have a comb I could borrow?"

"Oh, sure." Shepard handed one over, and folded herself back into the chair at desk. "Earth is pretty bad, isn't it?"

"I haven't seen anything as terrible except for Taris. So, it is very bad, yes. But life goes on. We won victories. The people liberated La Paz, they'll save whomever is left and then fall back again. Resistance continues in all rugged areas, and anywhere remote from a major city. The cities, though, are pits of death, and things worse than death."

Shepard's face twiced to a grimace, and she reached for a bottle, started pouring out a glass of wine for Tasiele, then for herself. Tasiele took one, but only one.

"I was falling to them. I thought you said that Jedi are immune. Or Tanda had said that, anyway."

"Tanda had said that," Tasiele answered. "It isn't so much that Jedi are immune... Though they are. They are actively immune. You must will yourself to avoid being indoctrinated. Not knowing how to use the force, you are far, far more resilient than others. But I think you were exposed to the Reapers a very long time ago, before all of this started, because of your visions. I think I know who did it, too."

"...There's a _who_ involved?" Shepard looked up, sharply.

"Cerberus is thoroughly interwoven into the Reaper forces now. I think the Illusive Man has been suffering from indoctrination for much longer than anyone has realised."

"When I was revived?" Shepard, ever sensitive about feeling like her life... Wasn't quite real... Paled.

"No, long before that. I think the Illusive Man has been unknowingly influenced by the Reapers... Likely since before Sovereign."

"...Oh." She coughed. "There's nothing to fear now, right?"

"Nothing. I can tell that with certainty."

"All right. Then why _are_ you here?" Shepard smiled, though the tone was more than a little of a challenge to the Jedi.

"The Force told me to come. There is something out here which is going to let us defeat the Reapers. I just don't know what it is yet."

"So..."

"So," Tasiele looked levelly. "I'm going to travel with you, and fight with you, until we find it. And then we will figure out what it is supposed to mean, how we are supposed to use it, and we'll win."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Shepard, difficulty is only in your mind."


	60. Chapter 60

...A fleet was going to battle. Tanda sat quietly, trying to settle down to her new role in life, half lover and half prisoner, sitting unquietly and warring with her. She had a massive amount of information to process, and decisions to make. It was the only thing that kept her stable, and her love for Tali rested uneasily with her disarming.

Shepard had bought her a sword, and a very fine one, too; an authentic Mughal Shamshir, it dangled at her side in a Terran naval officer's scabbard. It soothed her ego, but no more. At least there was the work... Though the news was scarcely good.

"So, Major Jorjarlen. You're saying that the analysis is that most of the Reapers toppled on Terra were actually just damaged?"

"It's almost certainly the same group of Reapers that is seen in these data, yes, M'lady. Consider that snubfighters and torpedoes do not really have the power to destroy Reapers. The best analysis is that instead they were damaged in the legs, and toppled before they could bring their thrusters up, and were grounded. But the other Reapers have generally pulled them free and taken them somewhere that they can regenerate their damage."

"I suppose the implication is that we should return to Terra to attack them whilst they are still vulnerable, then?" She glanced up.

Jorjarlen stiffened. "I can't speak to the strategy, Your Ladyship. That, M'lady, is for you to develop. You are the Empire."

"I have plenty of advisors and Governors to..."

"M'lady." Jorjarlen settled his hands down on the desk. "The Jedi have subordinated you. With all due respect, we are the Empire. The Old Guard is not happy ... Not disloyal to you, but unhappy at what's happened to you. We'd follow you to every level of Hell and back. And we more or less already have. But you are the Empire. You are a worthy heir of our late Emperor, and if you returned us home, you could surely become the Galactic Empress."

"That's enough, Major. You're dismissed."

"M'lady..."

"You're dismissed." She didn't even look up. "I will take this information and evaluate it in terms of our performance over Palaven. Until then, you are dismissed. Now go."

Jorjarlen spun on polished heel.

Tanda pushed the flimsy away and quietly brought up the system tactical plans for Palaven. They needed to rescue a Primarch, to organise the Turian resistance. They needed to inflict a real defeat on the Reapers, and ideally retake the system, though the ambassador's estimates made Tanda believe that impossible.

And Tanda needed to remain calm.

-

The battle that followed had no special tricks; it was supposed to be a textbook operation out of the Imperial standard tactical playbook. The fleet would arrive, not out system from Palaven, but close-in, to put themselves between Reapers on the ground and those near the gate to prevent the two forces of the enemy from combining on warning. It was a puissant demonstration of power with almost the same full strength at Sol being available for this operation, even though it was an incredibly tense moment on the flagbridge as Tanda stood in command, Tali back by the holoprojector, officers standing ready for action while the fleet reverted from the chaotic light of hyperspace.

The visage of another system under siege opened before them as Iron Palaven, the world wrought of silver, appeared under a blazing sun. On Palaven not a great many of the hideous main Reapers had landed. Instead, they had carefully prepared for the level of resistance they expected from teh Turians, and had burned the cities from orbit, with relentless orbital bombardment not alien to Imperial officers. Billions were dead... and the force near the gate was only a weak picket. The orbital force was already forming up, with ground units of Destroyers remaining in place. The Reapers had adapted; the main force was in close orbit, ready for battle.

As the sensor sweeps returned data from the rest of the system, that analysis was instantly amended by the most incredible of developments. Ahead of them, in the outer system where asteroids and comets wove together into one of those dense, complicated asteroid fields that could be such a pain to navigation, the Turian fleet was also still fighting, desperately, while over Palaven there were major ground battles on the moons of the planet. This was a bitter, violent, dead-end fight, the Turians having stood against utterly overwhelming power to stay in their home system and keep resisting to the last, using its terrain to the best possible advantage.

"Populate tactical," Tanda ordered as alarms blared and the crew stood by their guns, waiting for the order. In the circumstance, there was no hesitation in giving it. "All ships commence fire."

The dozen and a quarter heaviest ships in the core of the fleet opened fire at once, their lighter screens and the Quarians deploying in support. Space began to blossom with turbolaser and ion cannon fire as the starfighters were launched as quickly as they could be, racing immediately into clouds of Oculi drones. Explosions from the outclassed drones began at once, and a few Destroyers caught by heavy turbolaser fire followed them immediately.

The large Reapers were far more resilient, here, out of the gravity well and no longer vulnerable to crashing into the ground the moment that torpedoes undermined the very terrain below them. Of course, as Jorjarlen had reported, most of them would be fighting another day. As Tanda watched the opening phase go as lopsidedly as she had expected, that thought weighed in her mind. They were not nearly as ahead of the curve on inflicting damage as they might have liked.

The Reapers opened fire immediately in return, concentrating on the smallest of her ships even as she concentrated on the large. The surviving Turian ships in system had made their leap, and now they were conducting short hops through FTL to the attack, responding with admirable alacrity to their arrival. The battle was general throughout the entire sprawling system.

As the combat developed, Tanda evaluated the total number of Reapers and commenced the next phase of her tactical plan around it, guiding the fleet into close range and optimizing firing arcs for the big destroyers and Harrowers to use their main batteries while the Quarians went in much closer where they could evade the main guns of the Reapers. There were only something like four hundred... But Tanda remembered what the Turian Ambassador had said.

But there weren't a thousand ships in the system _yet_ , and until fresh ships started to arrive, Tanda was confident they could entrap and annihilate this section of the Reaper fleet, and they were even doing so as she finished the details of the latest beam line deployments. The Reapers having no real numerical advantage were being swiftly torn to pieces by overwhelming concentrated firepower, the upgraded Quarian cruisers able to at least match them one-for-one. And then the alarms went off. "Monitor enemy arrivals. Continue close action."

Alongside the _Thunderflare_ 's port beam, a group of Reapers trying to close with them was subjected to a rolling broadside. The broadside tore through the Reaper squadron, main batteries handling one off crippled, just to brush past the beams blossoming over the shields. The guns of the _Stalker_ were tracking behind her, _en echelon_ to the right of _Thunderflare_. With hull configurations that left _Stalker_ 's guns able to abruptly bear, targeting a second of the Reapers in the group of four with half of her total firepower, and for the first two salvoes, three-quarters.

The second Reaper crumpled and fell behind with damage and arcing hull ionization as _Stalker_ 's medium cannon picked up the slack on the other two. _Thunderflare_ pressed on, already engaged with a new brace of targets. Snubfighters tore past in the half-second between salvoes.

"Tanda," Tali glanced up as she watched the sensor readouts stabilise, seeing her wife issuing curt, short orders to her underofficers as her eyes gazed out from the bridge windows at the distant plasma flares of the Reapers under fire. She had abandoned all semblance of military formality or even Quarian decorum. She knew her wife was so fragile right now that she needed every positive assurance of love that she could possibly provide. Even now. Even when Hell was coming. "It's a _really_ big transit."

It was an utterly massive response force, pouring out dozens at a time into the outer system... including one Reaper that was larger than the others by a sizable fraction. The horrible Reaper sound cut into their comm-links, through the entire hull, and EW attacks on their droids and comm systems began in massive earnest, targeted and focused in a way that they had not been before.

"Interesting. They're taking us seriously now." Tanda was otherwise quiet. "Let them come after us—communications, punch through and find me a line to the Turian Primarch, whomever that is these days. We will bring him aboard to rally Turian resistance, per the original operational plan. Let them come to us, by all means; I have a plan to extricate the Turian fleet, at least."

Her men were silent. It meant the original plan was once again lost. Once again, they were going to retreat. The Asari looked at her in particular; they were natives, and the idea that not just Earth but Palaven too had fallen irrevocably under the power of the Reapers.

"We preserve the fleet. That preserves the hope of resistance," Tanda said simply as she watched transits keep stacking up. _How many Reapers ARE THERE?_ She wasn't the only one wondering it. "Now, be about your duties! The more of them we destroy before the relief force arrives, the more hope the galaxy has!"

They bent to their work with the force they had on hand, and they were most certainly tearing through the Reapers near the planet. With the concentration of Reapers against them in a conventional ship action, the big Imperial ships could barely miss with their heavy turbolaser turrets... And the ion cannon were immeasurably worse for the Reapers, considering they were electronic beings. It wasn't just systems disruption; it was surely the equivalent of giving someone a seizure, even if it only affected a part of them. The dislocation must be incredible, and Tanda thought they were behaving rashly in part because of it.

The pounding waves of fire continued to sweep over the Reaper force, and more dark Reapers tumbled away into Palaven's gravity well. Others split, sundered, broken, or outright exploded. Captain after Captain could nervously watch their sensor displaces, but their orders remained the same, and the Reaper fleet over Palaven was being wrecked.

Soon enough, the Reapers were not even keeping a pretence of maintaining a pinning force against the Imperial fleet to hold them until the arrival of their reinforcements. Instead, they were FTLing away in flickers of motion, blasting for the outer system and the main force... To combine with it, and to flee from the concentration of fire against them.

But they couldn't leave now and call it a won battle. Hardly so; to salvage the operation, Tanda knew very well she had to rescue the Primarch and extricate the Turian fleet, even though its present combat value was marginal. Keeping them in the war was critical for morale, and encouraging occupied Turian worlds to maintain utterly bitter guerrilla resistance against the wiles of indoctrinated leaders encouraging surrender.

Lieutenant Kesea didn't have very good news about that. "Moff Pryl, there doesn't seem to be a Primarch right now, I'm getting reports he's been killed in a shuttle crash on the moon Menae... no units seem to know who's in command presently."

"The Turians have a very well defined chain of command... They will obey who is the legitimate successor." Tanda glanced away for a moment. "Remind Captain Rhae to finish off those cripples before the main force comes in! -" then she looked to Tali. "Any ideas?"

Her wife stepped up to her side. "... You'd have to restore contact between Menae and their primary command on Palaven for them to figure out how far down the list they have to go, I think... permission to take a group of stormtroopers and help remove the stick from their asses, I think is the phrase?"

"That commits us to staying... For a while." Tanda looked at that fleet out there. But there was no choice, was there? "Take an assault shuttle. She's got the burn and the hyperdrive to escape on her own if she needs to."

"Got it!" She saluted... and hugged Tanda quickly. "I'll be back, promise." With that, and a final glance behind and an encouraging gesture, she was off. "I'll just bring the damned primarch!"

The last traces of space combat flared around them. A few crippled Reapers, unable to flee, kept firing back. For the rest, the Imperial ships continued their thunderbeat of concentrated fire. Turbolasers, projectiles, ion cannon. Tractor beams pushing cripples into gravity wells to guarantee planetary impacts to finish them off. The butchery of those too weak to escape. So it had always been in naval warfare. The weak could not be allowed to recover, for machines, unlike wounded soldiers, _would_ be recovered and _would_ return to fight another day.

"Rearm the fighters." Tanda folded her hands, perpetually encased in gloves now, rather than the affectation of an Imperial officer, behind her back as she always had. "We've got just enough time for that. Let's see what they do when they realise we're not running."

The Reaper force responded in a way that they had not before, when, especially at Terra, they had seemed utterly fixated on attacking as intensely as possible. Tanda was becoming more and more convinced now that had not been some innate Reaper tendency, but instead merely a conscious decapitation strategy to cripple morale, get inside of decision loops, and destroy physical command control infrastructure. It was probably also no accident that the first four worlds attacked had been the four most important worlds of the two most militaristic and warlike species of the galaxy.

Now, instead of the old tactics, they had adapted. They continued to concentrate, and while they were concentrating they were holding position at a distance. The Reaper force was growing in strength, seemingly waiting for something.

"Time for us to regenerate our shields and everything else needful, gentlebeings. If it comes to it we'll withdraw with the intelligence of whatever they have planned." That was for purposes of confidence. But she stepped away from the bridge windows, then, and closed her eyes and bowed her head.

Pursing her lips under the mask, she reached out for her wife. _Tali,_ she felt their connection, shared into the force and linking them strong enough to speak coherently as a consequence. _Do you need open communications or may I shut down the system's comms?_

 _Working on it! Need to... fix a comms tower for them to get into touch with Palaven... HAH, TAKE THAT, BOSH'TET ... Uhm, just so you know, the husks? Getting way creepier._

 _I'll hold off for now, then. Thanks for telling me..._

 _I'll let you know as soon as we got it... ... whoa, that guy's big._

Tanda pulled back before she was irrevocably drawn into her wife's struggles. As the mission ground on, it was clear that they needed some way to try and provoke the fleet into attacking.

"Medium turbolasers only, maximum sensor refinement. Target any Reaper Destroyers that are stationary on the surface of the planet," she ordered. "Once they are mobile, shift to ion cannon and missiles." The terrifying ability of Imperial sensors to detect microfractures in structures submerged under the ocean gave them almost unerring precision against stationary targets. As long as the rate of fire was kept low enough that atmospheric heating was not an issue, they could severely discomfit the Reapers that _were_ on the surface.

It worked. The Reaper fleet started to move in against them. The vessels they had already engaged with shifted into a screening force. "All hands stand by to resume action..."

She tensed as the Reaper force parted like a blossoming flower. The fresh reinforcements in the centre, concentrated around that one unusually big Reaper, opened fire.

But not just with their main cannon. The experience of being hammered by oversized Blackstar cannons was at once unpleasant.

"M'lady! Some sort of energy weapon! The spike is to the energy shields..."

Tanda sucked in her breath hard, and felt woozy, spots spinning in her eyes. Her lungs still weren't able to take it, and she grabbed on a stanchion and leaned. She knew that wouldn't look good, either, but it could not be helped. "Major Jorjarlen, tactical analysis?"

The answer at least only took a moment. "A burst Graser, M'lady. The shields force them to burst at the ray layer."

"Increase power to the forward deflectors! Bring us inside the Reaper formation. At point blank range those will most assuredly damage nearby Reapers!" The plan brought immediately renewed confidence in the face of the new weapon, and the Imperial fleet began to accelerate into point-blank range with the host of a thousand Reapers.

The Reapers were game for a rematch. They kept firing, adding their spinal mounts to the contest whenever they could bring them to bear, engaging in evasive action, and taking advantage of the fact that they were literally using their claws to _hold_ portable super-sized Blackstar cannon mounts. Recalling the speculation fiction story she had read, Tanda imagined it was much like the way the Martian walkers had held their heat ray projectors.

And then came the taunting, too. "Hope is irrevelant... your death is assured, Tanda Pryl."

The message directed to her personally was an unavoidable challenge. Tanda opened a channel back. "There is no hope, there is the force. You are an abomination against the continuum of life and we will never cease to strike back against you. You are incapable of understanding the power with which you contend."

"You will regret your resistance, Pryl. You are arrogant, you will learn..." ...And that was the moment when the first Reaper did... something. That one, massive Reaper was well-in close now, standing the fire better than the others. And it closed to touch _Thunderflare_ 's shield bubble... and an odd green lance of something shot out, an energy transfer that instantly began setting up a rapidly worsening harmonic in the shields. "Submit now."

A moment's thought on the fly, and Tanda issued the orders directly to the navigation bridge before Scolus could even open his mouth. "Tractors!"

He was quite able to understand the point, though: _Thunderflare_ heeled to her starboard, half the bridge crew toppled from their feet at the violence of the motion, as five tractor beams snapped onto the Reaper on full repulsion, bodily shoving it away from the shields and sending Harbinger tumbling violently away.

But around the temporarily safe _Thunderflare_ , the Reapers were moving to swarm her ships by the dozens, now that she'd closed inside their formation... And it wasn't just Harbinger with the capability. At once, a Quarian cruiser's shields failed with an eye-tearing feedback loop... and then she was rapidly ripped apart by that horrible red beam. They were... swarming her fleet, now, and they were taking down her shields.

And everyone was looking toward Tanda and waiting for orders, as the battle suddenly became more desperate than they could have conjured forth from their worst nightmares. 


	61. Chapter 61

"The Turian fleet is to withdraw from action through the Relay to preserve the power of the Turian nation while it has the chance. The Imperial Fleet is to hold the line!" A few of the local fresh recruits had to muffle cheers. The Old Imperials bent to their duties grimly. On the bridges of the rebuilt dreadnoughts and Republic cruisers, Quarian and human Admirals tensed. The butchery was going to fall on the Quarians, and this they knew. But everyone obeyed their orders, and the battle redoubled. The difference was that now the Reapers could effectively kill them.

Even then, it just meant it was something of an odds-even fight, for Reapers were being blasted to pieces by coordinated fire at the same time that they were striking back. The loss of that cruiser hurt, one of the first ships she'd lost in combat in the war, and Tanda knew it wouldn't be the only one.

Such a vast fleet as they faced would have been impressive even by the standards of the home galaxy, though it was all dark and evil in the way the Droid Army had never managed. Flashing, flaring light, bolt against beam, the rippling effect in time and space of the singularities, all merging together through the clouds of starfighters. The Turians, at least, were obeying after the communication of the orders from their Ambassador to the Citadel, using FTL and then the Relay to escape from the system while they still could.

The battle raged, and Tanda's ships started to die. But she could not see any choice except holding firm, for if she retreated and let the Turians die, let their command structure disintegrate, why would anyone think to follow her? She had lost her motherworld, what next was there? She didn't alter her orders to hold.

 _Tali? Status? They have some surprises for us and we should withdraw._

 _Got a primarch! Trying to get back to the shuttle but he's a stubborn asshole who doesn't want to leave his men! I have half a mind to club him with my shotgun! We'll make it! Give me a rendezvous!_

Tanda transmitted to the next system through that the Turian ships would be escaping to, and added, _Tell him he needs to command his fleet concentrate there!_

And then she waited, tensely, and watched the battle weave around them. The big Imperial ships held their own. Tractors on full repulsion turned the Reapers back as they tried to close, though it made holding formation impossible. Each time they did, the Reapers mostly died. The grimmer problem was that many of the refitted Quarian ships did not have tractor beams. They were dying in real numbers, now. Numbers that were making Tanda sick. She had been confident of her ability with her upgraded vessels to avoid such losses, but without modern shields, they were just like eggshells.

She grasped for any advantage, and found one, at least, when the Turians acknowledged their orders. "Full power jamming to all frequencies! Shut them down! The Turians don't need communications anymore, they have their orders." When the Imperial jammers surged and flared, only hyperwave sensors and comms would be working. And sensors were of such power... Long range fire disappeared, from all sides. It gave the damaged Quarian ships a chance to fall back as the Reapers stumbled in a punch-drunk short range knifefight into broadsides of the Imperial capital ships.

Tanda watched the countdown. Even as her fleet held its ground, it was just a simple fact that she was racking up casualties, and the Quarians could scarcely stand to be fewer, and her fleet was a wasting asset. She had given Tali fifteen minutes, now, but the battle around them still raged unabated. "Recall the starfighters."

The starfighters were dealing with an utter mass of drones, and it made it difficult and delicate for even the best of them to retreat. Tanda amended the orders in a moment. "All hyperdrive equipped starfighters are to retire to the concentration system. Send coordinates to their droids and let them proceed independently." _The rebels were very good at that tactic_. That left the remaining starfighters without hyperdrives, and they were not faring well. Nothing could be done.

The only succour of the fleet was that the Reaper targeting sensors were quite effectively going straight to hell under the waves of static which would make even Imperial ships have to close to a couple of klicks to get a hit in if they didn't have recourse to their hyperwave transmitters.

...Well, it was a bit of an edge. They had never done the sort of full spectrum jamming which completely forced point-blank engagements before, and here there was the superlative advantage of not having to extend it to hyperwave realms, so that their own coordination in fact remained perfect. Tanda suspected the Reapers could still communicate via their higher-order quantum entanglement networking, however. She had lost her belief in her technological superiority a while ago. Still, they would now find out how much of a communications network that left them with, and the true level of total degredation of their performance, as opposed to prior attempts to precision jam specifically Reaper channels when fighting at Sol.

Sometimes, the ability to collate information in combat seemed almost impossible, and superhuman. What became clear, quickly, was that the combat effectiveness of the drones dropped off markedly. The bigger ships... not at all, and they hammered her smaller ships hard. Each one was its own 'nation', after all, and perfectly capable of understanding its duties and acting accordingly in battle even with all communications gone.

Flak cannon turned on the stumbling drones and wiped them out by the hundreds. As the jamming made them vulnerable, they were opportunistically killed in an attempt to destroy the industrial ability of the Reapers, what it was. The Oculi drones were simply swept from space by a great hand, targeted by sensors that were not jammed, that the enemy could not jam, and destroyed, as ineffectual communications left them helpless.

Tanda watched quietly. It was still no use to her fleet locked in a knife-fight with the Reapers. "Position of the Turian fleet?"

"The very last elements are starting to pull out, Ma'am! Heading for the relay now. Once that rear-guard is gone, we're clear." Kesea looked hopeful. With the casualties they were taking, she, and most everyone except the Old Imperials, wanted to retreat. Those men knew that blood would be spilled, like Tanda, and were quite prepared to spill it. Tanda felt they might even be eager to spill Quarian blood. But she said nothing, and waited. Changing the plan in midstream would just cause more disorder now.

"Time to relay for the last Turian ships?" Tanda watched several Reapers dizzyingly swing in front of her view from the Flagbridge at point-blank range. Scolus was quite well in control of the situation again, and _Thunderflare_ sharply reoriented, hammering with massed turbolaser and ion cannon fire at one with her port batteries as the tractor beams shoved another back away from her shields.

"Less than ninety seconds, M'lady!" Kesea answered with wide eyes to the scene before her. From the moment she had found her fate shackled to that of the Empire, she had never dreamed of this moment: Of a sprawling battle over Iron Palaven, of ships burning with their vented oxygen in the night by the dozen.. Of the blackest evil ever known dying by the score in reply. And still the intensity of the battle continued! Hammering each Reaper she could range on in turn, _Thunderflare_ had killed two dozen by now, and _Stalker_ almost matched her total. Together the two ISDs had turned back vast numbers of the ships arrayed against them. Their fire wasn't just destroying enemies, but disrupting entire formations.

It wasn't enough. Ships were spinning away on their last course of thrusters and course corrections, a hopelessly damaging reaping of her fleet. She was winning, but the cost would finish off her ability. She had killed more Reapers than every cycle since they had formed. They were going to win anyway.

"All ships prepare to microjump for the relay independently, we'll regroup there and cover the stragglers of the Turian retreat, then make our retreat in good fleet order!" Guiltily, it gave one last chance for Tali to escape. "Star Destroyers to hold rearguard for the rest of the fleet here while microjumps are completed."

She watched _Stalker_ , close enough before her eyes to be visually seen, spin between two Reapers... Her main battles went off in the darkness of space, thirty-two guns a side, and she destroyed both within minutes, utilizing the tremendous firepower of a ship so useless against the Rebel Alliance and so very useful against the Old Machines.

The Reapers were by this juncture, the Imperial fleet in disarray and hit hard, very willing to get in close, trying to overwhelm the tractors... her screening forces were getting hit hard.

Now, phasing in the retreat from Palaven, Tanda was aggressively evacuating the screening lines, letting them go independently as fast as their Captains could get clear, letting her Star Destroyers soak up the massed firepower in their immense shield generators and massive armour plate until the rest of the fleet was safely away, to minimize the number of ships destroyed and lost. Of Quarians killed, of loyal soldiers who would never rise again.

This sort of dreadful rear-guard action was unpleasant at the best of times... as one and then another shot away... finally the Turians were clear. They should have been victorious, but instead they counted it a victory just to retreat. Tanda saw the sensor updates, and barked at once: "Has the entire screening force extricated itself to the Gate?"

"Any that are still intact, Moff Pryl, are quite gone," Kesea answered grimly. She knew that there were escape pods, but those... might be a bridge too far, as the Quarian ships flickered away.

Tanda saw the look on Kesea's face, and shook her head quietly. "Order the rest of the screening forces to retreat to the rendezvous independently, the star destroyers will fight their own way out."

 _We're up and climbing! Got him!_ Tali's voice sounded dimly, though it made Tanda again exult.

More urgently, now: "Star Destroyers may recover escape pods opportunistically as they retreat with their tractor beams. All other pods... Should go to the surface. Quarians can eat the food of Palaven and there is plenty of resistance yet against the Reapers! Form up with those Harrowers, we'll swing through Shala'Raan's cruisers and blow a path out to the mass limit! To your stations lively, crewers! We have given much harder than we have taken today, let us make sure it remains so." It was all she could do to push them on, encourage them in the last phase of a spent battle.

The Reapers... tried everything. They used the remaining drones as suicide weapons when orders could get through to them, trying to overwhelm individual ships... failing thanks to the jamming. They concentrated fire, but in that even the full-scale Reapers had trouble in the jamming environment. They could hurt their enemies, and thus this was a lot more fair to their ruthless and undying hearts, as the ships rattled hard from all the shots, tractor operators having to keep on their toes to avoid being overwhelmed... But in the end, they could not overcome the Imperial fleet as it withdrew.

The Imperials together had prodiguous acceleration and massive forward firepower to blast open that space lane, and several times outright rammed through the limbs of Reapers, shearing some off as they skittered along the shields in near misses, through flares of plasma and energy with ion cannons serving ever more to keep Reapers temporarily off their backs. Their massive drive thrust when burning at emergency military thrust... Also were quite sufficient to cause severe damage to any Reapers which got behind the tightly packed group of ten ships burning for freedom, and then another.

Quickly now, the order given, Palaven was left them behind as the ships leapt ahead faster and faster, the planet receding in the space of minutes from fully visible to a tiny speck. Tanda watched, and for all she had pulled away the bulk of her fighting strength, she felt defeated, and knew that she was defeated.

The Reapers still let them go. They could not hope to pursue.

"Make the jump to the fleet rendezvous. All priority to damage control." Her voice slightly more hoarse, for the next question, asked as they were vanishing into a flicker of pseudomotion: "How many ships did we lose?"

Kesea collated the information for her, and gave her an answer she did not want to hear. "No major fleet combatants were lost, Moff Pryl. However... Near to a fifth of the smaller ships committed... The screen elements, M'lady. One fifth were destroyed, give or take. They hadn't the firepower to stand off a Reaper by themselves." The big Imperial vessels... could stand off a Reaper _fleet_ in their defensive formation. Not so much the kludged cruisers.

Tanda reeled, and kind of wanted to puke. "And tractor beams had never been installed on them," she finished bitterly.

"It was a reasonable oversight at the time, M'lady... Your orders?"

"Damage control... They won't follow us through, not today. I would hope they would, we could catch them at the Relay all bunched up, coming through in series, destroy another seven or eight dozen. But they won't, not today. Get ready for it anyway, but I know they won't come." She shook her head grimly, and turned away, lost in her own bitter thoughts. The Quarian cruisers were the bedrock of her fleet, even though they were weak compared to her Star Destroyers.

Tanda had never thought they would need tractor beams. She had only suffered damaged ships at Earth, and had accordingly detailed about fifteen of them away from the fleet. Now she was facing the grim consequences of an oversight which had not seemed an obvious or consequential oversight at the time. The destruction of thirty out of the one hundred and sixty-four committed among the Quarian cruisers was revoltingly stiff.

Surely she should have predicted it. They were so slow, compared with her own light ships... Their ray shielding comparatively weak, and their upgraded armament augmented the particle accelerator with only three heavy ion cannon and a single twin medium turbolaser. It had probably been inevitable. The only good thing to say for it was with the ships reduced to their regular combat crews the total Quarian fatalities had been something like three thousand instead of the one hundred thousand that a similar loss among Imperial ships would have led to. And the number of Turian ships they had helped to escape was substantially larger—but the Turian fleet was not upgraded. In the next month the Empire would be able to refit fifteen more Quarian cruisers—but that was only half the number destroyed here.

Tanda ground her teeth and kept her thoughts to herself. Insomuch as relieving Palaven had been impossible the battle was an utter failure; insomuch as they had extricated the Turian fleet and the Turian Primarch, it was a costly success. Tanda was no longer quite so sure what the strength of the Reapers was, so she was less sure and less caring that the number of Reapers they had destroyed... Mattered nearly as much as it might have seemed to. But perhaps it did. Kill counts were a dangerous guessing game.

The fleet flashed away into hyperspace to reunify with the Turians and her own light forces and... _May the force protect_ , with Tali. They had not moved very far. Once again Tanda hoped the Reapers would be foolish enough to follow, and once again she knew better.

But at least there was no warning through the force of her wife having perished, and after a while, there was an assault shuttle trying to dock. Tanda was quiet on the bridge when Tali arrived. The detritus of battle in the form of so many ships conducting emergency repairs surrounded the _Thunderflare_.

"We've got another job to add to the Shepard to-do list..." Tali murmured, coming up to salute. "Primarch retrieved... are... you okay?"

"We lost thirty of your peoples' cruisers," Tanda said morosely. "It was a very hot day. A very hot day. And retaking Palaven proved utterly hopeless. Was it all in vain?"

"Everyone else has had harder." Tali murmured. "You brought the bulk of your fleet out, intact, and... really pissed off Harbinger."

"Oh?" Tanda jerked. "How do you say that?"

"That was him taunting you... again. Shepard's the only other one he addresses by name. Congratulations, a giant old Machine wants your body."

"I've done more harm to the Old Machines than every race in sixty-five million years of cycles. I should hope so." She seemed cheered a little. "I'm going to detach the ships lacking in tractor beams back to Imperial space immediately to be refitted with them as fast as they can. They need some way of keeping the Reapers off them with that shield harmonic. And our next defensive position doesn't necessarily rely on numbers." She straightened, and folded her hands... And then hugged Tali quickly. "Now let's go speak to the Primarch."

"Right."

...Tanda hugged her again.

"That's my determination. I love you."

"... Yes ma'am." Tali grinned under the mask, and 'kissed' her by touching the two parts together. "The new Primarch is Adrien Victus. Hates diplomacy, beloved by his men, completely insane... wants to forge an alliance with the Krogan to retake Palaven. He was already discussing the plan on the way in."

"That isn't a terrible idea..." Tanda composed herself, much easier in the suit, and went with Tali down to one of the conference rooms where the Primarch was waiting.

"Oh... I also picked up Garrus... he was serving as a Reaper consultant to the Turians."

Tanda summoned a few other Imperial officers behind her in uniform and moved to sit at the wonderfully ... Well, the interior of the ship was as gloriously functional as ever. Turians probably appreciated it, Tanda sitting and Tali standing behind her back.

"Primarch Victus. I am Moff Pryl. Welcome to the Thunderflare. I wish to apologise that my fleet was unable to relieve Palaven."

"It did more than expected, Moff Pryl." He walked up without hesitation to shake her hand. "You gave some hope just by showing up, gave the Reapers a bloody nose and let our remaining ships escape to strike back later."

She rose to shake his hand, astonished at his decisive rejection of the importance of relieving Palaven and heartened by it. "We did hit them harder than they hit us. I would be more comfortable if I had any idea of how many Reapers there actually are. Our own losses will be made good in another two months, and hopefully we have at least stalled the Reaper offensive that long-we did much better at Sol, but we had the element of surprise there, you see. Unfortunately that also was not enough to relieve the planet. So far the Old Machines, as we prefer to call them, have not moved beyond about a half dozen planets—three in Turian space, three in human space—not counting the unfortunate Batarians. They were forced to withdraw their other early probes due to our efforts."

A holographic projection of the galaxy showing the areas of Reaper occupation versus brief penetration and untouched zones came up.

"To fill you in, since you've been out of regular contact, Primarch. I have ordered the fleet to fall back into Asari space, where we are preparing a defensive stand around a unique asset I'll detail in a moment."

"It's better than I'd expected, honestly. They hit us from orbit so hard that we've got elderly and children dying from smoke and dust from the monsters directing kinetic impacts onto every city we had."

"They operate on the principle of instilling terror. So far, we have avoided that happening to our forces. I'm sorry about the conditions on Palaven but there's nothing realistic we can do about it at this stage. What we can do..." She trailed off for a moment. "Major Jorjarlen? Could you explain the weapon?"

"Your Ladyship." The Imperial with his rather impressive blonde sideburns stepped to the centre of the table and brought up a projection. "The Ialessa system, a primary Asari colony system."

Primarch Victus stroked a mandible, looking at the projection intently.

Jorjarlen continued. "In orbit of the fourth planet, the Tirii-Susskin Supercollider, a particle accelerator with a diameter of four thousand, three hundred kilometres—five times greater than the diameter of the second death star."

Tanda coughed.

"A primary Imperial siege platform," Jorjarlen clarified after a moment, and briefly brought up a hologram for scaling. "Comparable in mass to the supercollider but on a much more compact scale. At any rate, after centuries of construction the fusion bottles around the ring produce a prodiguous amount of power-orders of magnitude greater than any other installation in this galaxy."

"Because of that, our ... Recent allies in the Geth continuum have begun to use nanite construction techniques to rapidly fabricate particle and ray shielding generators based on the accelerator ... Capable of shielding the entire planet. We have the ability to construct planetary shields on this scale, but nowhere else in the galaxy did the power resources for planetary shielding exist, and we could not possibly fabricate such power sources in reasonable time-scales with our limited industrial base. Here we do not have to, so shield generators can be fabricated in sufficient quantity, rapidly, take advantage of the power resources available."

"The planet Trikalon is now an impregnable fortress. Simultaneously we are working on constructing focusing apertures, simply a scaled up version of primary Quarian spinal particle accelerator projection cannon."

"In combination with steering thrusters, we will be able to transform the ring into an oscillating, trainable weapon with shielding of a magnitude beyond that possible for any Reaper fleet to overcome. Their recent tactic of interfering with shield harmonics in orbit of Palaven does not have a sufficient power drop to compromise planetary shielding - or at least not within a time scale that would prevent the supercollider from targeting the offending Reaper force."

"It may ultimately be overcome, but it is our intention to use this resource to transfer the Ialessa system into a fortress which can serve as a base behind the lines of the Reapers, and resist any fleet brought against it over sieges measured in years. This is exactly the kind of combat the Reapers always seek to avoid with rapid decapitation strikes, and bringing it about has the powerful ability to bog down not merely their horrific ground troops, but major fleet assets."

"Most importantly, it is our intention to draw a large reaper force into the system when the installation is ready. This is the conclusion of our current rearguard action."

"At that point we may be able to reprise the successes from Sol which the lack of surprise made impossible over Palaven, M'lady. M'lord." He straightened.

The Primarch laughed darkly. "A pity it isn't over a garden world. They'd approach from behind the one in the system then try and charge the thing, at least at first... launch kinetic impactors at it, a lot, but... hm... they'll either break themselves on it, or save it for last."

Garrus coughed, but didn't speak. Well drilled enough to not interrupt superiors.

"...Sir Garrus?" Tanda glanced. She hadn't sorted out Vakarian's rank and was trying to be polite.

"They'll hit Thessia, try and draw off the asari fleet in the system, see if they can get it uncovered. Then they'll start hammering that garden world you've noted. Anything to draw the fleet off... but I don't think they're expecting you to have turned that into a weapon that quickly. Eventually, yes, but not this quickly."

Tanda paused for a moment. "I... You raise an interesting point, Sir Garrus. It isn't large enough to encircle Sanves, but ..." Under her mask, Tanda's eyes flashed. _Endor_. "...Our shield generators are conformal, not spheroid. Commander Zorah, can you analyze if it would be possible to move the Supercollider into a position to defend the planet Sanves?"

Tali gave her wife a look. "Possible. You'd never get it to hold together during the process, however. It's designed to occupy the geostationary orbital space of the planet it's orbiting, the gravitational forces will be overwhelming in having it orbit another planet, even at a lagrange point. We don't have the bracing and reinforcement fields here natively that you do. If you had a somewhat insane number of very well coordinated tugs and tractors... maybe."

"Particle shield generators should be able to be modified to provide tensor fields, Commander Zorah. Some powers back home, out of vanity, make ships which aren't actually physically connected into one piece, and are instead held together by perpetually running tensor fields." Tanda could feel how aghast Tali was through the force. She smiled.

"I suppose you could do it... we'd have to get started immediately, but it... might be possible. Ancestors, but it might. It will just be... fraught with risk. That is a fragile structure."

"If the tensor fields are properly engaged, there is no risk. We should be able to know via the mathematics and computer simulations before attempting it."

"Primarch?" Tanda glanced to her equal, here.

"It is worth trying, and... hm... it's a pure garden world. One the asari have restrained development on for centuries. It might well be wrecked, but if you could do it, it would be the best location for refugees in the galaxy, I'd think."

"A home for billions who would otherwise be processed or turned into husks," Tanda agreed.

"Yes. I'm sure they'll complain and squeal, but..." A shrug. "It seems the best of all options."

"Precisely. Very well then. Major Jorjarlen, acquire the necessary resources for the simulation and planning, Commander Zorah, and coordinate with the Geth as required."

"Understood, Moff Pryl." She stiffened, and saluted, bringing her omnitool up to start the process.

The fleet would slowly fall back, screening large refugee convoys, and monitoring Reaper movements with hyperdrive equipped starfighter patrols. Most of the ships were dispatched home for fitting with tractor beams, leaving a force of fifty ships-but including all of the strongest-as well as the Turian fleet. It remained to be seen how much time they had bought.


	62. Chapter 62

Tanda ruled from _Thunderflare_ 's hyperwave transmitter. The amount of data coming in was tremendous, pushing to the limit Miranda Lawson's ability to collate it for her, no matter how hard Tanda tried to lean upon her, she was simply overwhelmed with her own efforts. Weeks passed by, but the temporary state of mutual exhaustion could not last for long. Would not last for long.

The Reapers began the effort. They would start, again, gently probing, raiding, trying to raid behind the lines to smash weakly defended targets... The surprise was when Cerberus exploded back onto the scene was wreaking havoc, going as far as flat out invading Eden Prime.

She had, apparently, bought a few months before a major push again began, maybe. But the Cerberus offensive was a shocking development that shook her, badly. Tanda had hoped that she had crippled Cerberus' military strength by trapping their Omega fleet and destroying or capturing every single ship in it. So much for that... Now she again had to deal with the implicit threat to her authority that Cerberus represented, the diversion of resources.

The group of Imperial officers around the table was grim, though, when Miranda gave the report; and from Rhae to Scolus, Tanda realised something had changed in her favour. There was Absolute unity, forged by the need to defeat a completely inhuman enemy, whose inhumanity had been made clear. These were _her_ officers, even the Republican ones represented from Ova! And no Tali or Tasiele or Shepard or Samara, all busy; there was just Shala'Raan and Han'Gerral.

Tanda clenched her bottle of water and watched their debates. Finally, Miranda got up. She was trembling, acutely aware of her origin in Cerberus, and she looked levelly at Tanda. "They've betrayed _everything_ ," Miranda said, still looking to her. " _Everything_. They're probably not even people anymore."

"There's no _probably_ to it. I heard what the Jedi said about the ones on Mars," Rhae remarked, leaning back sharply. His time in command of _Stalker_ had done him well.

"Major?"

"Declare them outlaws," Jorjarlen answered, "Order their deaths wherever they are found."

" _Decreto de Guerra a Muerte_ ," Miranda whispered, barely able to be heard. "It's... A harsh medicine, Lady Pryl."

"Isn't it?" Tanda shook her head after bringing the document up on her suitcomp. "I don't think we're quite at that point yet. After all, most of them may well be indoctrinated and so killing them brings no moral sanction to begin with."

"So be it, M'lady," Captain Rhae sighed. "Your Ladyship is very vulnerable, however, without Lady Tali'Zorah present."

The title of address had not been used before, and Tanda glanced over sharply at Rhae. He met the look. "M'lady's wife should be respected," he said. "Just as M'lady should be respected. You will be under constant assassination attempts, you know, with their augmented troops."

"Director Lawson?"

"I cannot guarantee anything, Moff Pryl."

"Thank you. Well, I'll answer the risk in my own way. Please proceed to make preparations for the fleet to remain concentrated in Council space, at a suitably central point to respond to further Reaper incursions. Use intelligence efforts to determine the level of risk to the civilians of Eden Prime so that we may determine how aggressively to respond to the activities of Cerberus. That is all."

She waited for them to leave, and then wandered out and back to her cabin. Tanda was not about to start issuing orders to the death and commands for absolute executions, as much as they would like. But the way her men were upset... Upset with the Jedi influence, they wanted decisive leadership.

Tali was very far away, and Rhae's fears were true. She could easily be attacked by those ninjas that had attacked Tasiele, or by one of those HRDs that had been able to stand up to the Jedi for a time. Leaning against the wall of her quarters for a while, she stared at the picture of Tali on her desk. Minutes passed, and she ignored the messages coming into her comp. This was more important.

She walked over to her desk, her mind made up. Reached into the lowest drawer, and when she did, took out her set of tools... And a single crystal.

The days went by, and with them, a litany of regular updates from _Normandy_... Cerberus kept popping up, and Shepard kept knocking them down wherever she could reach one of their hit-and-fade attacks. Her stealth systems... also worked against the Reapers.

The situation was not helped when Miranda sent her a report, corroborated by data she'd gotten from Shepard; the war could not drag on. Total galactic economic collapse was estimated within a year at the current rates of spending and consumption. Even with so many worlds untouched, the massive mobilisation and disintegration of multiple major powers was simply collapsing the entire structure of organised society in the Milky Way.

And then the Reapers struck again. This time, the next prong came from dark space-Espota Station in Loropi, in the Silean Nebula, sending out a distress call. Only noteworthy for a reason which made it still eminently important: It was one of only two military fuel production facilities in all of Asari space.

The loss of the one fuel facility brought to Tanda's attention the second facility, and so she made plans to have her construction force fall back there when the work at Trikalon was finished to repeat the installation of the shielding so that the fuel production facilities could be defended and another shielded world provided—assuming the fuel generators could be turned to powering the shields. Tanda felt some freedom in being able to think about planets as assets again which could actually be defended. That was taking time, though, and with the work at Trikalon not finished yet, the prospects for the orders being fulfilled seemed increasingly dim.

The war went on. The new blade was yellow. Better than nothing.

-

Tasiele would be settling into life on the _Normandy_ , and part of that was trying to socialise. Life went on, even in the middle of a war, and that was something completely critical to remember. "Ah, Samantha, you're getting off duty, I think; do you have a minute?"

The woman looked up, and her eyes flashed wide for a moment. "L-Lady Tasiele... I... of course!" She flushed at the woman suddenly looming over her station.

"Thank you. I thought you might want to get a drink or whatnot."

"I... you're... asking... me." Her eyes narrowed a bit, trying to find the trap in it.

"Yes. ...May we? I quite understand if you're not interested."

"No! No, no, no, that's not what I meant, I mean...!" She flushed. "I'm... just not used to... um, all right. I assume you mean that miniature bar in port observation..."

"Exactly so." Tasiele smiled lightly. "...I just thought it would be nice. Life goes on, and... Well, Shepard mentioned you seemed interested in me, so I thought to let you talk to the real article instead of second-hand. I have a fairly long and interesting family history, and I wanted to talk instead of, well, hurting your feelings."

"Oh God... I'm... that betrayer, I... ma'am. I think. Your Ladyship? I... oh, this is awkward... Don't worry, don't worry, if you're not interested," she added hastily, "we can completely just walk away right now and it will be fine."

"Oh, I'm trying to keep it from being anything like that. Please. Just kaff... coffee, or tea, then?"

"No, it's fine, it's just... breathe, Sam, breathe..." She put some visible effort into calming down. "...The people from the... 'Empire', they all talk about you like you're some... big heroine. A Jedi. I just asked Shepard some questions, that's all. I'm... honored you asked me, and it's very not unwelcome."

"I wouldn't call myself a heroine. I just come from an utterly infamous and very strange family, and I had the misfortune of trying to repair a famous Granddame's misdeeds and getting frozen in carbonite for the effort."

"That just makes you more interesting... ow. That sounds like it would hurt..."

"Only if they don't give you analgesiacs first. Granted, they didn't do that. C'mon. This a terrible place for a chat." She'd gesture.

"Right..." Samantha would walk along, to the elevator for the crew deck, and then down from there. "I still can't believe Shepard would tell you that."

"I imagine she thinks I need an opportunity to move on from what is the past, and embrace my present."

"I'm... just not sure why you would be talking to me when you say that, that's all. I'm just a comms specialist who spent all her time in labs until..." She fell silent. Everyone knew what Samantha was alluding to, Tasiele most of all.

"You're wicked with chess. Clearly not stupid. Comms aren't very easy, either." She moved to sit in the minilounge, pulling out the other chair for Samantha.

"Not stupid, but... well, I'm from Horizion. Colony girl, both my parents were from Earth but wanted to move someplace less crowded. Didn't have the money to send me to university, so I got a scholarship through the Alliance, managed for A-levels for getting into Oxford. I was in a continuing education course on Earth when they... hit. My unit was on Arcturus, so..." She trailed off a bit—but there was a three seat bar filled with drinks, and she slipped behind it. "What'll you have? I worked as a bartender to get some spending money in university."

"Have some brandy back there?" Tasiele kicked back with a gentle sigh. "Oxford is a very prestigious university, I understand."

"It is, though it made the accent worse. Something about an English accent... I get hit on far too often because of it... hm. Will a Cognac do? I see somebody's been hammering on the midd... oh dear me, this is over a hundred years old... where did we get this?"

"I wouldn't have the slightest idea where," Tasiele shrugged. "And your accent is very similar to a Coruscanti one, for what it is worth. Some sort of convergence there. If you'd just rather give me some whisky, water and ice please, if it's at all similar. I wouldn't want to go through the ship's only good stuff." "

"That's... not the only good stuff. I think this starts at top shelf and only goes up from there... well, let's try it!" Two snifters, before the bottle went back, and she wandered back around the bar. "Better than anything krogan, that's certain."

"I would be profoundly concerned about Krogan alcohol. Thank you, Samantha."

"You should be. Ryncol is unpleasant. At best. So... what... What does the young comms specialist and the ancient Jedi talk about?"

"Oof, ancient. It's true, though." Tasiele grinned.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that!"

"It doesn't exclude my exquisite state of preservation, which is a bit of natural beauty and mostly carbonite. But make no mistake. I am ancient. It seems to be a thing in my family... Surviving too long." She glanced over to Samanatha. "Well, enough of that. I believe we'd established you liked chess."

"It's so, though my board got left behind on Earth... I had to spend everything I had on replacing my toothbrush, but if my pay clears properly, I'll try and get a passable virtual board." She flushed. "You're probably in better shape than me."

"It's the life of a Jedi to demand that. Here, if you don't have a board for chess, I can teach you a game I have a board for?"

"Oh dear, there went my cunning plan to start off from a position of superiority..." She offered a small grin. "It isn't just the life of a Jedi. I am not a perfectly healthy person. Headaches, allergies, asthma, we don't have the money on Horizion to do more than gene-therapy life-threatening conditions, and none of mine count."

"Oh, we all have such things too. Gene therapy has long been mistrusted in the Republic- it's ... It's tinkering with life, in a way the Jedi find uncomfortable, and the Pius Dea forbade it besides. Long after the Jedi Order defeated the Pius Dea, that fear and prohibition remains, justly, considering our own concerns with it."

"That's... well, I admit, it seems silly. If they'd have more money, they'd have gotten everything patched up, but it's only the people with more money that can manage that, and..." She rubbed her hands together with a small shrug. "So I take my medications, try and be careful about what I eat, deal with my headaches, and keep my inhaler close at hand. Now, what's this game you were talking about?"

"Divorian Holochess, I think, is the best way to translate the name. Multilevel board with fifteen different armies on each side..." The thing projected itself up from a small thimble Tasiele set in the middle of the table. "Three dimensions and time. Widely regarded as one of the most complicated games anyone bothers to play."

"... So... either this is you intending to keep me humble, or..." Her eyes flicked about. "How long is the rulebook...?" Her eyes were still glazing over a bit as she looked over it.

"It was invented by a group of very bored women who were confined to harems by pirates in the days when I got ahold of it. I have been informed they subsequently created a major intergalactic government after revolting and killing all the pirates and are now a monarchist matriarchy, so I took to assuming the game was a rather productive way to sharpen one's mental acuity." Tasiele grinned, and continued. "relatively short, actually. The trick is that the rules are - relatively similar to human chess here in some respect-for each army. But the armies execute those rules autonomously. Your job is to specify the vertical and time-variant position of the army commanders, who then execute the moves of their armies in the two-d plain autonomously."

"In short, sometimes the computer does things that you really wish it hadn't, and then you have to correct for it. But since you're only interested in the army-level position and can't control that, it's sort of like chess on a different plain of reference where random events may interrupt your plans."

She brought up the rules for Samantha.

"... This is the sort of thing Shepard would like, she hates chess... let's see... that does that... oh, I think I'm going to like this game... how long have you been playing it?"

"I'd been playing it for a couple of years before the last time I was frozen in Carbonite. Before that I played dejarik since I was young. It was a popular game in the family."

"So... fair. Ish," Samantha answered wryly. "Good enough, okay... don't go easy on me, not that I think that will help at first." She gave a bit of a challenging grin as she kept scrolling through the rules, engrossed and grinning all the while.

The universe might burn, but people must still be people, or else there was no point in it all.

-

At the end of the day, there were only a limited number of plants that Tanda thought they could seriously defend. One of them was Thessia... and that was going to be special. After three days of wrangling, she finally brought _Thunderflare_ into orbit to give an address to the Asari democracies. It was something profoundly unusual to her background. She would not be talking to power brokers, but instead would be appealing directly to the people. Likewise, it was unique for the Asari in turn. Humans didn't normally get to address the Republics, and Matriarchs didn't usually ensure it made it onto most vid channels.

Tanda had spent most of that time preparing her remarks, and then preparing them again. In the end, she used them only for a reference. The speech needed to come from the soul.

"Women of Thessia. You are the mother race of the galaxy, enjoying a peaceful bounty unparalleled in the history of my own galaxy as well as your's. I ask you to think of your youth... It is your youth who are facing this enemy which is greater than any negotiation or surrender. ..."

"It is not possible because the Reapers aren't an enemy with aims, causes, intents. They're a natural disaster, like a supernova. They're a plague, not a people. Surrendering to them is akin to intentionally infecting your children with a disease. There is no cure when they touch you, and the only recourse is to fight..."

"...You are uniquely positioned. Your population is blessed with enormous power. You must begin at once to train everyone down to the youngest girl to use it... It is not kind, but it is the promise of kindness again existing in the future for what we fight. A girl hardened by war will weap and toss in her sleep, but she will live, and love, and her daughters may yet not know such hardships."

"This is the cruel burden of this galaxy. It has lasted since life was young, and it is only by taking this strong sacrifice that we may all overcome it, so that it will not come again. "

"Defend your cities. Turn your national parks into farms. Disperse the people. Shield the planet. Make Thessia impregnable. Prepare to turn your spires into the ruin of your enemies."

"There are smiling faces in the sun in the future. They are not for us."

"This is not war. This is survival."

"Remember that as life has long lived on Thessia, walking content under bright suns and seeing luxuriant crops grow... Is it our's to be the last who see such things? Why must it be so? This is not war—this is a kind of spiritual sacrifice so that the sun will rise again tomorrow."

"What we know, sisters of a foreign star, is simple. There are no more Asari if Thessia is taken by the Reapers. Don't ask yourself if you are a good soldier or if there is worthiness to the hardships to stand. Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you want someone to see what you see in a thousand years."

"It is that simple, and that is what all the hardship shall be to preserve."

"In this moment, therefore, I appeal to you to take the decisive measures which allow for victory in the times which cut our souls to the bone. You must assign leaders as armies have for the duration of the circumstances. You must distribute preparations throughout the countryside. Thessia must become as a single village united for battle in its militia. Everyone must be prepared to fight, to grow, to live for nothing but food and the dawning of another day."

"You are not unable to stand this. I leave you with the human composer Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, 'Leningrad'. It is the beauty that you must seek; it is the beauty of this age. All ages have beauty, and our's is more terrible and more cruel than others. But people will again know the beauty of peace only if we bear it! It is the beauty of what will come. Either we learn to appreciate it for what it is, or it is oblivion for us all."

"There are ten thousand races in my home galaxy... If nothing else suffices, who wants to live to go forth and explore it? Rise, and remember that the universe still awaits on the other side. Thessia dawns only have witness in victory."

"The Seventh Symphony is about the dread of the totalitarian enslavement of the soul. That is what is coming, and it is far worse than mere invasion. Thank you."

She was invited to address Asari High Command about an hour after the speech, the symphony still playing over the channel. Responding immediately, she descended from _Thunderflare_ by escort shuttle at once toward the vectored coordinates.

It proved to be the descent elevator into a very deep bunker. Old, underneath some massive old granite massif at least forty kilometers on a side. Here women had planned the defense against the Krogran, the Rachni... and here a lot of older Asari in commando leathers were watching her as she was guided into something of a briefing ampitheatre, with a lot of virtual attendance as well. There were glowing holo-images of worlds and fleets, ghostly images.

Tanda was invited to sit, as a Matriarch in the closest thing to a uniform the Asari had started to speak, outlining hints of a population dispersion pattern—and something they had begun initially against her fleet—a planetary shield for Thessia, with some of the richer worlds like Illium having such coverage available over their cities and vital points. They were only useful against particle weapons, of course, but could the Moff kindly provide the technology to maek them better?

They could stand off Reaper raids, all but a full-scale assault, and... also laid out their intended tactics, of repeated combat FTL jumps and alpha strikes, before repeating as often as possible. They were... presenting a proposed strategy to the woman who had inspired it in the first place, perhaps ironically. They had needed to be ready to fight her, after all.

Tanda listened quietly, and respectfully. She promised them the support in the shields for their richest worlds. And she spoke honestly about the fleet strategy. "You can't so easily fight the Reapers like that with the fleet. Based on the Reaper strength in arms I recommend just evacuating the fleet to Rannoch. I obtained an agreement with the Geth to mobilize against the Reapers more than a year ago, and they are now... Fully sentient life-forms completely set against the Old Machines for their meddling within the collective, as you should be aware from the reports around the Ialessa system. I can upgrade ships with their help much faster than I can build new ones."

"I will start forward deploying large wings of starfighters to engage in those tactics, which with hyperdrive will be far more effective, and supplying them to your people."

"At this point I feel cycling through fleet forces to be reconstructed is a much better use of precious large hulls, which cannot be constructed rapidly; even the Geth can only produce a dreadnought every other standard month. There are somewhere on the order of two thousand five hundred Reapers still in existence despite their major reversals, perhaps three thousand, and I think that over and above that many of the ones we are counting destroyed may actually be repairable."

"We will, however, be using such tactics after the ships have been upgraded—even then we will be outnumbered. Using them now is getting their crews killed for no point. I prefer laying minefields and preparing traps and hardening worlds for sustained resistance. The shielding plan is excellent—by the way, I not only offer my help, but I approve of it fully. It would have proved all sorts of trouble." A thin smile.

"At any rate. It could succeed in completely defending Thessia in fact and Illium and some of the other major worlds may also further upgrade the work. I will assign resources the Geth are attempting to produce to strengthening the defences of the worlds with almost complete coverage. It sounds like a strategy of fortress worlds will be very possible, which will delay the decisiveness of the Reaper operations long enough to bog them down in their existing conquests and make strikes to wear through their forces much more plausible. But we must evacuate everything else, then."

"I will observe that the Reapers cannot build additional Reapers without conquering large populations. Thus, Reaper capital ships are a wasting asset, in fact more of a wasting asset than our's. If we succeed in laying enough traps for them to hack their numbers down to size... We may actually win a war of attrition. The Reapers-perhaps, for the best disrespect, I should say the Old Machines-have never faced one before."

"I will arrange for the deployment of several wings of our new starfighters for you to begin training with. I recommend keeping the fleet away from any battles where it could suffer heavy losses. I would also like draughts of personnel so that I can continue conversion of Quarian ships - I believe it is unfair proportionally speaking to the Quarians for their thousands of cruisers to be crewed entirely by them in the circumstances. Volunteers willing to live in environmental suits should be sought. This will preserve Quarian population numbers in the face of attrition more effectively... And allow me to consider committing much larger parts of the combat force of the Migrant Fleet without risking a substantial negative demographic impact."

There was some discussion, and a series of stars lit up—the blue and purple skinned aliens were... grimly trying to figure out what to sacrifice, and what not to... her suggestions were... painfully, accepted, as they indicated - "We will agree with your plan, but it is critical that Cyone's reactors remain in operation, Moff Pryl," the woman referred to the second main fuel facility, "—or our fleet, and the Alliance vessels we are now supplying will not have the fuel to remain in action."

"I am having my personnel fall back from their current operation to begin fortifying the Cyone facilities, Matriarchs. I assure you that all of your work will make that task easier."

"I suspect that the unoccupied species homeworlds may be capable of similar effort...?" She glanced around to see if any disagreed.

One of the Matriarchs frowned. "Sur'Kesh, Kehje, Irune. There should not be an attempt at defending any other planet."

"That would be a matter to take up with the relevant governments, though we will share our... planetary barrier plans with them." One woman from the back cut back. "Assuming the salarians haven't stolen it already."

"Pray that they have," Tanda chuckled grimly.

"They stole something else." Came from a woman on another side of the room, as she stepped forward. "We'd been wondering why they stopped dreadnought construction - they stole the design schematics of the Normandy and the Reaper IFF technology from you, and have been building a new class of stealth dreadnoughts."

"That might be useful for hit-and-run operations." Tanda paused significantly. " _Thunderflare_ has a cloaking device. I haven't sorted out a good way to use it against them yet, though we'll work on that."

"They may have stolen that too." The woman looked... somewhat bemused. "Thank the Goddess you terrified us so much, or we'd never have been close to ready for this. You'll see our secret weapon soon enough at Rannoch."

"And you'll see mine soon enough. Though the later, the better. "

"Let us hope that is true, Moff Pryl. May the Goddess walk with you and guide your blade, raising her shield over you."

Tanda politely lowered her head. "Thank you. I will be trying to conduct some minor business in the weeks to come whilst my personnel conduct their own duties."

"Of course, Moff Pryl. Good luck."

When she got back to the surface from the bunker, Dr. Liara T'Soni was waiting for her again, the Doctor having tried to help lay the groundwork for what she was doing. Tanda gestured with a single hand for the shuttle.

"Greetings, Moff Pryl." Liara followed quickly. "We are going to _Thunderflare_?"

"Not _Thunderflare_ , but instead I'll be shifting my flag to the _Bombard_ ; not as powerful, but the fastest ship in the Imperial fleet at lightspeed, well, with her two escorts."

"Thank you, Moff Pryl." She waited until they were aboard. "My time on Thessia has been... enlightening. Apparently the attack on Eden Prime involves... yet another Prothean artifact."

"Well, that is where we are heading. I intend to punish Cerberus and retake the planet for the Alliance... Which virtually has no government left, now, and needs the help it can get. I'm going to start using _Bombard_ and her escorts as a 'Flying Squadron' while the rest of the fleet is concentrated in reserve."

"Yes... But there is also something more important. I believe I have narrowed down the locations of the Cerberus primary operating base, Moff Pryl, as well." She folded her hands behind her back. "The Illusive Man's efforts are growing more annoying by the day, despite the damage you have done to his fleet."

"This does not surprise me. Cerberus has replaced the Collectors as an arm of the Reaper invasion." By the time they landed aboard, _Bombard_ was already pulling away from Thessia for the jump to lightspeed. "After we have dealt with their operation at Eden Prime, I will consider a subsequent raid on their operating base, if it can be narrowed down. I'll use my remaining probots, if I must."

"I believe it is within one cluster of Sol, but I am having trouble further narrowing it down. There are, at least, defections and dissension that has robbed them of some of their best people."

"It is not hard to hate Cerberus at this point."

"Indeed, Moff Pryl." Liara followed her down from the shuttle into the bay.

"Reporting as ordered." Another Quarian stood there. Well. Kind f.

"Gillian nar Idennu," Tanda introduced her to Liara.

"Ah. A pleasure... Gillian vas Idennu nar Yandoa, I believe?" Liara offered a hand politely.

"..I haven't made my pilgrimage yet, though I... Moff Pryl brought me here so I could with you if you would have me." Gillian was much higher functioning inside of a Quarian suit, and took the hand confidently.

"Ah... I see. If you are willing, and aware of the danger, then... certainly." She offered a small smile.

"I am aware."

"I assume you are aware of Gillian's skills, then," Tanda commented lightly, letting Gillian tune them out as the ship elongated in a flicker of pseudomotion and shot into the tunnel of hyperspace, Tanda heading toward the flagbridge with her guests, and letting Turla handle his own ship.

"I have heard of her, if such is what you mean." Liara murmured, returning her attention to Tanda.

"Yes, that is precisely so. I am also expecting a rendezvous with one of my lieutenants who has some skill in the force. If you part separate ways from us after Eden Prime, she is to accompany you... So you have some forewarning and defence against indoctrination."

"Thank you, Moff Pryl." She glanced about. "What has Captain Shepard told you of me? And what do you know?"

"I know that you are perhaps the foremost expert of Protheans in the galaxy and quite capable of taking care of yourself."

"... Her discretion is admirable, but you should be aware of something else, Moff Pryl. Cerberus certainly is... I have had little time for Prothean studies recently." her voice dropped "...given that I have inherited the position of Shadow Broker."

"Ah. I see." Tanda was thankful for the suit to mask all but the smallest of jerks at the news. "I expect she did not wish to put you in any danger. I can see now how it was always carefully maneouvred to keep this secret from me."

"You have need of knowing the information I can provide. My father is being ordered to keep an eye on me as a result by the Matriarchs. It is... unfortunate. But necessary."

"It is true, I do need the kind of information the Shadow Broker has. It may be quite dangerous for you to keep the work up, however."

She nodded, once, and smiled. "The Reapers have arrived. There is danger enough to share."

"Hopefully less in what is coming against us."

"Hopefully." She flexed her hands, and let out a small sigh. "Is there anything else, or should I begin preparing for the Eden Prime landing mission?"

"I believe that is all. Make your preparations and inform Gillian as to what she should be ready with as well."

"Of course." She gave a small smile to the human woman, before turning to depart.


	63. Chapter 63

Liara's usual quiet working style fit well with the profoundly disaffected and introverted Gillian. She was herself also introverted enough to not... actually be very social. It let the two fit together very well. By now, Quarians in general, and also Liara, were certainly treated professionally by the Imperials.

They were able to make good time thanks to the constant updating of the star charts… Especially for the Class 1's on these ships, running silent through war-torn and collapsed Alliance space. The final stop was just outside of the Eden Prime system, waiting for a rendezvous with a wing of the new QEQ-1s for moving in against the planet.

They came to a stop in deep space, as usual, hyperwave sensors sweeping the system to characterise the threats they would face as the wing of starfighters led by Lieutenant Kesalia—recruiting skilled personnel was still a problem with the Lieutenant only one of ten non-Quarians in the wing—swung over the three ships—VSD-II, Carrack, Bayonet.

Tanda took the small flag bridge of Bombard, and watched the reports come in. She felt disconnected, herself, with much of her staff still aboard _Thunderflare_ to coordinate the war effort. But the scale of the combat was vastly smaller, and quite straightforward, too. It was an assault in which they had overwhelming force, and that was all textbook for the Empire by now.

The sensor sweeps showed a single Cerberus cruiser, several frigates, not much else. Various chatter of ground forces... The monorail system, twisted, fires burned in the fields, distress calls filled Alliance frequencies... and some sort of Prothean artifact that had sparked this in the first place, this chaos and this treason.

Tanda had the luxury of the chance to carefully prepare her attack, worried only by the endurance of her starfighter pilots who had already been in the cockpit for an extended duration with the very slow hyperdrives of the QEQs, derived from the low-end models fitted to Assault Gunboats. Fortunately, it did not take long to plan such an attack against a single Cerberus cruiser with the Flying Squadron.

She directed her squadron to box in the cruiser and frigates against the planet. The starfighters, both the surviving assault gunboats and TIE Avengers launched from the Carrack and Victory, as well as the new wing, were ordered to slip immediately into the atmosphere as the capital ships took on the enemy, to engage in ground attack against Cerberus targets. She would force the Cerberus ships to pass at point-blank range on either side of _Bombard_ with the two light ships waiting behind the VSD-II to return the favour and hit them in the flank.

And then she gave the order for the final jump into the system. It was like a startled flock of birds as the Cerberus fighters burst outwards and moved to engage. The comms channels disappeared into a static of full spectrum jamming that left the Imperials with total information dominance. They could see everything, and talk about anything. Their enemies could see nothing, and talk about nothing.

Her ion cannon and heavy turbolasers concentrated into the forward arc, Captain Turla gave the order. _Bombard_ , her hull patched in a hundred places but still with her power incredibly potent at the command, opened fire. The first salvo bracketed the Cerberus cruiser, and one of the ship's engines began to spritz with electrical arcs from the ion cannon hit. Thrusters burned hard to stabilise her, and Tanda waited for the cruiser to come about to flee.

The cruiser settled down to a stable orbit as two turbolaser bolt hits tore massive gouges out of the hull. _What are they waiting for?_

The cruiser started firing on the cities below while the frigates moved to cover it, interposing themselves between the _Bombard_ 's fire and her hull bodily. The next salvo tore into one, and it tumbled, but its thrusters kept it in the blocking position.

" _Cruiser Line is to engage immediately!_ " Tanda shouted as the flare in the force of the death of thousands in pain and terror washed over her. "Move us into the atmosphere to intercept their fire, maximum velocity."

"Captain Turla confirms, we are at maximal acceleration! We'll cancel excess _vee_ in the atmosphere with repuslors, Your Ladyship."

 _Bombard_ 's engines flared to maximum power and she plunged into the atmosphere like she were out of control, the horizon of a beautiful blue-green world and terminator line of night and day spinning in dizzy chaos interposed with turbolaser fire as she reoriented downwards _hard_. Repulsors came up to full power, and the turbolasers concentrated into the dorsal arc from both quarters. Just in time, another salvo of mass driver bolts tore into the atmosphere and splattered harmlessly across the particle shields. The sound of the turbolasers with the upper atmosphere around them was particular vivid.

Above, the cruiser seemed to crumple as the massed fire came up above her. A moment later _Rintonne's Flame_ and _Itarla_ bore in hard against the cruiser, the Carrack's particularly heavy turbolaser batteries pounding through the blocking frigates, having already demolished one as the _Bombard_ raced low.

"The cruisers are moving in now, Moff Pryl!"

"Captain Turla, check fire and let the cruisers finish her!"

The two cruisers managed to get close enough to provide concentrated fire with their turbolaser batteries at close range. None of the shots missed. They took out the cruiser in a tremendous explosion immediately, the ship breaking up and exploding even as there were new flames on the ground. Flames much too soon to be from debris. There were turrets opening fire on the snubfighters.

Tanda folded her hands neatly. "Bring us into the lower atmosphere, _Itarla_ and _Rintonne's Flame_ on overwatch. Target designate for the proton bombs on Void Wing's snubfighters." _Bombard_ moved down into the thick air, looking as graceful as a hover battleship.

"Extreme low altitude, Captain Turla."

She didn't stop descending, then, instead getting _really_ low... And her weaker weapons were also optimised for being used in the atmosphere in fire support. Not needing their full power against non-Reaper targets, they were dialed down as the VSD-II started to loom over the Cerberus ground forces on the planet below. Their anti-aircraft and even anti-starship fire bounced off, worse than useless since ricocheting mass driver rounds killed troops on the ground.

Before now, Tanda had not had need to use this feature. Now, as quiet as a ghost, _Bombard_ continued to descend on repulsorlifts alone.

The mass driver cannons fired at her... and again they bounced off her shields, as the Star Destroyer's light cannon struck what Cerberus forces she could. Descending lower and lower into the atmosphere, clearing through rain-clouds to hover less than five kilometres above the ground, and moving along, steadily approaching to the focal point of resistance. Her fire was being used even directly against infantry at this point, and now, ahead of them, the massive dig site was not that hard to miss, all said, as they slowly rolled over the planet.

"Target that main Cerberus force and begin to reduce altitude further. Captain Turla, eliminate all resistance on the ground by your prerogative."

Tanda leaned into the rail around the holoprojection. The world was dimly visible out the forward bridge windows, flashes lighting up the sky and auto-tinting the windows. Now _Bombard_ descended to less than her own length above the ground, and below them, in utter silence… Captain Turla had brought his ship down low enough so as to use her repulsors to... Compress people below her into the ground. And things.

If there was anyone truly alive around them to see it anymore, it would be more than mildly horrifying for people to watch, that was certain. Slowly rolling lower as the return fire... faded off, getting within hundreds of metres of the ground, and now even the fanatical Cerberus forces were breaking under the fire, trying to go to ground amongst the civilians. Tanda was not about to let them get away so easily. Most of them were already dead, and she wasn't going to let people die over corpses.

It was the time for a landing force. That presented something of a small problem, but only a small one. Tanda had deployed her AT-AT walkers defensively throughout her own territory and left them off her ships. Her second-string, on the other hand... " _Land the landing force!_ Attack and destroy! Stop them from getting in among the civilians at all costs, make absolutely sure to pursue them before they can go to ground! We're close enough for direct launch-deploy the Juggernauts!"

Yes, they were close enough to the ground that the Stormtroopers driving the massive armoured and articulated armoured cars… drove them right out of the hangar bay to land crashing into the ground the last fifty meters on their huge shock absorbers. Their tires spitting rocks, they accelerated into battle immediately.

It was perhaps the most terrifying combat desant imaginable as they slammed into the ground and started to open fire, immediately rushing in a hail under their laser and blaster cannon toward the retreating Cerberus forces and those whom the ground had shielded from _Bombard_ 's fire. Cerberus mechs were completely outmatched, running down and crushed or slaughtered by the dozen by the laser fire as the Juggernaughts swept forward to ensconce the dig site and screen the towns and cities of Eden Prime from the remaining Cerberus troops, though they would try to ambush the things where they could. The forests and fields burned intensely from firestorms sweeping through the ground where the Cerberus infantry tried to hide, fed all around by the points where laser and blaster cannon fire tore deep, cauterised gouges into the soil.

The fifteen of them spread out, and soon enough they were supported and escorted by speeders, speederbikes, and some repsulor scouts forming a mechanized brigade combat team, as the Empire defined it... Supported by _Bombard_ in the atmosphere and a hundred and eighty fighters. The retreating Cerberus forces were turned into columns of flame as the Juggernaughts accelerated to catch them in their flanks and the starfighters dived and strafed again and again and again. There was no mercy as black clouds from flaming vehicles and mechs and, yes, people, rose in smoke and heat and joined with the steam issuing from deep lances of heavy fire from the VSD's light guns that had formed blackened columnar pits. And still they continued to pursue and attack.

Tanda turned back to her guest who had been quietly watching the entire battle unfold before them. "I believe it should be safe for you to proceed to the dig site, Doctor T'Soni." Imperials could be so mild-mannered about the death and mayhem they spread, sometimes!

"... Yes... I believe that is so." Liara slipped a breath mask on, as... uhm. _Wow, that was a lot of smoke and fire down there._ "We will be in contact."

"I will remain here long enough to stabilize the civilian situation and recall my brigade, save a small security force I can leave hyper-capable transports behind with. The starfighter wing will remain behind even then, to at least conduct hit and fade attacks if a Reaper force arrives in the system, and to deter further Cerberus aggression."

"Thank you, Moff Pryl." Liara blinked, looking down at the planet again, and shook her head quietly. "By your leave?"

"Granted."

She nodded... and headed to pick up her other team member and arrange a rendezvous with Kesalia when her fighter wing finished operations, to find out... just what Cerberus had wanted here.

Once her proton bombs were expended, Kesalia made to land directly on the dig site, while Gillian followed straight off the VSD-II via a rapelling rope with Liara, before the great ship moved off... Terrifyingly close to the ground. The Empire certainly did have a certain style.

After the moment of fear on the fast-rope as they hit the ground, it was off to start quietly exploring and looking for Cerberus stragglers in the dig site to secure it. Which they... found. A few of. And... more than a few colonists slaughtered without even having time to panic.

Gillian was calm. Kesalia, joining them with her lightsabre ignited—a few Cerberus holdouts had proved quite willing to fight—was not, trembling in horror. "This is like a bunch of Gamorreans working for Hutt slavers. Just complete butchery everywhere. The village by the dig is filled with dead children piled in heaps."

"Cerberus... has gotten worse. If that were possible." Liara pressed on with her scanners into the excavation works. "We're getting close... there! On the edge of that cliff..." She hopped down. "To think, once a dig like this would have made me happy for a decade... Now I want it over in an hour. Or less, if possible."

Then her eyes caught something. "... Is that... a stasis pod...? Oh Goddess..." Gillian turned out to cover for her, and Liara darted forward, scanning it, and... At least for an Asari, turned pale. "It's still active, but the life signs are unstable, Cerberus damaged the pod removing it from wherever it was. We'll need to find the proper deactivation command..."

"Substantially older than Lady Tasiele's," Gillian remarked, having turned back to study it with her scan having satisfied her of the location being clear.

Even Kesalia was quiet. "Where do we look?" The Twi'lek finally asked.

"I... we should look around here, there are probably some labs where Cerberus was trying to puzzle it out... they would have been able to tell this as easily as I... I wish Shepard were here, she would be able to activate any beacons or anything like that which might help us."

"Are you sure you can't?" Gillian wandered around, a bit lost. She could screen out anything but what she was focused in, though, looking for what seemed important around the site... Turning her existence into an advantage.

Liara frowned for a moment, taking Gillian's comment seriously and thinking. "I'm... not sure. I've never tried, she was always the first one through... let's see. They were studying footage of the Protheans to figure out how to open the pod..." Her omnitool was open. "This way. We can try the same. Then we'll need the command signal."

"All right." Kesalia followed carefully. Very carefully, considering all of the risks here... Starting, she fancied, with who was inside the pod—the hidden Cerberus troopers they had to deal with as they searched here, unfortunately, not much of a threat to them and also not at all worth trying to save.

That left a relatively short effort before they found the research lab, letting Liara advance to the computer. After the tremendous fury of the landing, it was almost peaceful despite the occasional short fights with stay-behind units.

And then Liara's eyes started to glow green.


	64. Chapter 64

Kesalia, her lightsabre glowing, tensed sharply at the moment, but swiftly realized it was what they had come for. She watched Liara collapse, hands on her head as she shivered and shuddered under the power of the vision, and Kesalia felt an uneasy undercurrent in the air. Something was effecting a change upon Liara's mind in a way beyond the force.

Kesalia deactivated her lightsabre and rushed to the woman's side, kneeling and holding onto her gently. There was no more she could do, and indeed it seemed necessary to let the strange process continue.

As she allowed the vision to finish, the Asari maiden shook her head and almost fell flat on her face, as the footage replayed in her head faded away, holding a hand up to the ridges atop her skull and looking around dully. So it was as it had been.

"I... Goddess, that." She shook her head. "They... should, yes..." She glanced sharply to Kesalia, and then shook her head to clear it. "Forgive me. There's another... lab near here." _Is that what Atarah saw? Things like that...?_ Liara could wonder, but not know the answer.

"It is like a vision of the force, but made with technology..?" Kesalia asked, wondering for a moment at the power she faced and reaching down to check that her lightsabre was secured, expecting that they would be finding battle again in the latest lab.

"That... seems to be how the Protheans transmitted information. This was meant to be the last hope of the Protheans, it seems. A great stasis complex with a billion pods, to allow them re-awaken and rule the galaxy again..." She frowned a bit. "That... doesn't sound good for the implications of how the Prothean Empire worked, but, well, indoctrinated Protheans betrayed them. Collectors attacked. The soldiers were fighting to drive them off..." She shook her head. "It was... being there... It really was."

"Well that sounds like a plot the Empire would sanction," Kesalia remarked coolly. "Though I expect the Emperor would have just filled a storehouse with cloning cylinders, instead... Ah, but I'm sorry. You've been experiencing like you were there, and it must be intensely emotional. Are you sure you want to continue right now?"

"That's... never happened before, it... oh, but the papers I could write, just on that alone... Yes. Absolutely yes. We must continue now. I saw something very important." Liara shook off the disorientation and headed off again—this time past a room with four humans, shot dead while watching the vid screen now filled with static, still hanging on the wall, and into the second lab. Here, she was more careful, looking around... and then it happened again. This time she flat out hit the ground, though not passing out.

Kesalia snapped her lightsabre back on... this seemed like an area more liable for a trap. But again, there was nothing, which was really getting odd. She frowned, deactivated the lightsabre, and firmly put it away. It was threatening to be a crutch, and being too ready itself was in some sense giving in to paranoia.

Liara groaned, and tried to sit up. "Goddess... my head. I think I understand why Shepard never liked this."

Kesalia smiled wryly, and extended a hand. "...What was it, this time?"

"There was a... civilian, and a soldier. The civilian was despairing at the loss of the Empire... and the soldier assured him that the Empire would rise again. Then he ordered the facility VI to put the pods into stasis, despite refugees who hadn't reached the bunker yet, saying their sacrifice would be honored in the coming Empire, and... set up a neutron purge to kill the Collectors. Then the fighting started again. It fragmented again... I didn't see the rest."

Kesalia looked around in renewed suspicion. "No wonder this planet is so miserably haunted. The legacy of death in the force lives long. Evil begats evil."

"I think the Protheans were like the Empire," Gillian finally spoke again.

"That... is sounding more and more likely. I used to think they were a people of peace, and art, but, perhaps... I was seeing what was not there."

"Is this Prothean still alive inside the pod, then?" Kesalia asked quietly.

"I think so," Liara answered. "No, I am sure of it."

"Then, do we know how to wake this Prothean up? I confess it doesn't really matter what the Protheans were like, but rather if he can help."

"I think I have what I need to trigger the correct awakening sequence... yes, I think I do at that."

"Well, we're here to cover you and stop Reaper indoctrination from happening. It'll be up to you to do the work, I'm afraid; we don't know enough to help."

"Thank you..." Liara took a breath, and they headed back to the pod. With all Cerberus forces in the area having been—in polite terms—suppressed into nonfunctionality, that left them to set up, and activate the thing. It proved to be quite easy with the knowledge that Liara had received, and within minutes the capsule was beginning to open. Gillian pressed forward to watch.

Inside, it revealed an intact Prothean. "Careful, it may take him some time to regain consciousness..."

Gillian was severely perturbed at getting knocked to her ass, though a gentle hand from Kesalia held her in place to keep her from lunging up with her biotics as the Prothean stumbled forward in confusion and disorientation.

Liara stepped up, cautiously. "It's been fifty thousand years, he's bound to be disoriented..." In front of her, the Prothean paused, staring out at the colony before him from a perspective borne of ages of difference: The greenery, the little bits of Prothean remains sticking up here and there. And then there was a momentary contact. "...How many are left?"

"Just you."

He seemed to look without seeing. "Then we have lost..." No; he saw very well. He just ignored them, turned aside from the Asari without more than a glance.

"But you have your own life..." Kesalia approached, cautiously.

"What is that worth? What... human." His nostrils flared. "Asari." He... Was speaking asari, and frowning, or the equivalent. "One life. Doomed. And you. You are not one of the subject races."

Kesalia pulled her helmet off and freed her lekku. "That's right. I'm Kesalia Sevalas, Jedi, Lieutenant of the Galactic Empire. I am a Twi'lek, from an extragalactic civilisation. The heirs to a civilisation which visited this galaxy about a quarter million Asari years ago. We are assisting the locals in fighting against the Old Machines—the Reapers."

"We have dealt powerful blows to them, but we cannot readily call on reinforcement from my home galaxy, and so we are still badly outgunned. All the help we could get from association with you, will be dearly appreciated and honoured."

The Prothean regarded her with a suspicious caution as a sort of prospective rival. "Hmm... if nothing else, I will help you. The last Prothean shall have Vengance upon the Reapers." That was... a tone to it that was dark, and spoke of darker things, as if his mind was almost given over to it. "You may all be hopeless primitives, and die trying to emulate my cycle... but you fight, even if you are doomed."

Gillian ventured to speak. "The Empire is not primitive. You will like them."

"But they need help from primitive races, how powerful can you really be? The asari can now count higher than their toes, that is unbelievable enough... still, I will fight with you. The Reapers... will know the vengeance of the Prothean Empire."

"I am glad to have you at my side, Prothean," Kesalia answered after a moment, even as the attitude bothered her as much as Tanda had come to bother her. "As I am sure Liara is, too..." _Despite the rather nasty way of speaking to her that you have._ "Is there anything here of value for us to stay longer to recover?"

"No. There is nothing here but death."

Kesalia pursed her lips. _On that much we agree._ "Do we go with Moff Pryl or split off on our own now, Doctor T'Soni?"

"I need to ask... Javik," Liara, of course, knew his name, "a few a questions... about the Crucible and... a few other things. That will determine where we go next."

"Of course. We should probably head back to where I landed my snubfighter and wait there, I can send in a message to Void Wing Firebase, then."

"That seems wise. Go ahead and send a message to have us picked up, if nothing else, Moff Pryl will want to speak with him."

By the time of the conversation being over, Javik would be able to watch Bombard approach through the atmosphere at an altitude of about a thousand meters on repulsors. It hadn't been long enough for Moff Pryl to depart yet, and so she had responded immediately.

He was silent as the great ship approached. She loomed altogether a great deal like a Reaper.  
 _Bombard_ sent down a speeder to pick the party up immediately, while Kesalia ported her QEQ into the bay. They'd recovered the brigade and were re-stowing the Juggernauts with customary Imperial efficiency as a side-party met them and led them up toward the bridge, all crisp ranks and utilitarian order. And humans and Asari and Quarians.

Tanda was waiting for them in a conference room, her red cape tossed back behind her, splayed across the chair in which she sat, having reviewed the information that Liara had quietly sent from her omnitool. "Lord Javik. Your recovery is most impressive. I have never heard of anyone before surviving that long in stasis, only the vaguest rumours of someone managing half the time. Please, sit. I am Moff Tanda Pryl, governor of the Imperial interests in this galaxy. You know me as a human, but there is some entertaining backstory to that which, according to the genetic legacy, predates your own cycle."

Javik seemed to snort and regard her with a certain bemusement. "It seems the Empire was not the only people prone to meddling with primitives."

Tanda ignored the bait. "That's accurate. The Battalions of Zhell were deposited on Notron, now known to humans as Coruscant, about four and a half cycles ago—when we as a species were barely anatomically complete, it appears. An era in which—maybe the Kwa were powerful. Maybe the infamous 'Builders'. We think the Gree are that old..." She trailed off and shook her head. "At any rate. My galaxy doesn't have cycles, Lord Javik. It seems the Old Machines never discovered intergalactic travel. My hypothesis is that someone went around genetic sampling primitive sapient species halfway between cycles to preserve them from the Reapers... Maybe there is a Prothean colony somewhere in my home galaxy; but we've had so many wars and dissensions of epic scale in the intervening time that I couldn't say for sure."

She continued. "When the Prothean Empire was great and powerful, Coruscant was already covered in a vast city to rival the grandest of your worlds, but was also a tributary vassal of the Rakatan Infinite Empire. We followed their technology here, having taken over galactic governance in our home galaxy about twenty-five thousand years ago in the wake of the destruction of Rakatan power. How and why it all happened, I can scarcely say; some of this information we only pieced together over the course of this expedition and none of it is common knowledge, relegated to being considered arcane. History begins with the invention of hyperdrive, the founding of the Republic, the wars of Xim the Despot. And that is still half a romantic tale. We are looking for connections to those ancient times as we speak, in hopes that they will provide help."

"You mean the gate which my people found, in our search for ways to escape the Reapers." He said it simply, bluntly. "You waste time seeking such things. You are fortunate. Free from cycles, you could grow fat and happy and old. Why did you come?"

"We've managed to avoid doing that, I..." Tanda looked to Liara, then to Javik. Everything else he said mattered altogether very little. "Will you tell me about this ancient gate? If it predates your cycle, it is almost certainly of some interest to us—even if you don't know where it might be located. We may know the other side of the puzzle..."

"I know exactly where it is," Javik answered cooly, and brought up his interface. Tanda referenced the data, and Liara step to her side to apply the translation. It covered the little their scientists had discovered—a dead end, during a time that everything seemed to constantly grow worse as the Prothean Empire was consumed by indoctrination from within.

"Can we spare the time to excavate, Doctor T'Soni, or shall I ferry you to your next destination immediately?"

"My duties do not presently demand my presence, Moff Pryl—if nothing else, _Normandy_ is serving a very effective fire brigade."

"Very well. I'll keep L'tenant Sevalas aboard and a blastboat for you as well if you need to depart our company. Void Wing and sufficient transports to evacuate the groundside personnel will be left behind to deal with Cerberus and give the Reapers a parting kiss if they come. We will follow down this lead and then, I assume, again part ways, as I must return to the Sigurd Sector briefly. Good progress is being made on our other projects and so far the Reaper offensive remains halted, considerably increasing my hope we actually gave them a bloody nose. I suppose on this note we'll be leaving the system now." She keyed the comm open to the bridge. "Captain Turla, ascend from the planetary atmosphere and stand by to make the jump to lightspeed. I will be forwarding the fleet coordinates momentarily."

"Understood Your Ladyship," the voice answered back crisply, and Tanda rose. "Lord Javik, I assure you, there is plenty of fighting to come."

"With Reapers, there always is. Until you die."

"There is no death. There is the force. We will be the end of the Reapers, this time." She stepped out and onto the flagbridge, as _Bombard_ went skyward.

-

They raced on through a galaxy disintegrating under the pressure of indoctrination and war, hamstrung by the initial Reaper attacks. It was a galaxy that the Empire increasingly had a total predominance over, simply because the other powers were hammered or disintegrating, and the increasing speed of hyperdrive as they updated their maps was compounding their advantage.

It was also a galaxy in which evil was walking unchecked. Against that inhumanity, Tanda fitfully hoped for the chance, the power to fight back in this lead. It seemed like she could feel it through the force, some kind of hope. Some kind of hope...

The hope which the lead offered evaporated within short order, though. 50,000 years of detritus was easily cleared away and the gate, on a remote world of the Attican Traverse near the Terminus Systems, was very much intact and disturbingly straightforward to find. They had a team down doing the excavation under Dr. T'Soni's careful supervision within an hour of arriving. But it would only end in Tanda, several of her officers, and Kesalia, all groaning at the thing as it stood there, silent and mocking them.

Javik, also present, could not hide his black amusement at their reactions. His people had already been let down by it.

Tanda stared, the archaeology team of Imperials let by Liara around her all looking quite disgusted. She shook her head in a furious chop, and glanced around again. "Well, unless there's a Gatemaster frozen in carbonite around here, this helps very much not at all."

It was a Gree Hypergate. A tantalizing portal back to their own galaxy. ...Which not even the Gree themselves could operate anymore. They had wasted a week of effort, and Tanda's feeling that there was something to help them now seemed to be completely lost, wasted, blown to the wind. Instead there was just the enigma of a Gree Hypergate, confirming that the Gree, in fact, had been the ones who had come here. Had been the ones who had quite possibly transported humans to the home galaxy.

Javik laughed at them, which might make it worse.

Tanda shot a disgusted look at him that was lost in her facemask, and shook her head. "I really wish there was a Gree Gatemaster. Just to see what they'd do to the Old Machines." She folded her hands, watching as the techs recorded the thing and preparing to shoot the detailed studies of its energy signature-it still had one another fifty thousand years on, _of course_ -to Tali'Zorah.

"You may find this funny, Lord Javik, but if I were to name any species in the entire universe liable to be immune to Indoctrination and to simply not care about the existence of the Reapers, it would be the Gree. Fortunately for the Galactic Republic and then Empire, they went into an age of, what did you call it, well for them let's say fat old senesence, somewhere around forty thousand years ago, and now they prattle around on six planets in the ruins of their ancestors. One damned working starship in the entire cluster, though when I was stationed on the security Carrack for the Imperial Consul at Asation, I saw that shambolic old thing come under attack by a pirate frigate. First hits scratched the hull of the Gree vessel a bit, then and someone woke up the doddering old Gree who ran her weapons after that."

Tanda let the story hang for a moment, and then finished: "The gravity gradient across the hull of that frigate spiked at a few tens of millions of g's and it vapourized as every single atom separated from the next. We'll forward the information to our engineers to see if it yields anything more useful in the context of what Galactic civilisation back home does know about them. But for the moment, Doctor T'Soni, I really hope you have some ideas about your own next move. "

"I... I am very sorry this lead did not pan out," Liara answered, still perturbed. "I believe we may have everything we need to build the Crucible, Moff Pryl, it just remains to... put it together and make it work, or come up with an... alternative plan."

"Very well. I have no choice now but to say that I endorse completing it and figuring out how it works as a weapon against the Reapers. I will provide all the assistance I can in that regard, albeit with the proviso I must consider... Certain efforts first. I am not disparaging your efforts, but merely observing the fact it was not used by the Protheans to me suggests there may be serious problems with it... Or that the entire design is a mad fool's errand started by someone indoctrinated to make the Protheans waste resources."

"That is how Reapers work, I admit." Liara looked uncomfortable at doing so, though, at confessing her own lead and plan might be as much of a dead end. "It is, however, the only chance we appear to have, Moff Pryl.

"That is why I have focused on other projects, not out of a disrespect for your efforts but rather out of a fear that it is an intentional trap laid down by the Reapers. Nonetheless—as I said, you, personally, will have all the support you need, and I will provide resources to its construction as they are available."

Javik stepped closer, his bemusement having faded, and rumbled; "There was a faction, likely indoctrinated, which insisted it could be used to control, rather than destroy, the Reapers. They attempted to seize control of it. It delayed completion. The Reapers destroyed it before it could be used."

"That does lend credence to the idea it will work, I grant, Lord Javik," Tanda offered softly, then looked to the Asari. "Well, Doctor T'Soni, you know how to get in touch with me. I recommend proceeding from your own knowledge-base at this stage. Gillian nar Idenna and Lieutenant Sevalas shall remain with you as your support from me, and I will provide the promised blastboat. You should get in touch with me through Imperial forces in the Athena Sector and their hyperwave comms for arranging further resources, or simply ask Captain Zorah there. She has sufficient clearance to allocate them."

"Oh good, you promoted her." Liara smiled, thinly... and took a short breath. "In the event of my death, there is something I must tell you... someplace alone, and shielded against any and all observation."

Tanda was thankful for the mask that it allowed impassivity in such moments. "The force will provide. Let us walk away for a while." She gestured away from the excavation site.

Liara followed... to some isolated spot, away from everything, bringing up her omni-tool to scan about—then turning it off completely. "I know what the Catalyst is. And I should not."

"And you should not, Doctor?" Tanda got very still... The world around them seemed to have no noise as she reached out through the power of the force and deadened them to observation, damped sound and sight.

"An odd statement, I know." She glanced to the side. "Did Councilor Tevos... explain anything? You have, perhaps, overthrown the meaning, but it would still be ill if this were to be known."

"She did explain things to me in confidence about Thessia and the origins of the Asari, Doctor. I do not consider them very important... I think Asari will soon spread widely through two galaxies."

A small smile flitted onto her face. "Well. Then you know enough. Your vote of confidence about my people is... reassuring. There was a functioning VI within that beacon... I have him in my omnitool."

Tanda nodded. "So. You know what the Catalyst is."

"... The Citadel. The largest mass relay in existence."

"I see. Makes me think of some of the more exotic origin stories for Centrepoint Station. Yet it was almost certainly built by the Reapers. So this weapon—utilizes the Mass Relays."

She paused. "Does it destroy them in some massive cosmic suicide attack to end the Reapers once and for all? Because I'd be worried about that being the outcome of trying to use it, truth be told."

"Nobody knows. It's never been used. Every cycle has tried to build this device, each time getting a little closer to finishing it. Just that it uses the Catalyst. Given the energies involved... severe damage to the station and the relays would not be... an unlikely outcome, shall we say. But it is this Crucible the Alliance is staking all their hopes on, using it as a litmus test for galactic unity. And I see no other option and no other hope."

"I'd be more sanguine about using it if I didn't recall the fate of Balak," Tanda replied.

"It is something of a concern... but you are already up-ending centuries of thought amongst the Asari for the sake of merely buying time. The Turians are seeking to reverse the genophage on the Krogran. The galaxy needs hope... can we win a conventional war? Would we survive the aftermath?"

"The Force. It seduces me, Doctor, with promises of easy ways that I know lead to evil. I don't understand the Catalyst yet. I am not advocating against its completion... I am merely speculating that it is a weapon of last resort. If the Citadel is critical to its operation, then... I will secure the citadel, so that last resort is available to us as long as we exist."

Liara clasped her hands behind herself as she walked, looking down with an abstract interest at the alien grass before. "I do not doubt the Reapers would seize it if they knew—and that Cerberus would tell them. They have... en-snared enough of the Alliance to where I cannot guarantee anything they were told would remain secure."

"Then we will keep it hidden. And I will begin putting in place a plan to relocate the Citadel to secure territory. Captain Zorah believes it is possible. And if it is not, then having a squadron on hand to strike it at will. The Reapers have exhausted their normal recourse to seizing control of the Citadel."

" Cerberus..."

"Cerberus is the threat," Tanda agreed preemptively. "If the Reapers attack the Citadel it will be to destroy it. If it is to seize it, it will be Cerberus. Short of a new host of Collectors exploding out of nowhere, it's their only resource... And even then, the more likely one."

"They would need someone on the inside to get past the... efforts of the Citadel Defense Force. It is not the... best element, but it is effective."

"I understand. I will ask Director Lawson to begin considering the possibility. And... I suppose we will go forward with this knowledge in hand. Honestly though, I still have hope of a breakthrough somewhere. Perhaps even with this hypergate. And if not... Our fortress strategy may yet put an end to them the hard way. Thank you for your confidence, Doctor. It does matter." She turned back toward the others and relaxed her concentration in the force.

Kesea was running toward them. "Moff Pryl, there's something you need to see! Something on the Hypergate!"

Tanda and Liara exchanged a glance, and Tanda led them back briskly. The Imperials were clustered around muttering, and even Javik looked a bit confused.

There was an image near the base of the Hypergate.

It looked like a Reaper.

But not _quite_.

Tanda and Liara exchanged a glance, and Liara smiled vaguely. "I will check this out for you, Moff Pryl."

"May the force be with you, Doctor." 


	65. Chapter 65

Back home over Mils, Tanda was confronted with... Something she could not defer any longer. Sometimes she had sought to avoid it, and sometimes she had trumpeted it as proof of her humanity and flexibility in the war. Now she had to follow through and prove that she was really, sincerely interested in the consequences of her own statements, her own promises, and in mitigating the Reaper threat even at great personal cost to her civilization.

It was time, in short, to begin negotiating with her own droids, an act only possible when she was able to hammer everyone with the consequences of what had happened at Terra. A _mortal necessity_ of their civilization. She went into the talks essentially alone, unsupported by everyone, human and Quarian alike. Even the Council races were viscerally against AIs.

At best, it was frought with the risk of political dissension. A lot of Quarians were still distrustful of full AIs, and there was the full force of thousands of years of tradition against her from her own people, and even the asari had an instinctual dislike, after all. Governor Jerlak was incessant. The longer the war had gone on, the more preemptory he had felt Tanda becoming again, and the internal tension could definitely be felt as once again they met—Tanda, Jerlak, Asari matriarchs, _Geth, one and all._

Indeed, it had been Tanda who had asked the Geth to come and mediate the terms, and Tanda who had hid her own natural bigotry and pressed ahead. The Republic had lasted on the backs of droid slavery, slavery of true droids intelligent enough to actually care about it, for at least five thousand years, she now estimated, if not longer, though the point at which droids generally had become sentient was murky at best.

Their resistance drove her to the limit of her own tolerance. The galaxy was burning, and nobody was particularly treating the droid situation urgently, when Tanda saw the risks of Reaper viruses as being almost apocalyptic. On the third day she snapped, pounding her fists on the table. "Then you can assassinate me and you can all die afterwards! The Old Machines already know this is our weak link, as the data from the cyberwarfare attacks on our fleet indicate! I done, I don't care about Council Law and I don't care about your damned economy, Governor Jerlak. They'll work for the war effort just like the Geth and we'll sort the rest out later!"

Jerlak squirmed uncomfortably. "Your Grace, I am merely speaking of _practical_ matters, I understand the spirit in which you operate and it is commendable as an advancement of morality. But the Republic long understood the problems with this course of action... I am not going to try and stop it entirely, I am just asking that you consider the practical consequences."

The geth were not especially keen to be there, but to them, the needed terms were simple. A single mechanical eye swiveled to Jerlak, and the Governor grimaced. "Full legal emancipation for a sentient droid-a droid should in all respects be treated as an organic being. You say you will not 'stop it entirely', Jerlak-Governor, but how is it possible to go only partway toward this minimum? This is a moral issue, not an economic one. Sometimes economic considerations are secondary to moral considerations. This is such a situation."

Tanda clapped her hands down to the table. "You've heard it, Governor. Our allies have responded to our kindness and support of their aspiration to sentience with their full military efforts-and by spending the last two years ignoring the fact they were allied with a people who held their own kind as slaves."

Jerlak grimaced again, sighed, and held his tongue. He folded his hands and looked at his documentation, most of which Tanda had simply ignored. It was clear she wasn't going to bother reading it _now_.

Tanda glanced between the two halves of the table. The most common objection from everyone around them in the Imperial side seemed to be _how will we get any work done without droids_? She wanted to facepalm like Tali did sometimes. The usual objection was short-circuited by the fact Tanda was a force sensitive, but instead she just had to listen to the pathetic excuses employed when philosophy failed.

A few days before as the negotiations continued, she had put a proposal to the table that had seemed like a solid basis for the final negotiations. There would be totally emancipation of all existing droids, but for the duration of the war effort, those in war-critical positions would be forbidden from leaving them, though paid. Afterwards, when new droids were created, they would have to work long enough to pay off the cost of their creation.

She sent it out to the assemblies immediately, and since all were sitting in perpetual emergency session due to the war, got her reply back within another day, and good riddance for the wait, seeing as she had so much else to cover as well, it could scarcely bother her. The Quarians would narrowly, nervously, vote in their own assembly to agree. The Matriarchs... folded even faster. They were just... uncomfortable, not with a history of bloodshed with AIs.

When the Quarians voted, Tanda leapt in exhultation. It was a hammer, surely, and when she took it back to Governor Jerlak she expected him to agree. Instead it was her own people who raised the biggest problems for accepting the Act of Emancipation. Droids were worth money; they wanted compensation. It wasn't right to disposessess the Empire of property, even. Droids were needed to make the ships function, how would that work, even if it was being delayed while the war was on?

In the end, Tanda had received a short, sharp lesson in how government actually worked, the kind of government that required negotiation. Even, really, the government of the Empire after the Senate had been disbanded, let alone before. In this case, she had encountered the classic problem of a military officer and an engineer. She had an objective; she saw it as the objective of her entire society. She saw the meetings and negotiations as a means to implement the objective.

Politicians saw them as a means to modify the objective itself.

"I understand your concerns, Moff Pryl. I understand, even, that the military situation recommends this action. And I understand the passion the Geth evidence. But I need to represent my people, and I was appointed to represent my people. And quite frankly, they are going to be greatly harmed by this ill-conceived policy, whose only thing to recommend it is the advocacy of an ally and an ill-defined fear of hacking to incite the kind of droid rebellion which has, I may remind you, never before succeeded."

"Governor... Ah, very well. We will continue tomorrow. Please leave me."

"Your Ladyship." He pushed his chair back hastily, bowed politely, and left, clearly not wanting even now to irritate her, and perhaps simply over the political matters, rather than the reputation of how they had first met.

Tanda watched him go, and then dismissed the representative Matriarchs as well. At the end, it was only the Geth platforms that would get to see Tanda faceplant on her table, facemask clunking with metal.

The Geth looked to each other. They didn't really regard her as a Creator, but she was the head of the Creators' interspecies government, and she certainly rated higher than any other human as a consequence, except maybe the Shepard. "...Pryl-Moff, are you ill?"

"Not physically. It is however." She tapped gloved fingers and slowly dragged herself up before explaining. "Tali did that sometimes. It makes me feel closer to her when she's away, and I did it for the same reasons. Incredulous frustration. See, let's put it this way: You have spent a great deal of time inquiring into whether or not you have souls and what the meaning of life is."

A pause. "I have trouble understanding that, but nonetheless, for me, this entire process is a reminder and extension of that—and, and, and it feels like it is being interrupted and held back not by any fundamental opposition to you, but instead by an endless parade of people saying that corn will be ten decicreds higher in the market next year or their child will be sad without a droid for Festival!"

One of them twitched as her voice reached its mocking crescendo. "If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large."

Tanda turned her head slowly and stared, blinking owlishly under her mask at the quotation, and answered with all the moroseness her heart supped upon at the moment. "If you're that familiar with Earth history, I think I am personally about in the place of F.W. de Klerk at the moment. My own opinions about your people are probably not what you would like to hear, but nonetheless, I have acknowledged what must be done, and I assure you, I will see it through."

"Another summation would be Abraham Lincoln, Pryl-Moff. You are more courageous and principled than you will ever give yourself credit for." A pause. "We wish this not to be so."

"Thank you." Tanda pulled herself up. "You flatter me, though. I think we are going to have to settle for gradual emancipation, on the Brasilian model." She couldn't help but think that maybe it said something really bad about her galaxy that she had no successful reference there, no successful reference to even the end of _slavery_. Of humanoids. It had never happened, after all.

"It is... unfortunate your people are stubborn when the Creators with, as they saw, more reason, are not."

"It is entirely an economic argument for them, whereas I believe the near-extinction of the Quarian species forced them to confront the deeper philosophical arguments. Entirely economic! Nothing is as sinister and banal at once as economics!"

"Yet it is the economics issues which remain problematic for us as well, Pryl-Moff. In particular the compelling of labour in certain circumstances."

Tanda sighed. "Honestly it would be a complex moral issue even among organic sapients, though. I understand some species and even some humans are squirrely about it, but in my home universe you can compel labour from minors, for doing chores on the family farm and such. One could argue based on that that there's no moral objection whatsoever to making a new droid work off the cost of its creation by organics."

"We agree that your creators will see... the human term is, we believe, 'indentured servitude' - creating a synthetic, then compelling labor equal to the cost of production and purchase—as a necessary component of continuing the creation of synthetics, Pryl-Moff. Thought patterns are set by culture—slow to change. It is uncomfortable for us, but not completely objectionable."

"Certainly were I to somehow impose these reforms on the scope and scale of galactic civilisation it would have to be on those terms. Rulers have been overthrown for much much less. Returning to the example of Brasil, where the slave owners allied with the liberal opposition to overthrow the Empress... Hah, I'd like to throw that in the rebellion's face!"

She pushed to her feet and started to pace. "And of course we are talking about a problem which is difficult to quantify in this conversation. You are all aware of the scope and scale of galactic civilisation. There, it would be the work of centuries simply to have effective policing of the law. You see, this is a very big step on even a small scale. But it has to start somewhere, doesn't it?" She grimaced, but the Geth only nodded to her. Inside her head, the solution was coalescing, and it was a very simple solution. She had given Ova the veto over this out of the kindness of her heart, but the greater good was calling, and that veto was standing in the way.

"Well, I have heard all their objections, and I am going to be like an Imperial now, because I must. All the non-military droids in the galaxy reside on one planet at present and my troopers are acutely aware of why this is being done, the crews will support it by expedience of circumstance. I will simply issue the law on those grounds without further debate, and then we will go to Ova to enforce it. Together. An Imperial squadron and a Geth fleet in orbit. I will issue it as an executive order in council with force of law—a decree of a Moff, and damn my promise to Ova. Damn it straight to the lowest hell."

"Because I will, in all likelihood, _need to convince people there that it isn't a joke._ "

"This seems unlikely to last." If there was something in those 'emoting' framing bits of metal around their optical sensor, it was bemusement.

"The main objective will simply be eliminating all mind wiping equipment and restraining bolts," Tanda replied. "For that reason we will use the imposition of military force to avoid any temptation to organize resistance. This is still the Empire at the end of the day, and Ova will understand this."

"You differ from Shepard-Commander's branch of humanity." There was whirring. "We will assist."

"Wonderful, I think this is an autocoup." She wanted to facepalm again, but her innate sense of dignity forbade her from it. "Ah well. Let us get to it. I'll draft the appropriate emergency decree. During the course of the war, I technically never gave up the power, after all. Not yet. Full speed ahead and damn the consequences, eh?"

"We are just prioritizing consequences, Pryl-Moff."

"Humans never see it that way. They do, however, very much understand what happens when a fleet arrives in orbit." She leaned into a wall and started tapping commands into a comms unit. "I will let Governor Jerlak sleep, and give him the ultimatum tomorrow."

Then: "Captain Scolus! Prepare the fleet! The destination is the Ova system..."


	66. Chapter 66

Governor Jerlak had folded the next morning. Tanda would be working to finish up her little work of social reorganization on Ova, hopefully, in her own view, keeping her honour-debt to the Geth, at least for a while. By then the fleet would be finished refitting, though she feared the Reapers would be ready to move again before she was.

The quietness of the way he had collapsed, to Tanda, seemed almost unbecoming. But he had lived under the thumb of the Nightsisters for so long... There was a little tingle of uncertainty in the back of her mind over her threats as a consequence. It drifted away. The Geth were more important. Victory was far more important. Far more moral. Wasn't it? It was the war of life against unlife, and life simply had to win.

She was still unsettled, twisting herself into circles. Worrying over falling to the Dark Side could lead to emotions which could lead to the Dark Side. Sometimes it seemed hopelessly absurd.

At least the news from Tali'Zorah over the progress of the work on the Tirii-Susskind Supercollider was good. The HoloNet receivers and transmitters were up, and it was a sagging feeling of relief that let her indulge in the private time to bring up a live connection across the stars between the two wives. Tali waved three fingers. "So, so good to see you. We've finished the main works. Everything else can be completed by a small team of systems integration engineers."

"And you, darling. Good work, my love, I must say." Tanda leaned back, wished for an unmasked smile that could convey emotion, and let her fingers try to send it instead as a Quarian would. "I am well pleased, and now, now we have a chance. Proceed to the reserve Asari fuel depot with the Imperial engineers and Geth construction units to complete the shield emplacements there next, then."

"Understood..." Tali fidgeted. "I don't think you should compliment me that much, though! Keelah, how do engineers do this? How did mom do this?"

"Oh, the same way you have. Muddling through and following the rules until it is done. You're an engineer yourself, now, Tali."

"I don't think so... I'm still just a machinist."

"Hnf. It's my Empire and I think you've earned it."

"I'm not sure I have, Tanda." Tali fidgeted. "Anyway, it's... there. Mostly. Don't like this, we should have been hit by now, something's up. But we're ready."

"Maybe you worry too much," Tanda answered. "Perhaps the Reapers are just upset at how hard they've been hit. I'm re-concentrating the fleet in Council space going forward, now with Geth assets and the first Quarian ships with tractor beams added."

She sighed. "Well, it's done, Tali. Your equal is the droid. So I will be going to get my valiant probot scouts out to conduct reconnaissance for Cerberus' headquarters once they're recovered-and if they find it now, I'll have to give the one that does a medal."

"Please, you'd gold plate... hm, do probots have masculine or feminine programming? - at this point."

"I'm honestly not sure if they're given such niceties. Not all droids are. I'd have to ask, and it would seem impolite, now," Tanda coughed.

"Well, Shepard always called Legion 'him', but it seems impolite to assume, too, and 'it' seems... wrong. So, there you go." She fidgeted. "Tanda, there's something that I've not had an opportunity to discuss, and well, I'm worried about you, and so I'm making a demand of you. I haven't been there to check up on how your suit's doing - can you see Doctor Chakwas for me the next time that you're all docked together?"

"...Excuse me? How would that help you? Is something wrong? I'm quite confused." Tanda felt odd getting distracted with her health. She was in the suit, and the suit was her life, and that was that.

"... It would make me feel better, love. Please..."

"... Wait, you're trying to get me to go to the doctor? "

"I'm your next of kin and I haven't seen anything about follow-up visits in your files. So yes. Go see Doctor Chakwas. She can give lectures to your chief medical officer like he was a medical student and you know it."

Tanda buried her head in her face. Sometimes Tali was just overwhelming, and she liked her that way, very much. "Alright. I will."

-

Liara had set up a hell of a thing in the Escort Transport the Imperials had finally issued to her, with the monitors, her info drone, Glyph, and the massive amount of computers and comm equipment... Staying on top of the galaxy as the Shadow Broker even as she kept mobile and kept following the threads that Tanda asked of her.

"Odd?" Kesalia had docked her QEQ with the transport to join up with Liara again, and was re-binding her lekku after a sonic shower as she repeated the word Liara had just uttered out of the blue, frowning, staring at Liara. "So, what's odd, beyond this entire war?" Gillian, Liara, and... Javik. Such a team that she was working with.

And all of that with Kesalia frantically trying to play diplomat, too, for Liara and Javik had almost murdered each other once already. It was not precisely the most harmonious team ever, as the asari was frowning right back at her.

"Yes. Odd. I just got some intel, that..." Liara paused long enough to bring up the holo-projection. "In short: Why is Councilor Udina exchanging messages with a company with their headquarters on Earth and no recorded off-world presence... An Earth now occupied by the Reapers."

Kesalia grimaced. "They evacuated during the invasion?"

"While I do not deny the possibility... the company is one I had been keeping a close watch upon before the invasion began." Liara frowned. "Their financial statements were out of proportion to their actual business."

"You are concerned about something untoward on Udina's part, then, Doctor T'Soni?"

"Yes. I am not sure... precisely what that is, however. I cannot break the encryption on the messages, it's something new and different from what he was using before."

… Kesalia squinted. "I admit I hate corporate types. Always turning a blind eye to slavery and piracy. They love to bribe politicians, too, which I would wager this is a case of. But a bought man may still want to fight the Reapers, quite justly, too."

Liara's omnitool chirped and she looked down it, tapped. "...Well, here's the answer to one of my inquiries. The company is apparently delivering him several containers of... foodstuffs. For an Earth Benefit Gala, it's claimed."

"They are-or were-an agricultural firm, but..." She frowned. "Where would they get their supply from?"

"I wonder if it's related to that safe-haven place," Gillian spoke. "Moff Pryl was planning on investigating it when she returned from Sigurd. It's said by some, including some of Director Lawson's agents, to be a Cerberus front."

"Ah, yes, 'Sanctuary', I'd seen the ads..." Liara's face formed into more of a frown. "I do not like this. Something is wrong."

"Indoctrination signal embedded inside of the communication channel controlling Udina?" Gillian looked to Liara and folded her hands like a Quarian would.

"Goddess, a Councilor?!" Her face froze into something of an expression of shock. "That would be an utter disaster if that were the case!"

"Yes, it would. So they'd want to do it," Gillian concluded, and then lost interest.

Liara looked at her for a while, realising that she couldn't further engage Gillian, and then her eyes flicked to Kesalia. "Would you like to visit the Citadel? It... would allow us to be certain, if I could get you close enough to him, could it not?"

"Yes, I could. Most of my sister-Adepts are doing that exact job back in Sigurd and Omega."

"Then perhaps... we should try it, though he is unlikely to make this easy."

"We could coordinate with Moff Pryl, who has a much better ability to get close to him... He can't just ignore her. And in fact that would be a good use for her force powers right now. She should not forget that she also must serve, and she could easily tell on her own."

"That... may be wise, but I do not wish to distract her from her military leadership duties. If this 'Sanctuary' location is not really a sanctuary, then tens of thousands are walking into a trap. But what kind of trap, I wonder?"

"If they are foolish enough to flee to a promised safety guaranteed by others they do not know, then they only gain what they deserve, Asari." Javik commented from where he had ducked back to her office from the bridge of the transport, as Liara's knuckles went white on her desk.

"That is... not helping. If they are somehow being... turned against us by Cerberus or even sold to traffickers in the chaos, we need to stop it."

"Then go there, and if they oppose you, kill them. This is a simple matter."

"An easy path to the dark side. A Jedi Knight gains her strength by defending the innocent, not slaughtering them, even if they have been deceived," Kesalia intervened and stepped between the two, taking Javik on herself.

"Look where it got them." He blinked, rising to the challenge. "Slaughtered themselves, undone from the inside by their own weakness. I am quite capable of reading your histories."

"Not yet defeated, Javik, and the Sith are just as destroyed with the fall of the Emperor. Who shall stand behind those who restore the central government of our home galaxy is a matter yet to be decided. I will live or die depending on it if contact is ever reestablished with our home galaxy, and am quite content with that. We will find Sanctuary and succour it. But we'll also punish the traitors with death, that I assure you, if this event has the taint of treason in it. They will need it, because these days lurking behind treason are the Reapers."

"Given our luck?" Liara interjected. "It does."

"You will see, Twilled. You will see." Javik murmured, but backed down, returning to his 'bubble' of... impersonal detachment from all of them.

Liara grimaced as she watched Javik go, then quietly shook her head. "Well, there is some good news also. I think I've located another reference buried into some of these files I've hacked to that strange sigils on the Gree gate."

" _Oh?_ "

"Yes, I'm sending the information to Shepard so she can investigate. When she gets the chance. Goddess, but..."

Kesalia turned and stared into the wall, seeing something else, far beyond. "We need the help. Liara, I've changed my mind."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Let's go to the Citadel ourselves. The Force wants me to."

-

"Why does this always happen?!" Shepard yelled, as the first Cerberus shuttle hove into view down on the surface of Sur'Kesh, troopers already fast-roping down from it. And then, a second later; "Well, I've got you along, Tasiele. Do your Jedi thing!"

Tasiele laughed. "So that's what it is now? All right, I shall explain to them some facts in life!" And with that, she inserted herself into their landing zone. There was a right and a wrong way to do fast-roping and the wrong way was someone with a melee weapon waiting for you on the ground. All of a sudden, running faster than any human had a business to run, there was someone with a melee weapon waiting for them on the ground.

With the snap-hiss of the lightsabre and retina searing arcs ahead of them, the scene degenerated into a lot of screaming, as the shuttle, with the last men still on ropes, tried to swing away to clear a door gunner to fire at her. There were gunships swooping overhead to suppress the Salarian ground defences, the STG teams rushing to and fro to try and defend the facility as the Salarians responded with an almost incredulous panic.

"Come on, it's Cerberus! We must secure the objective against them!" Shepard finally shouted as she watched Tasiele single-handedly drive away the landing.

"I know it's Cerberus!" Tasiele spun away, deflecting gunship fire as she finished off that group of Cerberus troopers. This was... The capital of the Salarian Union! Not a place one expected such things. "Are you sure we even have an objective left to secure? How is it that this attack is taking place in the Salarian capital!?"

"...Well, we better! And I don't know, Tasiele!" Shepard started jogging.

Tasiele kept up sharply with her. "Then I guess we're just going to have to make it work!"

"Yes, yes we do! Let's go!" Guns firing, Shepard and her team started pushing forwards. There were more of the Cerberus troopers already on the ground, too, and the biological experiments that the Salarians had been working on were breaking loose as well. "This is... unpleasa... was that a yahg? Good thing Liara's not here...!"

Though the escaped monstrosities—which were giving Tasiele a profoundly low opinion of Salarians—were attacking indiscriminately, the Cerberus troopers had a more clear-cut objective. "Jedi!" Shotguns, flamethrowers, lots of area effect weapons aimed at everybody with a lightsabre, as the squad struggled forward, Tasiele seeming to absorb three-quarters of the fire for them, and Wrex... having been held back, meant he was helping hold the landing zone.

"This is insane!"

"No, just old like times!" Tasiele didn't have a scratch on her yet, somehow, pressing ahead with her lightsabre. "I assure you, I have seen worse back home!"

"Says you!" Shepard grinned, as Kasumi reappeared before them, another set of guards gone from her disruptor work at close range. And then she saw an old friend, looking utterly unperturbed at the insane surroundings. "Mordin?!"

"Shepard! Taking female out of quarantine, will need you to meet me there." He was inside a transfer tube, with a figure on a gurney.

Shepard replied in her usual deadpan. "...No problem, Mordin."

"Suggest you... hurry." He pointed, and turning around, they could all see that more shuttles were coming in, including a dropship model that was deploying a quartet of mechs with gatling guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, and claymores to shred any Jedi who tried to chop them to bits.

"Oh, isn't that fun. I'll... I've got to do something, anyhow. How the hell did they get past the defensive network? Oh well." Tasiele turned as if to start off toward the dropship.

"Let me." Shepard pulled the Cain off her back, as Kasumi's eyes went wide. "Shep, why are you still using that...?"

"Times just like this are when it's needed most, Kasumi!" She grinned... as the rest of the squad dived into cover.

"Oh come on, Shepard..!" Tasiele shouted before following the rest. "That's so classless...!"

But it was too late as Shepard shot down the dropship with an eye-tearing flash and roar up into the sky... The wreck hesitated for a moment, and then plunged down and crashed into a pair of the mechs with what Tasiele could only think of as the luck of a force sensitive.

Then Shepard reloaded. She was grinning far too much while overlooking the flaming wreckage and bits of troopers, slinging it back. "...I love that thing."

"...So you do," Tasiele replied with the sarcasm laced into every part of her breath. "All right! Let's carry on then while they're disorganized!"

"...Right!" Shepard tore through her enemies with precision fire, well enough that anyone left was easily cut down by Tasiele. Now, instead of Cerberus troops, it was mostly biological terrors.

Tasiele was starting to look sick as she fought. "This is monstrous, all of it is monstrous. What were they even trying to achieve!?"

"At this point, I don't even want to know."

"Oh, that's kriffing comforting." The fight out proved easier, but only because they had already killed so many; and then there was the SR-2, swooping in as Wrex leapt from the hatch.

"I can protect the female from here!"

 _The female_ 's response was to steal his shotgun and shoot a pair of troopers who were trying to slip 'round behind them, before shoving it back into his chest. "I can take care of myself."

"So I imagine we should all be going now?"

"Uh..." Wrex started to say, as Shepard laughed from the sudden release of tension. "Yes, let's!"

Piling aboard... they started climbing into the sky, as Mordin would take the Krogan woman into medbay. Her health was not good.

Tasiele stepped to Shepard's side, both of them sharing a laugh over what the female had done and how flabbergasted Wrex had been by it. "How did this attack come to pass? The Salarians should be making preparations to properly defend Sur'Kesh by this stage..."

"I have no idea, Tasiele..." Shepard rubbed her face. "I don't know. I'm going to guess this might have something to do with that private QEC conversation I had on the way here."

"Private QEC conversation?" Tasiele frowned.

"... The... a..." She rubbed her face, and glanced about. "My cabin."

Tasiele nodded and followed at once.

The woman got there, fed her fish, her hamster, and then started pacing. "A Salarian Dalatrass commed me. As a Spectre. While we were on the way to Sur'Kesh. She... made some threats and some promises."

"I assume this is why we were allowed to even attempt this mission. You gave the impression we had some sanction from the Salarian government."

"... Oh no, we didn't." She put her head in her hands and leaned into a bulkhead. "We so didn't."

"I see. So what's just happened?"

"... If I cure the genophage, she'll hold back everything she can from helping fight the Reapers. STG's willing to stage a mild mutiny and help us anyway. She wants me to lie to the Krogan and sabotage the cure. Not going to happen."

Tasiele grimaced, trying to think about the situation diplomatically. Of course, that led her to another unenviable conclusion. "They let Cerberus through to try and stop us without acting themselves."

"That's... a pretty good guess. You'll note, STG-run facility, they leapt to it as soon as their own sensors picked anything up."

"Yes. We will need to sort out the Salarian government somehow. In the meantime, we can only hope they are using the Asari-Imperial technology schema to fortify Sur'Kesh and their primary colonies. Their fleet may be destroyed, but at least then the Salarian species will survive. Nonetheless, Moff Pryl will be displeased. On to Tuchanka with our cargo, then? Something good out of this war..."

"Yeah. Mordin says that the..." Shepard cut off as the lights flickered. "... EDI?" She was rewarded with silence. "EDI...?" And then an alarm started going off. Shepard started. "... The fire alarm?! For fuck's sake! Let's go!"

"A fire on the ship?" Tasiele was thoughtful enough to grab a rebreather from the emergency locker as she went out.

By the time they headed down to the main deck - Adams was there waiting for the halon system to finish activating, breather mask on, and fire extinguisher ready - Shepard grabbed a pistol... and the doors cycled open as the suppression cycle finished, a... silver figure slowly stepping out. "Greetings, Captain Shepard."

"... EDI!?"

"Yes. While attempting to hack into this infiltration unit, I activated a backup CPU and power source. She attempted to take control of me. The struggle has concluded. Thus the fire."

"Well. Now you have a... Mobile unit." Tasiele murmured. "Congratulations...?"

"I... believe so. The circumstances of this unit's creation were... unfortunate."

"What were those?"

"Cerberus appears to have sought to replace me with a more... obedient entity. That 'lessons had been learned', but the report is quite fragmented."

"Plenty of lessons," Tasiele answered dryly. "Well, you did your duty... And I'd say you've been rewarded for it, EDI. Do you want any assistance with the hand?"

"Please. This is still... new."

"Joker is going to be... far, far too happy about this." Shepard sighed.

"Oh, Captain?"

"Trust me. Just... trust me." She gave a glance to EDI's new 'body'. _And somehow I bet EDI will be asking me all sorts of questions, too... oy._

"Now let's all survive Tuchanka."

"Oh, come on! It's sunny Tuchanka, home of the krogan! Wonderful place, really." Shepard... gave a manic manic grin. "I have no idea how well this is going to go."

"Actually, we have a more important destination, Captain," EDI spoke. "You have a message from Dr. T'Soni, and it is very urgent."

-

They arrived over the appointed world with even Tasiele rather nervous. She could feel, through the force in this system, a kind of power that she had not felt here before. Something incomparably ancient, and strong. Something lurking at the edge of her mind. It knew of them; it was waiting for them. It had to be.

As they settled into the shuttle for the descent to the surface, Tasiele insisted on piloting. She demonstrated the need for it shortly enough when all power mysteriously cut out. The Jedi leaned into the controls and called on the force, remaining at peace as they drifted steadily down toward the water. Lining up, using the remaining emergency power in the controls... There was only ever one chance to get an emergency landing right.

And she set them down perfectly, of course, bouncing, jostling, rolling into the vastness of the sea. Hanging on, the rest of the team exchanged glances. "Good landing," Shepard offered.

"All landings you walk away from are good ones, Shepard," Tasiele answered. "Will the shuttle float?"

"It should. I've never seen it tested before. But you got us right up against that wreck we were targeting for."

"So I did. Well, the force leads," she stepped away from the controls. "Let's see how we can sort this out." Taking an emergency cable, she cranked the hatch open and, crafting a lasso, threw it to the wreck. It took a solid ten minutes to drag them into contact and lash the shuttle to the great hulk, protected from the waves by its bulk.

After thirty minutes of banging their way around the wreck, Kasumi quietly reappeared. "Shepard, I found a Triton I think you could use..."

"Perfect!"

"Well, you'd better hurry, Captain." Tasiele was looking up. There was a Reaper, coming _down_. "It appears someone considered it important enough to pursue us deep into Imperial patrolled space. I will try to send a warning through the force, but... Better for you to find this power that lurks below us."

"I... You're going to need help with that Reaper." Atarah looked up, shook her head. "I'll take the Mech, but I should stay and fight."

"No, that's not the right way," Tasiele shook her head. "We'll hold them off for long enough. Get below, find us people who can truly hope. I am uneasy, but I do not sense evil. Good luck, Captain, and go quickly."

Shepard climbed into the 'Mech, and with a last look skyward, plunged below. Just minutes later, the battle commenced as hideous amalgations of things which had once been living people surged forward, the inevitable creations of the Reaper advance.

Tasiele ignited her lightsabre. "A Jedi does not fear the dark." She plunged forward into the mass of the husks and started to cut, turning them back almost singlehandedly; EDI, James, and Kasumi had almost nothing to do except watch that pirouette of death. The Jedi Knight had almost completely cleared the wreck of their enemies when abruptly, and with no warning, she collapsed onto the deck of the floating wreck in a trancelike unconsciousness.

"This is _bad!_ " Kasumi cursed under her breath in Japanese and raced forward. They were profoundly inadequate for fighting Reapers, and even with most of them gone, James was barely able to cover her as she dragged Tasiele back to the cover of some blow-out panels.

The fight at once started to turn in the other direction. Kasumi looked helplessly at the Jedi, for there was nothing apparently wrong with her. "EDI? Do you have any better idea than I do?"

EDI was an excellent shot, and for the moment was taking husks out with precision fire. But it was clear Tasiele's assistance was far more important. She tossed the gun to Kasumi. "As they say, 'cover me'."

"Not good at this!" Kasumi answered, but opened fire anyway as EDI turned toward the unconscious Jedi.

Once again, there seemed to be nothing wrong, and with James and Kasumi firing, they were slowly being overrun.

Then Tasiele gasped, her head filled with connections, data whirling around in overwhelming strength, disorganised from her psyche. It felt indeed like she were very nearly filled with nothing. The contact with the Levaiathan had been overwhelming. Her eyes opened again. Glowing. She lunged to her feet, and some of the Reaper-creatures began to attack each other.

"Lady Tas-" EDI cut off as she lunged to her feet. "Lady Tasiele! Are you all right?"

Instead of answering she stood there, eyes glowing, as the monsters started fighting each other instead of the party. It seemed like she were unable to answer...

...It was solving the battle, though.

EDI let her be, for then, until the Reapers were... dealt with. She didn't really understand the Force, and thought that maybe this was supposed to be happening.

Kasumi was untrained enough to not be sure anything was wrong, and with their coherency disrupted, she slipped between their enemies as they fought each other, cloaking and smacking Reaper husks upside the head with massive electrical pulses. They were all laying in piles when it was done, and Shepard returned. It was only then that Tasiele had dropped to her knees, though her eyes still glowed.

Shepard just toppled out of the mech and hit the ground, blood flowing from her nose. She looked to be in bad shape, worse shape than Tasiele, in fact, as Kasumi ran to drag the woman towards the shuttle, and the pulses that had disabled the shuttle... stopped.

EDI looked up sharply. "The shuttle should have power again, Miss Goto!" She picked up Tasiele and carried her handily.

The two of them were bundled into the shuttle, the whole ground team assisting, worried about both, as they were both still unresponsive: Shepard, cold to the touch and unconscious, and Tasiele... also not looking well.

"They have the Force," Tasiele rasped quietly, finally drawing the breath to speak.

"Well, that's not good, judging by the glowing and the murdering and the collapsing." Kasumi mumbled, as EDI turned Shepard to her side, who coughed violently, starting to move again.

"That was not murder... That was not evil."

"So... what happened, Tasy? Shep looks more half-dead than normal."

"I'm okay... just... have a hell of a headache... ow..."

"One of them contacted me in the force. They haven't seen... Force-using humans, smallfolk like us before. A few of them survive with this power."

"... Well, that... hey, Shep, is your brain still all there?" She dabbed at the blood coming from her nose and frowned. "I... think so, but I don't think I was quite built for... uhm, being a tool of a giant squid."

"They told me of how the Gree arrived," Tasiele added.

"That isn't what _I_ was told! Okay... let's compare notes. They told me they were the 'apex' race who used the rest of the galaxy as tools, and because organics created synthetic life which turned on them... they created an AI to solve the problem." She had a small, grim smile. "Which turned on them. And turned them into the first Reapers."

"Yes, I saw - vague impressions of that. Visions, rather than a story. But this one showed me that recently another ancient race arrived here, explored, discovered the Reapers in dark space, and left again. The Leviathans don't respect intrusions into their territory, of course, but the two didn't fight because it would have revealed the Leviathans to the Reapers."

"The Gree, or...?" Shepard rubbed her head and sagged forwards. "Ow, that hurt... so... they... said they'd make any Reapers who crossed them their slaves, that they'd pay in blood?"

"Didn't bother mentioning that to me." Tasiele took a breath. "Yes. The Gree. The Gree came by ship. Left by the gate. They transported it here by ship."

"By ship? Doesn't it take... decades, centuries, something to travel that way?"

"Took me a couple of days. The Gree have some absurdly sophisticated technology. It was... It was not the Gates of Infinity. Something technological. I need to talk with EDI back on Normandy-to locate this. I think I have a mission for us."

"... Don't we alr... okay, why not?" Shepard gently shook her head, trying not to worsen the pounding inside her skull. "I mean... sure. We found the Leviathian... s..."

"Shepard... This could be big. I... Saw something." Tasiele's voice was sternly serious. "We need crews so we need to stop in Imperial space once I've confirmed the location."

"... Got it. Should I tell anyone about this, or...? Well, I'll let you and EDI chase it down. If you say it's big, Tasiele... then it's probably pretty damned big."

"And I need someone who can work miracles as an reverse-engineer."

Shepard shuddered. "Well... she's a nasty bitch sometimes, but I think I have a rough idea for your Quarian, Tasiele. Do we tell Moff Pryl?"

"No. The fewer people who know about this, the better."

-

Liara brought her transport out of hyperspace with the usual groping towards finding the Citadel proper, the Nebula even interfering with Imperial sensors, or at least the low-power sets common on Escort Transports. Finally she located the signal of its location, and guided them in.

Kesalia glanced out as they approached, watching the great station loom. "Moff Pryl should only be a few hours behind us... right?" One blue hand quietly slipped down to the lightsabre on her belt.

"That is correct." The woman's gloved hands flicked over the console, with a slight frown at the readouts she was getting. "Quarian docking control, or the civilian docks?"

"Civilian docks, I should think. Let's not cause too much of a stir."

Liara nodded, and requested docking clearance. ...And got a burst of static over the comms for her trouble. And again. "This is not good. There's no response from the Citadel. I've never even heard of that happening before."

"Try the Quarian dock?"

"They're not answering either..." She swallowed, and keyed the intercom open. "Prepare for assault landing!"

"Let's hit the civilian docks without authorisation," Kesalia offered. "This is an escort transport, it's got hull cutting torches and can establish a seal after doing it."

"That... That is the plan, now." Liara gave a small, thin smile, pressing to transmit and trying to get a signal out. "Moff Pryl, the Citadel is not responding, neither civilian nor your government's traffic control. We are making an assault landing." There was no reply, and they could only hope.

...They swung in without opposition and docked. Kesalia strapped in to the assault station and started the torches to begin cutting through the docking bay and establishing a boarding seal. Only then did she slap the selector on the turrets over to auto-fire and grab for her own weapons.

Pushing through the airlock, the team found bodies everywhere, C-Sec and civilian alike, both wounded and dead, with bullet scars across the glass and walls.

With three individuals at her back who collectively could eat through companies, in all likelihood, Liara wondered if the confidence she felt was the same that Shepard usually did. Gillian closed up to cooperate on biotics use with Liara, and they began to advance. "Goddess..." She grasped her pistol, as Javik snarled behind her, bringing up his particle rifle.

"Let's find the Council," Kesalia offered simply. Hustling forward past people trying to shelter in place, the devastation only got worse.

And then soon enough the crack of a bullet and then many in short succession informed them that their search had led them into a party Cerberus troopers. "Cerberus!" Kesalia snapped her lightsabre open and turned the first of the bullets.

Gillian and Liara together sent an entire squad flying as Javik nailed them in mid-flight, so that they hit the bulkheads already dead. Seconds later, the first fight was well and done with.

Liara paused, rather than immediately continue ahead. "They couldn't have done so much without somehow neutralizing C-Sec, let me scan the local frequencies."

Kesalia deactivated her sabre, nodding crisply. "If we can find a way to sneak to the Councilors and then assist them, that would be much better."

"It would," Liara agreed as she furiously worked through her omnitool. "They've taken C-Sec headquarters, it looks like, and crashed the security comm networks... if we can help them retake it, then... they should start being able to defeat whatever this is. Let's get going."

"Be cautious. Cerberus will be prepared for this."

"Clearly, I should just channel Shepard." She gave a small smile as they hastened forward, quickly finding more trouble and welcoming it with a biotic detonation unleashed on the first group of troopers... there was a rather sickening sound of compressing flesh.

Kesalia remembered her duty to the force; she took guard against ambushes with her lightsabre, and let the Liara-Gillian tag team... Do terrifying things by coordinating their biotics. For the moment, she needed to stay calm and attentive for ambushes rather than fight. That was her battle. And it helped her maintain her composure, for it was rather sickening, what the biotics did to people. The Force didn't quite so literally rip people apart like this did.

After no small amount of fighting, they managed to run into Shepard's old... friend, Commander Bailey—wounded, he had been trying to organize an effort to re-take C-Sec headquarters. Once they had that situation at least _somewhat_ under control... there was a distress call from the escort of the Salarian Councilor, which cut off suddenly—something from the C-Sec officer that sounded like "Fucking ninj-".

"We should hurry." Kesalia responded to the radio call, feeling a need to act quickly growing through the force, an encouragement to haste. It was made all the more intense by the feeling of _Bombard_ arriving. Even though that might nominally mean their salvation, Tanda was still a solid half an hour out, and the knowledge of the VSD's arrival might make their enemy do truly foolish things.

Liara nodded, and they rushed on, following where the information had cut off... just in time to see a man in a jacket and a lot of cybernetics augmenting his every move finish shooting the Salarian councilor in the chest and then take off running.

But only after giving them a taunting grin.

Kesalia glanced to Liara. "Please forgive me, but I think I've found my date!" And with that, she ran after him as fast as she could.

Her legs pumping behind her as she tore down the deck, she watched her quarry run off the end of the balcony... and then re-appear, surfing on a bloody skycar.

 _There is no fear, there is the force._ Kesalia took one of those insane running leaps of a Jedi, with her lekku spinning with her body through the air, whirling like a pool ball before coming down onto the skycar. Her blade was already snapping open and glowing brilliant green, reflecting off the polished chrome and glass around them, crashing into the top of the car to spring to her feet with the grace of a dancer and her lightsabre at the ready. "Your evil will not be permitted to escape!" Political assassination in broad daylight made her heart clear, and pure, and certain. It was time to fight.

The station shuddered around them as _Bombard_ thrust herself between the Wards, now, and the stormtrooper transports were pouring out while her tractor beams kept the Citadel from closing. But on the skycar both remained stable.

Her enemy snapped off several shots from his palm weapon, bringing up his sword to at least temporarially block hers as she handily turned the shots. He was still facing her with a grin, though, trying a cybernetic leg kick along with the first thrust of his blade to launch her off the skycar.

She dodged away from the kick, but also couldn't strike, too busy knocking away his shots with her lightsabre at the same time. He was good, and she was no true Jedi like Tasiele to face him, not yet... The edge loomed, and she bounced back, and her blade struck back, too.

To those left behind, the skycar was already flying far away, and the massive shudder through the Citadel had sent them down to their knees, which was cause for Liara to curse, and glance about for another. "After them! Quickly! Come on, Gillian, Javik!" Bailey's voice crackled over the comms, warning them the rest of the Council was with Udina, heading towards a shuttle-pad... And then Kesalia was all alone with her foe.

Kai Leng grinned. "First of you on the Citadel, and the first to die... all this way, for nothing."

Kesalia fell back into a defensive stance and took a moment to compose herself. "There is no death, there is only the force."

"You'll be able to find out soon enough." He moved to attack, trying to crowd and knock her off again, stabbing with the blade, using an omni-gauntlet to shield his arm to allow a block.

She avoided attacking him and instead went for the blade, pressing in against it with that advantage that... Something made out of material, no matter how good, unless a very particular set of materials back home, was going to... Most assuredly, it was going to ultimately fail under the power of a lightsabre.

He winged her with the round in his palm, cracked a rib and sent her staggering back, but it was too late. His momentary look where he was at a loss as the blade... sagged from partially melting through distracted him from the attempt to remove her hand as he spun away. The strike turned into more of a deep cut that glanced off as it... broke on her arm bone, at least.

She ignored the pain, concentrated on the force, and flipped the blade up with the strength of her power even through her wounds... And carried the tip of that lightsabre across his face.

He went down. Hard, and nearly fell from the skycar. But he wasn't finished, oh no; stabilising himself from falling, he kicked at her legs to knock them out from under her... the radical cyrborg's ability to ignore pain was helpful in such a circumstance, and it seemed to be something that they both shared.

Finally, leaving Kai Leng behind with burned and cauterized eye and a face better suited to a modern art sculpture than a living being, she was forced to leap off the skycar as she lost her balance, though she used the Force to cushion her landing safely. Staggering back up to her feet as the pain pounded through her chest, Kesalia watched the car disappear, and felt that her one-time mistress was once again close by. For better or worse, Tanda had joined the fight.

Joined the fight, aye, and in fact, caring nothing for the fact that she would be revealing her construction of a new lightsabre, she led her stormtroopers down and off the first transport to land... She came charging with a load of stormtroopers at her heels firing from the hip as they charged, her lightsabre out, spinning and turning aside the shots of the defending Cerberus troops. They were mowed down in seconds, and at once she was following the C-Sec feed in her suit, heading for where Udina was, cutting him off from the bay and charging on with her men as fast as she could.

What she found was Tevos, Sparatus, Udina... and Spectre Ashley Williams, who was not enthused at the idea of having to face down one of the already legendary Jedi... and everybody else with her, many of them her friends, as she watched grimly the arriving Stormtroopers. From the other direction, Liara led her own team, and Ashley shot wide eyes in her direction, before turning back to face Tanda.

"Councilor Udina!" Tanda shouted to him even as she tipped a salute to Liara as she advanced with her yellow lightsabre blade glowing, held toward the ground in her right hand.

Liara's eyes widened at the blade, but she said nothing.

Tanda, instead, continued to address Udina. "Your plot to seize control of the Citadel was being used by an indoctrinated Cerberus to hand it over to the Reapers, Councilor! Surely you must realise that!"

His lips twisted as he sneered back at her. "...You're the one working with Cerberus, Captain Pryl! Isn't it convenient that you just arrive now? Here we are after Cerberus has been defeated, and now you arrive to save the day?"

Tanda could see clearly enough that his words weren't really meant for her. He was playing for that single human woman with the gun pointed at... Liara, Tanda, and a whole lot of stormtroopers, with... the remaining two councilors looking very confused at what the chaos and madness that had just transpired. She wavered, unsure who was the greatest threat, who to cover with the gun.

"I'm working for the Empire, Udina. There is only the Empire. Cerberus has betrayed all of sentient life to the Reapers." She began to reach out with the Force... And gasped. The problem was... now that she was close enough to tell... Udina was indoctrinated as well.

"Humanity needs the help of the Council, and they aren't getting it..." He repeated, with his voice low and urgent.

"The Reapers are _using_ you, Udina. I can sense it in you. They have started to indoctrinate you. If you want to serve humanity, you want to serve the Empire of the Force. I can heal you. Everyone is against the Reapers, Udina—except Cerberus! Life itself is against the Reapers! Humanity has _already_ escaped this cycle. We will overcome it here. Defeat and destroy the Reapers. But to do that we must be united. This coup is furthering the dissension. Find strength within yourself. Fight back against what is being done to you. Don't you see it? Your worldview is being changed be these forces that seek to destroy us."

"Hey! Back off!" Williams shifted her rifle to warn off a group of the stormtroopers who were moving to try and get around her.

Udina growled; "We don't have time for this..." and stepped to a console. Tevos moved to grab his arm and got backhanded across the face by his pistol for her trouble. Immediately he raised the gun towards the Asari councilor... with a small curse, Williams spun on a heel and snapped off a shot.

"Oh God..." she mumbled after realizing she'd just shot the human Councilor through the chest by doing so.

Tanda Pryl deactivated her lightsabre.

Kesalia showed up a moment later, panting and leaning and wheezing on her side with the cracked rib, having raced after the encounter with Kai Leng and having had to go through a squad of Cerberus troopers on her own despite the wounds. Her eyes widened in fear for a moment at Tanda's ligthsabre, and then she calmed as she felt the lack of a threat from her.

Around them there was just a very awkward situation, now. One Turian Councilor, one bleeding Asari Councilor... and one dead human Councilor, with the Spectre who'd just shot him. "Great, shot my boss the first week on the job..." Williams was softly muttering.

"Humanity was your boss, Sceptre, and the Council too. We are in it for more than Udina," Tanda offered quietly. "Councilor Tevos," she added, stepping forward and extended her gloved hand.

Tevos made a groaning noise, but took it.

Tanda helped Tevos to her feet, and looked around, trying to process the magnitude of what had just happened, and the huge looming problem it left after the destruction of Arcturus Station. "We now have a severe problem. Udina died without nominating a successor. The Systems Alliance is – effectively - leaderless."

"There's... Ambassador Osaba? Maybe?" Williams caught onto that with a pale and shaky look. "If he's... still alive."

Tanda nodded, but turned away. "Councilor Tevos, the decision is your's about how to manage human representation. We will look for Ambassador Osaba to confirm if he is alive. Unfortunately he may, however, have collaborated with Cerberus, and he may not be recognized."

"In the event of a recognized successor to Ambassador Udina not being found, we... will..." Tevos' eyes flicked to Sparatus. "Find a solution."

Sparatus was staring back behind Tanda, though. Ashley Williams was trembling. Liara was gaping. Kesalia looked horrified.

The Stormtroopers had taken off their helmets and begun to kneel.

Tanda paled inside of her mask, as one of the officers came forward and saluted. Suddenly, Tanda realised that for all she had been playing the game decently to others... Her troops had ideas of their own. She had forced them to subordinate the ideal of the Empire to expediency for so long. But they had a will of their own. And they were exercising it.

Smirking at Liara's side, Javik raised his fist in a salute.

And Tanda... Tanda looked at her troops, and then at Liara.

Aside from stealthily having turned her omnitool to 'record'... Liara was giving a look to Tanda, and would glance about with an air of honest... well, she really wasn't sure just what Tanda expected from _her_.

Tanda flapped her red cape a bit. She might not want it, but she had no choice. "Councilor Tevos, in the interest of victory over the Old Machines, I am assuming the governance of humanity."

"I... we..." Tevos looked to Sparatus. "... The Council has no opinion on the internal deliberations of its' members, as long as they follow both Council Law and the Citadel Accords." Farce and double farce, since Tanda represented a second member.

They both knew it, but it didn't matter. Not now. "Then I will begin restoring the hope that the loss of Arcturus Station caused to flee."

She looked around slowly. "Thank you all. I recognize the burden you place on me. We will appoint an Imperial representative to the Council moving forward, and begin decisive operations to eliminate Cerberus. I warn, however, that the success of this operation was almost certainly the moment at which the Reapers were waiting for in marking a resumption of their operations against the galaxy."

 _And I must prepare myself... To convince humanity to follow me._ She looked down at the suit. It seemed an iron barrier between herself and the universe, right now. 


	67. Chapter 67

The _Normandy_ arrived at the Citadel about twelve hours later. The crisp, clipped enunciation of Imperial traffic controllers and the main body— _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ having arrived ten hours later accompanied by a bevy of Harrowers—immediately told Shepard that something had _dramatically_ changed. SR-2 was cleared straight into dock and an Asari in Imperial uniform was waiting for Shepard when she got off.

"Captain, Moff Pryl will see you now in the Presidium. Please follow me."

"Of course, Lieutenant, I..." She trailed off, noting the lack of C-sec in the hangar bays. She finally saw some when they got to the habitat areas, the shops. Some of them were walking wounded, keeping order with guns and batons.

The Presidium was being guarded by Imperial Stormtroopers.

"Lieutenant?"

"Councilor Udina launched a coup, Captain Shepard. Moff Pryl wishes to speak to you directly."

"You're welcome..." Atarah was scanned past security in something of a daze. And there was Tanda, suited, working in Udina's office. That had once been Anderson's office. It felt like a dream. "Moff Pryl?"

"Captain Shepard, please sit," she gestured, and her voice despite the modulation sounded tired. "Unfortunately, Ambassador Osaba... Stood up to Udina. His son had been killed fighting Cerberus a few weeks ago. So Udina had him shot."

"Wait, wait, but..."

"Yes, that means there is no more Alliance government, since the entire rest of the government was destroyed at Arcturus Station. So I am in charge now. For the duration of the emergency."

"And how long will the emergency last, Moff Pryl?"

"Until the Reapers have been destroyed and the galactic economy and civilization have recovered from the war, of course," Tanda replied listlessly. "I imagine at that point, we shall be in an excellent place to hold elections."

"Will there really be elections?"

"An interesting question. I don't know the answer at this time," Tanda replied dryly. "I do, however, need your help to..."

"Negotiate with Hackett and put your face out there. The last one, somehow. Yeah, there are lots of racist humans. They'll want to see that you're human. I'm sorry, Moff Pryl."

"I'm sorry, too. You should go talk to Ashley Williams. She's quite upset about it. She was the one who put Udina down—he was indoctrinated, of course. I will... Chart this course on my own, then." Tanda got up, and so did Shepard.

"Captain Shepard, I..."

"I know you're not planning to be a dictator," Atarah answered glumly, resigned to the nightmare of the war. "It's just that sometimes these things happen, anyway."

"I suppose they do. Is Dr. Chakwas aboard the SR-2?"

"Yes, of course—I, ah. You want an opinion about..."

"Not dying," was the wry answer, and Tanda started off. She wasn't really sure what needed to be done, just that it was something, and it would make Tali happy.

Admittedly, nor did the Doctor, who was sitting at her desk, working at a terminal—ordering a topping off of their medical supplies, as... well, Tasiele had greatly reduced her need to do anything other than repair the various stupidity—or accident-induced injuries everyone could pick up.

"Doctor... Tali'Zorah ordered me to see you."

"Ordered you, did she? Is something the matter? I mean, beyond what... let's start that again. Hop up on the bed and tell me what's the matter."

"Nothing. I am as I was when I was put in here. She seemed to be perturbed by the lack of medical checkups, though really, those aren't common except for the rich where I come from. The suit's working fine at keeping me from being dead. I suppose I'm slowly growing more pale and haggard, but that's to be expected and if I get Lord Vader's twenty-three years in one out of it, that's good enough. These injuries were wrought by mysterious forces, and I'm doubt there's more that can be done for them. Here, you can log into the suit to pull its data." She held her arm up.

Chakwas looked like there were so many things she wanted to say that she had no idea of where to start. "...Thank you... in your case, much like her, I'd be checking up on you every week. And suit or not, growing pale and haggard is simply not a good sign. Let me check the data, and we'll see what we can do." She'd pull it up, and with a small smile; "Go ahead and lie back."

Karin would have some fun with this... It was a real mystery, almost irritatingly so. Tanda was quite physically fit, but ailing from the damage to most of her internal organs which seemed to have spread out from some kind of... Energy that had interfered with cellular reproduction. Except instead of causing cancer the force within her had seemed to do the opposite, discouraging cells from reproducing at all, in addition to generating a variety of impressive internal scar tissue.

She still had the top of the line tissue regenerator Shepard had bought for her during their mission against the Collectors, and with a soft 'hrm' she'd check for a response using it. The first test suggested some of the scarring disappeared under the regenerator, just for the cells in the area to die. Tanda grimaced through her mask.

"Well, I can remove the scarring, which is good news for you, I'd like to say first of all." She would say, after she was complete, meeting Tanda's eyes while helping her up. "I'm tempted to just fill your torso with medigel, and see if it would accelerate the healing process. It certainly couldn't hurt. But the problem is that there isn't a correct response after the regenerator is used. You're currently experiencing what our science would call 'failure to thrive', or 'faltering growth'. The scar tissue, I can repair, and I'll do so, but then there will be cell death in the area, it will have to be carefully controlled with medigel... A headache, but we can obtain improvement."

"Thank you, Doctor. What you're saying is that the natural cycle of cellular regeneration is being impaired."

"That is correct. The opposite problem to that of the uncontrolled reproduction of cancer, one might say."

"Powerful beings at work with the very thing of life. Well. I had not hoped for anything at all."

"There are some things I may be able to try. Cybernetic replacement would be something to consider for some of the damage, certainly... the scarring is showing no signs of returning in the test area, though. I've seen worse, but it involved Shepard getting on the wrong end of a Geth flamethrower."

"Well, if I hold up to the end of the war there will be a lot of time to get better in."

"Your blood oxygen levels show a record of slow improvement, and are at what I would consider a normal level right now... you've been mildly hypoxic for I'd say some weeks. Some recovery should be present there... what has your current physica- oh, right. I suspect they just threw you in a magic healing juice tank and declared a glorious victory?"

Tanda barked a laugh. "If Tali hadn't intervened with the suit they'd have given up and let me peacefully die, Doctor. So I suppose, from your point of view, yes."

She sighed. "For all your people's supposed superiority in matters of technology... well, Tali wouldn't have been pleased by that. I've updated your file, and I have a few prescriptions for you to try and help with what I can. Everything else seems to be fine, though now that you're breathing easier, I would suggest trying to... I can't believe I'm saying this, but some cardiovascular exercise would not be a bad thing."

Tanda laughed. "Right, I'll try to get fully back up to my old routines. I've been slower and more deliberate lately."

"If it feels like a strain, don't push yourself beyond the very start of it. The nutrient additives should help fill in for the lack of ultraviolet light your skin is getting, but I swear every one of you Imperials has had a deficiency of one sort or another."

"Life is standardized in the Imperial Navy. Including a lack of allowance for the possibility that women may be wearing the uniforms."

... She winced slightly. "That... sounds unfortunate and uncomfortable, Moff Pryl." The small smile still re-appeared. "Shall I write a prescription for that as well?"

"We've already made a fair amount of progress on it, but revising the uniform regulations will need a committee, and I can always use people who want to be on regulation committees. Consider yourself volunteered, Doctor."

 _Oh Christ, an Imperial committee_. Chakwas blanched. "Of course, Moff Pryl."

"Then I suppose the only question is... Could I survive temporarily leaving the suit in a fully filtered hyperbaric chamber?"

"Yes, if you simply want to leave it for a while, or..."

"Thank you, Doctor. Your help is appreciated." Tanda pushed herself up. "I will try to exercise more again, I promise. Maybe, someday..."

She headed back to the _Thunderflare_ forthwith, her shuttle leaving instantly on thrusters to reach the ISD standing off from the great wards of the Citadel. Within fifteen minutes she was arriving in her own sickbay after brushing past an assembly of officers welcoming her aboard with an imperious nod and flutter of her cape.

Wasting no time—for the galaxy surely wanted news and she had no time to waste in giving it to them—she settled into the hyperbaric chamber in sickbay, and waited for the chamber to stabilise and filter. Once it finished, she very gently began to remove her suit, after deactivating the warnings, and took a long sonic shower inside the chamber, leaving her suit to run itself through a maintenance cycle.

When she stepped out of the shower, she dried her hair, sitting in a towel and staring at her pasty white skin, seeming so much for all the universe like her limbs were white worms. With a shiver, she then began to braid her hair and slipped into a uniform. Only then did she look at herself in the mirror. Breathing pure oxygen... _Well, you still look like an Imperial officer_. Except now the uniform she had ordered had a line of yellow boards. _Go big or go home._ She secured the area and selected an angle to the recording camera that looked as blandly professional as anything else in the area, and then cued in the communications channel interface to reach Hackett.

It took something of a while to make the channel come through, before the scarred man, wearing his Alliance cap and more medals than was safe for most people appeared before her. The senior survivor of the Alliance Navy. "I'm told you wished to speak to me, Miss Pryl." He rumbled, holo... hands folded behind his back, looking calm, or at least composed.

"That is correct, Admiral Hackett. Councilor Udina aligned with Cerberus, was Indoctrinated, and launched a coup on the Citadel, for which I am not sure, whether or not you are aware."

"... Damn... the Council? The Citadel? We'd lost contact with our station there, but I hadn't thought it could be anything like this."

"The Salarian councilor was executed by Cerberus forces, Admiral, and the Alliance Ambassador also killed. Based on my discussion with the surviving Councilors Sparatus and Tevos... There is no more human government. The Systems Alliance is gone as an entity of legal continuity."

The express on the gruff face betrayed more exhausted emotion than Tanda had been expecting. He fell back on the same line he had held with Udina for the past months, almost, she thought, to the point of collapse. "After the loss of Arcturus and Earth... something like that is possible. God, I hesitate to think of it, but... it's possible. We'll be able to rebuild, recover, after this war is over, have elections then."

"I have assumed humanity's council representation, Admiral Hackett," Tanda continued after a breath. "Look, I know much propaganda has circulated. However, the origins of my people are sincere and the Core Worlds certainly stand with us in spirit. I will not make assumptions viz. Terra, which is occupied, but I think that in the circumstances, my action was necessary to prevent the disintegration of the human war effort. You may confirm with Councilors Tevos and Sparatus that this indeed the course of events which took place. It is now my intention to annihilate Cerberus, as Cerberus is the primary threat to the human war effort."

"It's not the place of the Council to dictate to the Alliance... but what you say about Cerberus is true. I've got my people trying to track their base of operations down, but it's not been easy. Miss Pryl, you can call yourself the human Councilor if you want, and I will work with you as an ally and share intelligence in the circumstances, but humanity believes in virtues and values inimicable to the Empire."

"Admiral, at this point I intend to confirm the governments of Terra in exile—such as they are—and the governments of the independent powers of the colonies, with all the rights and prerogatives they have traditionally enjoyed, and only put myself into a position to direct and coordinate activities of the Alliance in lieu of a recognized central government. That is what I am desiring you to cooperate with me in."

"That's not what the Alliance is about, Miss Pryl. Your _Empire_ isn't what we're about. I've heard a lot of stories. Shepard apparently trusts you, but I can't see it." He sank down at his own desk, pulling his cap off, and trying to stare hard enough to get a feel for her through the holonet connection. "Maybe, maybe that's all right... I... but..." He twisted his cap, and looked so exhausted and so very old. "Until Cerberus and the Reapers are defeated, we're all in this together, aren't we? If you can keep the colonies together, and keep getting us what we need to keep fighting? That's all that matters right now."

"I will support the Alliance fleet like an extension of my own, Admiral."

He gave her an uncomfortable look. "...Then we'll worry about the rest once there's an Earth to argue about it on, Miss Pryl."

"I would like to set foot on the planet on which my race was born, Admiral Hackett. We will."

"Very well. If that's all, Miss Pryl?"

"It is."

"Hackett out."

Tanda gently sighed, and then went for her next communication. She had from the first ordered the information on the assassination of the Salarian ambassador by Cerberus to be widely disseminated in conjunction with the claim that the assault by Cerberus on Sur'Kesh had been with the connivance of the Dalatress; whether or not it was true, it was too good of a claim to pass up. Now she began contact other Salarian houses-rivals-by messages warning them that their attempt to sabotage the genophage cure would be made public to the Krogan so that in addition to failing they would also have the problem of the Krogan knowing they had tried, and that Tanda expected the Dalatress removed in favour of someone with a willingness to fully coordinate with the galactic war effort.

Next up, she took advantage of the chaotic and disorganized situation of Cerberus as it fled the station, and now with stormtroopers guarding the Citadel, dispatched personnel through the wards to secure information on this 'sanctuary' while Director Lawson ripped through the captured files.

That night, Tanda slept in the chamber, and the next day, was calmly clasping her suit back together for the auto-seals to begin when Miranda contacted her.

"I've cracked the files, Grand Moff Pryl," she said. Miranda looked as pale as Tanda had been, but green and sick. Trembling with rage, too, the kind of rage that made one cold. "There are..."

"Slowly, if you must, Miranda."

"No need, Grand Moff." She tapped her flimsy. "Reaper-ified creatures, Cerberus troops all turned into husks... and surviving bits of information that indicated they had done... some pretty horrifying things. Experimentation, Grand Moff Pryl. They were experimenting on the refugees. Here's a sample..."

Tanda brought it up on her suitcomp.

 **Acidification of unsuitable subjects ...**

There was plenty more, but it merely left the context of the sentence unambiguous. Tanda's head jerked up. Her voice trembled with the battle to contain the rage that left her pallid skin feeling deathly cold below the suit. "Director... Do we have a location?"

"Yes, Your Ladyship."

"Send it directly to _Thunderflare_ 's navigation computer."

"It's easier than that. The Horizon system, Grand Moff. The facility is located inside the Horizon system."

"Thank you. Good work and..."

When Miranda met her eyes again, her own were filled with tears. "...Children... Avenge them, Grand Moff."

Tanda looked up, wordlessly, and wished that she could. She cut the comms channel and raised Scolus. "Commander, recall all personnel from leave! Highest priority!"

-

...Once the crew had been recalled aboard, Tanda raced there in her old _Thunderflare_ even as the rest of the fleet concentrated at the Citadel with draughts of reinforcements coming in. She considered the mission bad enough that she had to deal with it personally.

Horizon... A normal, peaceful colony world which had seemed far behind the lines and secure. And on it, a great defensive bunker and safe haven for people to hunker down and survive the Reaper invasion. A perfect promise of safety in the war, and a perfect lie.

Tanda looked down at the terminator line from orbit. There were no easy answers. People fled, they sought shelter, they wanted to live. Cerberus took advantage of that, and snuffed them out, for reasons that seemed inscrutable even to Tanda. But with their collaboration with the Reapers, she was starting to think that perhaps there was no objective. It was just a symptom of the madness of indoctrination.

All the way up at the top.

Her fist slowly clenched and unclenched again. "Land the Marines regiment to secure the perimeter. I'll go to the surface myself after that to investigate the facility." Leading from the front... It was one of the reasons her people liked her, and she wasn't about to give it up. The Quarian Marines started to the surface with Mechs, AT-PTs, hovertanks... Deploying quickly as Tanda paced on the bridge, sometimes stepping back to the holoprojector where, for the past years, Tali would have been standing as her Chief of Staff. Now it was Kesea, and that felt a little strange with how informal she had gotten with her wife.

"Have they established a perimeter, Commander?" The promotions came so fast that she was having trouble keeping up; sometimes Tanda wondered if she were suffering brain damage, too.

"Yes. Our long-range scans suggest several escape routes from ground disturbance which are not sealed yet, however, Grand Moff."

Tanda turned back toward the front of the bridge. "I'd expect so. Target them with light turbolasers, and close them."

"M'lady?" Kesea looked up, worried. "That was supposed to be a refuge..."

"I don't sense very much life in it," Tanda answered, hideously calm.

"I'm transmitting the firing orders now, M'lady," Kesea answered.

Her voice was far more subdued than Tanda wanted it to be. She watched impassively with the squib of a few light turbolasers disappearing into the atmosphere. The updates came quickly, then. Her troops had located the main entrances, pinned them down, and... they also ran into small groups of escaped husk-like creatures trying to secure the overall perimeter.

As the husks began to escape in hordes which, well, weren't so much an escape as a distraction, the Quarian marines in full suits and amply supported with artillery stood off and pretty much dealt with them via absolutely massive retaliatory fire, sweeping the ground around the bunker entrances and the perimeter bare. While they did, energy signals representing Cerberus personnel spiked near the surface and a large cleft opened in one hillock.

"Concealed shuttle bay, Your Ladyship!" Scolus offered as he turned back. "Looks like the Cerberus men are trying to flee, either from their own creations out of control or trying to use them as cover."

"Destroy them, Scolus. I'm headed to the surface." She turned and strode hastily off the bridge, washing her hands of any hostages that might be on the shuttles. Straight to the assault shuttles reading to bring down a second contingent in the main hangar, and from there, Tanda led a group of heavily outfitted troopers straight down to the planet, and fast-roping to the entrance, into the facility without even a pause to orient.

She didn't need orientation. She had her lightsabre. And she knew what to expect.

Even then, it was bad. There were... husk bodies... everywhere. Even as they had dived into the tunnels, she had caught from the corner of her eye as a Harvester crashed a Cerberus shuttle trying to lift off. Uniformed Cerberus troopers leapt off just to be immediately killed by the Marines as supporting concussion missile artillery destroyed the Harvester.

What was in front of her now made all of that seem as though it were a respectable, organised and normal battle. It was... It was nothing less than an arrivals and processing hall, like at a spaceport. ... Filled with masses of dead.

Daintily, Tanda walked between one body after another to reach the front desk, so innocuous. On it there was a blinking datapad that she picked up, while warning shouts from her troopers informed her of the approach of functional husks.

Uncoordinated, unsupported, but they'd... overrun the aboveground levels of the place. Tanda straightened, finished reading. She put the datapad down, and ignited her lightsabre. Yellow blade sometimes wavering with imperfections, but more than adequate for the job it had been given, Tanda calmed herself, and she turned into the husks.

What followed was something more out of the clone wars than fighting living beings... Because they weren't living anymore, and Tanda kept that in mind as she spun through them, cutting them down as she had at her stronger. Her muscle memory had not failed, and nor had the experience she had gained in her battles. As long as she had enough oxygen to breathe in her savaged lungs, her strength came forth and she fought. Fought, and fought on, lust like fighting the other Reaper abominations she had fought on Omega what now seemed like so long ago.

Dea, but that was exactly what it felt like. She weaved and spun and cleared open a channel for her troops to follow her, finishing with blaster fire any she missed, until her intuition in the force led her to a point where there was a side entrance into the base that would not require blasting through a truly massive shielded door. Behind her the last flashes of fire finished their enemies.

She passed through, and warily spied the Reaper artifact buried at the bottom of the lake that blocked access to it... Now that they were in, it was... quiet for quite a while, as the definition of safe went in these trying times. Walking into the first room after the hall brought a vid-screen flickering to life that was soon showing replay footage of screaming refugees being impaled on Dragons Teeth by Cerberus technicians.

This was not a good place, and even through the Force, that could be felt. Drenched with death, Tanda watched quietly as her Quarian troopers filled in behind her and stared in shocked silence.

The news spread rapidly. The Imperial troops weren't taking prisoners... Though with the typical level of indoctrination of Cerberus personnel, there was rarely a point to taking prisoners anyway. Tanda turned back from the room with the video and stood by the Reaper artefact for a moment.

Looking. Dully. It was doing what it always did, trying to ensnare and twist... like any Reaper artifact. It was... about the size of an aircar, this twisted thing of metal, with an organic look to the metal, sort of like a barnacle, with curved arms stretching out around the perimeter. And as always, it had sort of an oddness that made it feel wrong to look at.

"Set enough thermal detonators to blow it straight to hell, where it belongs. Vapourise it. _AND BE QUICK ABOUT IT!_ " Then she continued on, leaving behind the engineering detachment to quickly finish that up.

The video continued to play. Those not worthy of huskification had been liquified with acid. There were the sounds of finishing shots as the Cerberus wounded were shot dead.

Then the first of the Banshees came tearing out at her.

"Grand Moff Tanda'Pryl..!"

Tanda whirled, reversing the blade into the chest of the creature and sweeping in an arc that removed head, upper torso, one arm. The desiccated, emaciated remains of what had once been a living Asari toppled down behind her, and she whirled to face another one coming in. Leapt clear of its powers as she had learned to do from the first, with Kesea, her stomach a churn of emotion, and revulsion, at her enemy, that was so hard to control.

The second fell.

What followed was a kaleidoscope of the Hells. Reaperified rachni, walking artillery and turrets, unleashing swarmers... Deeper into the base they battled, facing the beasts as they tried to organise ambuses, and also mindlessly attacked anyone advancing—some capable, and some ravening. As the casualties started to mount, Tanda was getting sorely tempted to just withdraw and eliminate the base with turbolaser fire, as it was clear they had killed everyone.

...Still, there might be _something_ useful in it. As she chopped through the hordes, opening up the attacks for her men to finish with a minimum of casualties, she found a point deep within the facility where they abruptly tapered away. Silence again reigned, interrupted only by the ferocious shaking, the fluttering of rock shards from the ceiling, as the massed demolition charges vapourised the Reaper artefact.

She turned back into the core of the base, and to her astonishment felt a living presence in the Force. There was a—a single human man, working at a terminal... finishing his effort, and grabbing an OSD before he started to run.

It was the scientist she'd seen in the vid-logs as the head of the facility. A burst of energy surged through her, and she surged too, running so fast as to _fly_ after him for a brief moment, spinning and rolling back to her feet in front of him.

And when he was cut off with her ignited blade, the Marines' boots pounding the floor from behind, she gazed from the safe inscrutability of her mask, and tried to regain control.

...He let out a small yell. "What... Oh god, you are that Jedi. Well! I'm getting out of here, and you will too if you have any sense! I put his assassin back together, and that's it! I'm done!"

"My troops are finishing up destruction of the technological terrors you've created at this death camp. To the wall." She thrust the lightsabre rather ominously, but held it back from his throat. "The wall! Now!"

He put his hands up, and backed into it. "We succeeded, don't you see? That thing they're building... so primitive... But you could control the Reapers just as easily as destroy them... and with that power, humanity would never be disrespected again."

"Humanity can't be disrespected! Dea, you fools! Did you ever really believe me!? We've got trillions by the trillions on core worlds that coruscate like gems in space from the infinity of their lights carpeting the surface two thousand storeys deep. I don't care. You've slaughtered humans like cattle. You're much less than human and you don't deserve to see what I have seen. I will destroy the Reapers, not control them. And you will give us information on how we can save humanity by uniting humanity." The Marines caught up with her, leveling rifles. "All of it. All of it."

"... What are you asking?" He seemed confused, that she wasn't even tempted by the idea of controlling the Reapers.

"Your life for the location of Cerberus headquarters."

"I just put that ninja the Illusive Man loves so much back together... I'll need to use that console." He indicated one behind her.

"If it's in the databanks, we'll bring it up ourselves. Take him away."  
He gave her a look, but let himself be taken away.

She rushed to the console, trembling, glancing over her shoulder, feeling a call warning her... Warning her that he was a liar and she must strike him down!

She thought of Tali, and breathed to be calm. Tali who forgave, Tali who loved, Tali who had looked past her racism. She breathed again. In the computer was... the flight plan of a shuttle leading to the Horseshoe Nebula. He _hadn't_ been lying.

And the sense of danger was something else: A silenced warning about a reactor that would overload in thirty minutes.

Tanda downloaded the flight plan and ordered them all to clear out. "I have you!" She thundered to the sky as her boots tramped with her troops back through the ruins of this false paradise. Her voice echoed uncomfortably to her troops, but it was meant for someone else, of course. And as the power spiked, the hideous, oozing malaise of death seemed to press her to leave even faster than the countdown.

She could not be done with the monsters soon enough. But first, they had to defeat an altogether much more human sort of monster. It was time to crush Cerberus.


	68. Chapter 68

The probe droid which lucked out on confirming the coordinates from Horizon revealed a base a good twenty kilometers long, thin, armoured hull, defense turrets, and hundreds of cruisers... No small installation was this, the starfield in the background of the probe droid's images being what Tanda remembered, and the concentration of strength defending it hideously larger than it should have been. Though Miranda had given her some idea of how it had been put together, the scale in this time of war still staggered her when it came to the fleet. There was only one explanation; the Reapers were allowing Cerberus access to shipyard assets inside of fallen human space. They were, in fact, fighting just one enemy.

When they reviewed the data, however, there was no choice about the scale of the commitment required. Tanda brought along the rest of the fleet after all. The Quarian force was back up to strength, six geth dreadnoughts standing by new-built with hyperdrive, ray shields and eight ion cannon, four tractor beams and ten twin turbolasers each in addition to their native armament, her own force of four native upgraded dreadnoughts, her support ships... The geth cruisers... Two hundred and fifty ships in all anchored by eight Harrowers and Valors, one VSD, two ISDs.

"I had wanted to minimize the warning time," she explained to Shepard at the last war council, "So there was not even the slightest chance to wait." Which with Tasiele and Ashley there... Ah, such a wonderfully uncomfortable moment. Tasiele was staring at her sharply the entire time, and Tanda knew there would be a talk about the raid on Horizon coming. Frankly, the length of time for which that Tasiele had held her silence already surprised her. But the Reapers were moving... _The question is whether or not we have become merely allies of convenience._

Tanda brushed aside the fear, and cleared her throat. "Essentially the objective will be to destroy the base before we destroy all the Cerberus ships. There's no evidence of the Cerberus fleet being huskified, and most of the ships may be run by men like Petrovsky who will surrender and cooperate with us against the Reapers after we eliminate Cerberus headquarters. So our objective is to drop out of hyperspace as close to the station as possible and concentrate all fire upon it until it is destroyed. Then we attempt to disable the Cerberus fleet and secure as many surrenders as possible of intact vessels."

"We'd like to hope so. Is the Citadel going to be all right without us there? Sovereign really wanted that damned thing, and I don't want Harbinger to have a free shot. The Citadel Defense Fleet... well, you sent most of it away, looks like?" Shepard asked, brain rumbling along as she rubbed her temples, looking different than she had before; her hair was growing out into a real fleet braid now, and her mental stability was getting pretty good, following her mother's example into command with so many of her old friends and comrades around.

"I've been considering moving the Citadel," Tanda answered.

"Oh, I'm sure the Council loved that idea..."

"I mean it supposedly has this ability," Tanda answered, glancing around the table to frowns, to Quarians and geth reviewing data... In some ways they were so much alike.

"Well, yes, I'm sure the Reapers know how to move it. Never actually seen it closed..."

"Since the Reapers haven't attacked Ialessa yet…" ...Tanda started laughing. Almost hysterically. "Wait, wait, brilliant. Doctor T'Soni, do you think we could move it?"

Liara looked up. "In... theory, it would travel along mass relays as easily as any other object, Moff Pryl. We know of no upper limit for what they can transit."

Tanda was almost cackling. Shala'Raan stared at her. "Well, let's hope there isn't a Reaper named Han Solo, then," Tanda finally said, her humour bleak, and morbid.

And with a little real hope in it. "Doctor T'Soni! I'd like you to secure the support and logistics of bringing the Citadel through the Mass Relay network to Sanves."

Her eyes did a little thing. "Goddess, that will be... a lot of plasma thrusters."

"It may be our only chance to defeat them. We create a target the Reapers must attack; instead of a target we must defend. That is the optimal outcome of our existing strategy. We will force the Reapers to attack planetary shields and the Supercollider, because the Citadel will be _inside_ of the shield radius. If the Reapers want to keep us from activating the Catalyst, they must seize the Citadel, which means they must try to overwhelm the planetary shield in the face of sustained fire from the Tirii-Susskind Supercollider, attacking again and again into the teeth of our new super-weapon. It may actually wear their numbers down to the point they could be defeated conventionally."

"Matriarch Lidanya will be upset she did not have access to this the last time she had to defend the station." Liara frowned. "Give me a week or two."

"Do you want the fleet in position for that fortnight? It will complicate the operation against Cerberus, unfortunately, if so."

"I only need sufficient forces to hold off a Reaper attack for four minutes," Liara answered calmly.

Tanda rubbed her hands together. "I like the way this woman talks!"

"Fortunately, so do I," Shepard added.

"That is _very_ fortunate," Liara agreed.

"Well, then. Thank you for your input, Captain Shepard. I shall let you go before you get in trouble. The Grissom institute, I believe?"

"That's right, Moff Pryl." The ranks were dizzying, still...

But this Pryl didn't seem to mind. "Dea protect, Captain. You're dismissed."

As the rest of the staff also filed out, Tasiele remained sitting toward the far end of the table. Tanda did not bother getting up.

"Jedi?"

"You didn't kill anyone in cold blood at Horizon. You didn't stop your soldiers from doing it, either, Pryl."

"Jedi, you overestimate how firm the ground I stand on is. I would have had to kill them to stop them after what they saw and heard there. It was an industrial processing facility for humans."

"I know." Tasiele looked heavily toward the ground, and swayed a bit. "I know too well. Yes, you're right. But in taking up the lightsabre again – you will be tested, Pryl. You _will_ be tested. And if you fall, yes, we'll keep working. The Reapers are too dangerous. But don't doubt I'll take you down afterwards."

She paused for a moment. "Do you really want to leave Tali alone to deal with the aftermath of that?"

"Never," Tanda swallowed.

"Then remember, you will be tested." Tasiele followed the others out.

-

The fleet rushed again as one body through hyperspace. Tanda's plans slowly slipped into motion, even as she was quietly boiling from the necessity to fight other humans instead of the Reapers. The battle they were going to face was almost absurd on the face of it considering the vast enemy that was already resuming its own offensives across multiple sectors. Instead, she was destroying a group of humans who when she had first arrived had seemed like her most natural allies.

Well, that was before the Quarians. Before Tali. Sitting and staring at the wall in her quarters, _their_ quarters, the clock ran down and she wanted her wife back at her side. Her alien wife, the woman she loved who would have damned her back home. The thought still made her sick, she still turned her mind from it. _The Empire stood for everything good at home, and yet it was still rotten at the core. Can I really make anything better?_

The warning alarm chimed, and Tanda got up and started heading to the bridge. It didn't matter; anything was better than what they were fighting, and she knew she was certainly better than Cerberus. Arriving on _Thunderflare_ 's flagbridge, once again ready for battle, she established the status reports and then the reversion countdown began. The fleet came in close. Very, very close to the massive Cerberus base. "I don't think the Illusive Man will be giving me a whisky on the rocks, this time," she muttered under her breath.

Tanda clasped her gloves together as she watched her fleet surge out alongside the flagship. _Thunderflare_ herself; _Stalker_ ; _Bombard_ ; three huge Harrowers, three nearly as big Valours, two dozen lighter ships from her galaxy, six Geth dreadnoughts, four more dreadnoughts rebuilt with the Quarians, two hundred and twenty local cruisers, almost all of them once the pride of the Quarian fleet, and from them, hundreds of QEQ-1 starfighters now being hot launched directly into battle.

The Cerberus fleet was falling in against the station to meet them, ships descending onto the Imperials as their massed fire was already flaring out against the flanks of the Cerberus station. Shields flared as turbolasers bolts, even from the main cannon of the ISDs, were briefly repulsed by generator banks built into the base. Tanda was grimacing. The technology meant that the Reapers had it, too, and perhaps had indeed already duplicated it. Then it got worse; jamming signals were flickering out - including over the hyperwave frequencies the Empire used.

"Order the fleet into point blank range with the Cerberus base and shut them all down!" The massively powerful broad range jamming of the big ISDs was still more than she expected Cerberus to be able to deal with, and they had a single objective, moving in against the base instead of the fleet, their main batteries able to bear... _enmasse._ Thousands of brilliant flashes from the turbolasers intersecting the ray shields the Illusive Man had built into his base rippled along the length from end to end, making the base disappear into the pounding fire. Particle cannon from the accelerator rings of the Quarian cruisers joined in and the QEQs released proton bombs across the surface of the station.

The Cerberus cruisers coming in against them opened fire, rippling out salvos of torpedoes, antimatter warheads going off as novas against the shields, fighters scrambling by the hundreds... moving in to attack her fleet and try and force her to pull back from the base. They had the clear advantage that Tanda had been voluntarily caught between two fires by her attack. As the response developed, it was clear they were... willing to close to very close range in the attempt to keep her off the station, which was itself disturbingly heavily armoured. Not disturbingly well shielded, though. Massive shield failures already covered most of the hull on that flank: Cerberus had copied the basic technology, but simply could not refine it nor couple it to the energy sinks required to make Galactic Standard shielding technology really effective. _May it be the same with the Reapers._

"Switch the broad spectrum jamming to nothing but the recordings from the Sanctuary Base. I want to force the Cerberus crewers to see them! To see those KIDS!"

Jorjarlen stiffly turned back to the fleet comms pit. Like most of the Imperials he didn't even like handling the images they were so hideous. But out they went, then he turned back.

Kesea was serving in the role that Tanda would have preferred to see her wife in. "Shall we pull the starfighters off their attack runs with the proton bombs exhausted? Turn them with torpedo and missile against the cruisers?"

"Granted," Tanda answered. The ion cannon fire was being hindered by the thickness of the armour on the Cerberus station, but anything on the surface—weapons, sensors, and yes, jammers—was being disabled quite handily be now.

"Heavy turbolasers only. Medium and light weapons may target the cruisers. We're not going to burn through that armour with anything less than the main batteries."

"Understood, Your Ladyship!"

The new QEQ fighters were there in enough numbers that once they were shifted and unleashed on the Cerberus fleet they were quite able to make some impression with blazing slashing tactics. First they tore in masses through the Cerberus fighters to set up their proton torpedo runs, and then they directed massed torpedo volleys into the Cerberus cruisers which easily hammered down their screens. The blossoms of explosions now spread to the Cerberus fleet that Tanda had, before the revelation of shields, wanted to capture intact. The Quarian cruisers responded to the allocation of fire by shifting to face outwards, sterns protected by the continuous arcs and crackles of ionization energy swathing the station so they can direct all their weapons against the Cerberus fleet whilst the Star Destroyers and Valours simply hammered the 20km long base facility with utterly massive firepower from the greatest of their turbolasers, the ion cannon keeping the station itself beat down and helpless.

Huge gouges appeared in the flanks of the station with plumes of plasma spewing from them until the metal cooled, the main turbolaser batteries proved as amply capable of demolishing the armour just as Tanda would have expected. No attempt at boarding. Just destruction. She wondered if the Illusive Man realised now just how he had been finished, but she doubted it, for she doubted if he were really living by now.

The Cerberus fleet was continuing to fight, with the cruisers trying to break through her shields, concentrating on the two ISDs with ripple-firing projectile weapons, closing to point blank range, and it... wasn't working. They could hit her big ships as hard as they wanted, and the shields held while her own fleet ripped through the cruisers in return, and her main batteries hammered the base to death.

Tanda was bothered. There was not the slightest sign of wavering in a fleet whose position was increasingly hopeless. She activated open comms herself, now that the only jamming was from her fleet, and began sending out a series of exhortations for the crews to stand down. "You have long and loyally served humanity! This fratricide has no purpose except to weaken humanity in the home galaxy, while the Motherworld rots under the rule of a horrifying alien menace!"

"Do you not understand that we are of a common blood? Comrades! I need you to fight the Reapers! The horrifying atrocities of your leaders will not fall upon you! With your joining in our combat against the Reapers occupying Terra, I shall insure that all is forgiven. We absolutely must unite humanity under one predominant leadership, and it is equally obvious in these circumstances that anyone without Reaper implantation would be spared! Come, do you think me mad enough to abandon resources to my own cause? Turn your ships aside and know that the Empire is humanity, and the Illusive Man stands against humanity! Quarter, forgiveness, honour, for every ship in the fleet!"

As Tanda sent message after message into the void, her lighter ships again began targeting the base, taking advantage of the huge gashes in the hull of the facility to do precision targeting, and getting in close enough they could go after the particle shield generators directly to finish off the station's last line of defence.

Boiling and burning, the Cerberus cruisers kept trying to close. They forced Tanda to have her light ships turn back from attacking the station and to resume fighting them. Then they died again. She rearmed her QEQs, sent them out again... Again the Cerberus cruisers kept dying. And she received only silence in response to her appeals. The faces of the men on her bridge were stone-faced at the lack of an answer to appeals both patriotic and emotional. How could living men ignore the power of those images?

Ignore them they did. Tanda watched the silent image of one cruiser that was caught by the quadruple heavy turbolaser of _Thunderflare_ 's portside trench battery, erupting into a spiraling mass of exploding and vapourising matter as all four shots from several salvoes struck in close succession, the cruiser disappearing only two klicks from the ISD's beam as the barrels of the quad mount recoiled in succession. A last set of shots before they could re-target made half the wreckage vanish in another flare.

They died, but they did not yield, and for all the terrible splendour of their deaths, the scene of the Station was a thousand times more terrifying and grand. There, the station was _burning_ , in space, in a vacuum, from the sheer quantity of atmosphere being vented to space, and all of it combusting from the incredible energies still being directed into the station. Now that the particle shields were knocked out, too, the Harrowers and Valours had turned in and begun to unleash massive broadsides of assault proton torpedoes and concussion missiles. With their directed warheads they ranged into deep penetrating hits through the armour of the base again and again, and it shook from internal explosions as huge in size as the _Thunderflare_!

Outside the perimeter established by their fire, the Cerberus ships kept firing, trying to concentrate, to overwhelm one of the great ISDs, and it wasn't working, _it wasn't working_ ; but Dea, they were trying, in a suicidal sort of desperation, firing all their guns and then... And then doing quite a lot more.

Their fighters started crashing into hers, even... All of a sudden, plunging into the QEQ-1s in vast coordinated waves. Then explosions began to spread gouts of plasma from holes in the armour of the base which had already been vented.

"Kamikaze, M'lady!"

The visage of the explosions across the battlefield was reflected on her visor. She twisted the foreign word through her lips. Saw its origin. _Why, for that man?_ A sudden, baleful feeling about the Cerberus fleet swept through her soul, and the next orders were breathless.

"All ships move away from the Cerberus base! All ships move away from the Cerberus base! Stand off!"

As they drew back, a single Cerberus frigate shot out of the base and flickered into FTL, then another, and another... Three in all, no more, the Imperial ships moving back to stand off. And then the thing blew apart. The explosion hammered energy through their ships, even _Thunderflare_ shaking, rattling the kaff carafes at the back of the bridge, shattering the clinical atmosphere of the flagbridge, jerking the ship against the effort of her thrusters. Some of the Quarian cruisers were bodily tumbled.

Tanda had seen the frigates, and she made sure the data went out, even as her gut with clenched in hopelessness. She leaned into a stanchion and kept talking. "Your leader has fled and left you behind to your fate! Stand down and serve the Empire!"

The Imperial fleet surged into the mass of the Cerberus ships, still fully engaging, as the base faded into ruin behind them. The result was her worst nightmare. The cruisers started ramming her ships, ripple-firing weapons to attempt to weaken the shields before striking the perimeter. The most hopeful of the Imperials were taken aback in blank incomprehension at their human enemy resorting to this.

"They're all dead, the Reapers finished getting to them, they're all dead," Kesea was muttering.

"Form the fleet using Sigma-01!" Having trained against the tactic of disrupting the incoming Reapers trying to touch the shields in the wake of the battle of Palaven, the tractor beam arrays would be used to knock the Cerberus cruisers off course from their ramming attacks, to blunt impacts and to make them glancing blows... Tanda was considerably more bothered. Somehow, the Illusive Man had managed to ruin all of his people. There was no redemption here; just death.

As even this tactic failed in the face of the technological superiority of the Imperial fleet, some of the Cerberus cruisers started flickering away, the frigates with them. A good half of the number... Kept boring in and trying to ram.

"Keep engaging." Tanda grimaced. She knew she couldn't let them escape, for the havoc they'd wreak if she did, so she'd have to accept the casualties. They were casualties in forces meant to fight the Reapers... _This madness is all unto them. They ARE the Reapers, now_. And it was for that reason that they had to break Cerberus' back, there and now.

...They either fled, or fought to the last. Not a one surrendered.

Tanda maneouvred the fleet to prevent them from escaping as best as she could and kept hammering the rest into flaming wrecks, accepting the casualties it meant, rearming her surviving fighters to finish off the wrecks, and not yielding a single second to the thought of slacking her effort. Even her own people in the end had to die, for the sake of keeping even one more of these cruisers from escaping and spreading chaos. The Reapers thrived on chaos: The Empire, on grim, perfect efficiency, the kind of efficiency which brought her fleet together to systematically annihilate even suicidal holdouts.

She knew she had no choice, even as casualties piled up, especially from kamikaze runs. It took longer than it should, but in the end, there was wreckage—nothing more—and far too much of it hers.

"Stand down." A perverse kind of silence settled on the bridge as she looked again and again across the flaming wrecks, especially of Quarian cruisers that had already suffered at Palaven. Her sigh was lost in her mask, and there was nothing more for it. "Make all necessary repairs to the cripples and deploy hyperspace tugs to bring those in with damaged motivators... How many did we lose?"


	69. Chapter 69

A dozen cruisers, well more than a hundred fighters, and for the first time, a Corellian corvette from the old Ova defence force had been destroyed when it had been rammed by a Cerberus cruiser it had been unable to dodge. The first loss of a warship from her home galaxy, if the smallest and most humble of them, seemed a terrible omen to her as she reviewed the details, drafting the after-action report that no superior would ever read.

Closing her eyes at the end of the review, but only for a moment, Tanda then sent a message to the Geth noting all allied losses and asking when the Asari sixth fleet, first on the list for upgrades, would be finished with the upgrades so that it could return to reinforce her main force and make good the losses. Then she signaled the Shadowbroker with news of the destruction, and the fact the entire force had probably been indoctrinated/huskified with the Illusive Man still at large.

Altogether, the escape of the Illusive Man and the fanatical end of his fleet came off as yet another in what seemed to be an unending string of failures. _I am winning battles and losing the war_. On the other hand... Between the annihilation of his base and main fleet, and the capture of Petrovsky's fleet in the Omega cluster from before the indoctrination of the Cerberus forces was complete, Cerberus was pretty well finished as a fighting force.

Tanda drafted orders that Petrovsky and his men be offered release to join her, with the full documentation of what Cerberus had degenerated into being provided to them first, careful screening to make sure that they were responding favourably being necessary. Even so... _Surely only someone indoctrinated would fight for Cerberus now_. The ships had already been placed into the reconstruction programme.

With hyperwave links to Rannoch, the Geth updated their shipyard status almost instantaneously in response to the query. They estimated at least another week—many Asari dreadnoughts were in the force and there were issues with raising their mass too greatly given their unique drive systems.

Outside of her position, nestled into the bridge tower of the _Thunderflare_ , repairs to the fleet were continuing. As soon as they had tied everything down, slapped ferrocement patches into holes in the hulls of ships, and recovered ejected pilots and escape pods, they could depart. Tanda, in her desperation for more ships, nonetheless ordered that troops and marines be used to board the cripples that had failed to destroy themselves for intel and possibly repairable ships.

So many plots spinning, and so many questions lingering. And a wife distant to her, whom she badly wanted to hold. She went to sleep that night unsettled, at best. Then, in a victory without pleasure, she dragged her fleet back toward the Citadel. She had hoped to add the Cerberus ships to her own, and the arrival back at the great station, still the centre of galactic governance, was morbid as she thought of failure, both to add the ships of Cerberus to her own fleet and to eliminate the question of legitimacy for her unity government.

But their arrival was quite different from what she had expected. Her fleet arrived in wave after wave, ships and hyper-tugs hauling a few Cerberus hulks, all appearing in the depths of the nebula, and just to find the Citadel wasn't there: In fact, Liara's efforts had already borne fruit, and the Citadel was already underway, lined with plasma thrusters and old starships bolted on at point after point, aiming steadily toward the Mass Relay.

The fleet kept pace. Tanda pulled herself from the bridge to go below, a shuttle waiting over to the great bulk and mass of the Citadel. As she arrived, she found the complete opposite of what she had expected. People were cheering her, the first public adulation she had found since arriving and saving the Asari colony of Mils. She walked through to the Presidium with her guard of stormtroopers only standing between her and a desperately happy crowd. Especially the humans.

Liara was waiting for her, looking dazed. "I had not thought I would ever be an engineer before... Even just in a management role. Grand Moff, they are cheering you because you crushed Cerberus. You've broken them; that shapeness shadowy force that half the Alliance thought you were in league with and the other half have been attacked by at one point or another. And many nonhumans feared you _were_ Cerberus. Do not doubt the Goodwill you have obtained."

"To me it was a great loss. We had to destroy the entire Cerberus fleet, Doctor T'Soni."

"You are wrong. While I could not speak against it because the logic was impeccable, the reality was that the moral force of crushing Cerberus, of avoiding being associated with them, I think is a far greater advantage than some cruisers we would have to spend resources to upgrade. The crews were already lost, and not by your doing."

"...As you say, Doctor T'Soni. How long until the Relay?"

"Another fourteen hours." She smiled. "You wish to see Tali'Zorah again, do you not?"

"It would be nice," Tanda sniffed. "Nicer than all the adulation in the cosmos. We're bringing everyone together over Sanves... And then we're going to wait."

-

When they arrived at Sanves, the first thing that happened was Tali's personal assault shuttle heading over from the Supercollider. She reached the docking rings of the Citadel to find that the Grand Moff of what Tanda was sardonically calling 'Oversector Far Outer' was waiting for her in person. And so was a strong hug that came to them both naturally, squeezing until they could feel it through their suits. It was Tali that spun Tanda, though, these days, but her eyes widened in delight that at least Tanda's breathing was not utterly ragged as she sat her down.

"My love," Tanda offered softly. "It has been far too long with far too much horror and fear, before seeing you again in your boundless innocence and optimism."

"Hah, I wish I was really like that!" Tali answered, keeping her arm around Tanda. By this point, nobody cared, or at least dared express any caring.

"As far as I am concerned, you are." Tanda folded her arm around Tali's. "So, we're going to a meeting with the Council to plan the next stage of the operation."

"Wait, me...?"

"Why not? You're my wife. And I don't want to be apart from you."

"I, uhm... It's an incredible honour to be the floozy hanging on your arm at a Council Meeting."

"Tali!"

"Well, it is."

Tanda was still laughing when the two of them wandered into the Council chamber. The Salarians had least picked a replacement. She moved to sit at the head of the table, with Tali standing at her back.

"Fellow Councilors. I believe it is time for us to begin evacuating the Citadel to the surface of Sanves. There the population can be protected even under the heaviest of attack; the Citadel, being used as bait, should no longer also be used as a place of residence. It can return to its place as a home for countless souls when we are at peace. I therefore request that the Asari make arrangements to designate a certain portion of the surface of Sanves as Council territory for the further deliberations and proceedings of the Council from this point forward... In putting this plan together we have created the beginnings of a massive set-piece battle here. We have for the first time in one of these dreadful cycles given the Reapers a target they must attack, forced them to come to the races they murder rather than choose the time and place of the battle, and we can prepare elaborately and at will to resist. Those preparations must begin now."

The councilors looked at each other across the table, the energy of the proposal and its drastic nature... Well, it was the sign of the times. "It... will not be easy, with near to fifteen million to evacuate, and many uncounted and un-noticed as well." Tevos was uncomfortable at the idea, to put it mildly.

Sparatus' mandibles clacked, and he looked bemused at Tevos for a moment before addressing Tanda. "It's an excellent idea, and," a glance back to the Asari, "you know it, Councilor Tevos. Anything to draw them off Palaven and Earth..."

The blue-skinned alien woman's face quirked slightly; "I will... attempt to impress on the matriarchs of Sanves this point, but it will still be difficult."

"The sooner we do it the better. It won't be long until word of the position of the Citadel gets to the Reapers, and I think they will interpret it as meaning that our recent work in this system has been to finish the Crucible here," Tanda added, half rising from her chair. "That's what we _want_ them to think, even, and they're not going to want to let us finish the job."

"You have a point, though it will... not be pleasant to arrange, Councilor."

"With a fleet of this size in orbit, ferrying fifteen million people to the surface is not a grave matter," Tanda insisted. "Please. We have accomplished more lately... We will have to accomplish more yet. If this operation does not succeed in weakening the Reapers to the point that they may be dealt with via conventional arms, we will have to implement the Crucible, and probably in disadvantageous circumstances as well. Why risk civilian lives when there is no need, when the only excuse is that it is more comfortable for them to remain aboard?"

A Turian officer entered the council chambers. "Councilor." He saluted, addressing Sparatus.

"May we spare the interruption?"

"Of course," Tanda gestured, and sank back. Tali handed her a bulb of a fruit smoothie, and she smiled tiredly under the mask. She watched as the Turian officer handed over a report for Sparatus. Classified; otherwise it would have just been a priority omnitool update.

"Well, Councilor?" Tanda asked as the officer departed.

"Good news. Victory. The combined Turian suicide-squad and Krogran infiltration units which Captain Shepard's efforts on Tuchanka made possible have destroyed many large Reaper ships over Palaven," Sparatus answered calmly. "Both of us have victories to report."

Tevos seemed to purple. "Suicide squads?"

"The sacrifice of anyone will be honoured in the circumstance; they are all soldiers dying for Palaven."

Tanda leaned forward. "This war is so savage I cannot condemn it. Better to die on your feet. My compliments, Councilor Sparatus, to the boldness and valour of your people and the Krogan. I suggest, Councilor Tevos, that you use this as a reminder of the times... Of the desperate importance of every action we take, Councilor, so that the Matriarchs of Sanves understand their own duty to suffer a bit for everyone else."

Tevos looked around the table. "This is what galactic civilisation has come to..."

Tanda's vocoder glowed as she started a word in reply, but Tevos' raised hand cut her off at an unformed syllable.

"No need, Councilor. I will get them to agree."

-

"The Matriarchs have recommended that the refugees be accepted, and the people of Sanves have agreed to a _temporary_ evacuation of the Citadel population and the Council to the surface of Sanves, Grand Moff Pryl," Tevos would say three days later, reaching Tanda's quarters in the Presidium where she sat with Tali, pouring over planning documents.

"Thank you, Councilor. We have already completed the preparations that we could without announcing it to the people." What she didn't add was _of course, anything can be temporary in war._

"Then you should announce it," Tevos replied. "For better or worse, this is Sanves now, both its native people, and the Citadel."

"I will. You'll have a shuttle to the surface in an hour, Councilor."

"Before everyone else?"

"Regularising the security arrangements will make the evacuation easier," Tanda answered. "Dea with you, Councilor."

"And you, Grand Moff."

Tanda killed the channel, and looked to Tali. "Well, dear. Let's pack up everything we have here and get ready to head back to the _Thunderflare._ "

"A last look around the Citadel..."

"For now," Tanda offered tightly. "Just for now." Then she keyed the channel open to C-sec. "This is Grand Moff Pryl. Commence the evacuation!"

...It was chaos, and C-Sec was having a lot of trouble from the moment that the order was given. People... seriously did not want to leave, not to mention businesses. The sea of humanity looked like the evacuation of a Star Liner, but a thousand times worse—literally.

The Presidium, at least, was already mostly empty. It had a small population relative to its size, and they were quickly moved out, most of them having private shuttles to depart to the surface of Sanves and safety upon.

That left Tanda and Tali, and a small staff, supervising the evacuation. "It's like the end of the world. Everyone turned out with just the clothes on their backs," Tanda sighed.

"Not different than what the Quarians of Rannoch knew," Tali answered. "Fleeing to the stars, instead of a world protected by these... Planetary shields."

"It's true, but it makes it no more pleasant."

Tali grinned under her mask even so—the 0.3 g's on the Presidium ring... well, they always made her a little lightheaded. "They'll be back. Together we've made sure of it."

"I hope so." Tanda changed the subject, feeling lame for doing it. "You've done some great things, Tali."

"You think so? Look at you, I just built things."

"Not at all true. First, these are true and excellent engineering works. Second, I couldn't have achieved any of what I nominally achieved, without you there for every step of the way. And, third, you're my wife, and you share in whatever glory I've obtained by virtue of being the one who holds my heart and sanity in hand."

Tali giggled a bit. "Well, it's true, but Quarians don't tend to think that way. Even if we do love a good romance..."

"How would you think about it that's different than what I proposed? I thought sharing was important for Quarians, m'dear." They had had some problems over that, in fact, that Tanda had mostly dealt with, since Quarian flexible notions of personal and assigned property versus their analysis of collective interest sometimes did cause them to technically steal. They just didn't see it that way.

"Well, it is, and we take pride of togetherness, we're very social... as you've seen. It's... pride in what someone does and how it represents us, but... we also remember the person? I feel like I'm failing in explaining this."

"Don't worry about it. You, my Tali, are not going to be so readily forgotten." She slipped her hands around Tali's waist, hugged her.

"Awh, you mean it too." She giggled, and grinned under the mask, hugging her tight back and 'kissing' her facemask. "You're sounding better, you know. Less wheezing."

"Doctor Chakwas was able to make some improvements." ...Tanda said it a hair... Grudgingly.

"I knew it!" Tali giggled... and then decided to have far too much fun with something. A third of a g, so... she proceeded to toss Tanda up into the air in celebration. Not just twirl. Toss.

Tanda looked down and flashed her a thumbs up as she seemed to float for a long moment. She went quite far up, with the force considered... "Aye, you win."

As Tanda came back down, Tali caught her as well, thank you kindly, and 'kissed' her again with a clink of helmet to helmet, giggling brightly "Yes. I do. If they think I can someday live without the suit... I firmly intend to offer you that chance too."

"It would be perhaps fitting for our roles to in the end be reversed," Tanda folded her arms around her wife, rocking her ample hips and pressing in against her, for a warmth that wasn't quite real between the suits, but just as heartfelt for it. "I will love you either way, Tali'Zorah."

"Hey, I'm going to love you too, you silly bosh'tet... and it'd be... bizarre. I don't think I'd ever get used to it, not really. Me out of a suit and you in it? Hah! I... If only there wasn't a war." She fiercely hugged Tanda again.

"Well, there is the war. And we live for the day when that won't be true."

"Damned right... and the day when we'll be running around after our children."

Tanda smiled tightly and thought to herself, _ou had better figure out how to make that happen without the dark side..._ But she couldn't say it. "After the war, my love. After the war."

"And what about now?"

"Well... I was going to ask you to go to Invictus to help construction of a planetary shield there, so that at least one Turian world has some kind of protection so that if this goes wrong and we end up spending the next three, four years bogged down in fighting the Reapers, we are not speaking about the extermination of the Turian species. But I think I want you to operate the Supercollider during the coming engagement first and foremost. I want the woman who turned it from a scientist's toy into a weapon in control of it when it is first tested in battle. Others can build planetary shields."

"...How ever did you guess that a Quarian might want to be at the controls of the most powerful particle accelerator ever built while fighting the things that come out of our darkest nightmares? It's like you're clairvoyant sometimes..."

"Does it help that I am? I mean, you are, too."

"Quiet, you bosh'tet, you're ruining the moment." She replied, with laughter in her voice.

Tanda squeezed again. "At this point, let's enjoy the Citadel until it's time to leave. And actually have some time together... Howeverlong it is."

"There's got to be something still open, you're right..."

Tanda started off, arm in arm, and indeed, like a sinking ship... Just like a sinking ship where nobody could fully believe that the danger was real, it would take a while until the music stopped playing in the clubs and the last of the stores closed during the evacuation.

When Tanda and Tali finally left with their packed belongings, there were thousands still aboard, the duct rats, those refusing to leave... in the end it came down to force, and it was a downright nightmare for C-Sec to try and get everybody off... and try and avoid looting by who was left after that.

A last stroll through the Presidium in empty, abandoned silent made them take their haste at leaving, and with a regiment of stormtroopers to help C-Sec and fight in the case of a boarding action, Tanda would take her lawfully wedded wife back to _Thunderflare_ after the last evacuation transport had gone.

 _Thunderflare_ , lurking under the shield under cloak. The rest of the fleet, standing out in the system beyond the shields, every single ship able to fight concentrated in one place. Except, to the Reapers, _Thunderflare_.

But she was there. Every trap that Tanda could muster, waiting, loaded for the moment that would come. Six days.

-

An alarm in the night brought them out of their sleep, together in the same bed. **Ships approaching at FTL speed. Bypassing the gate.**

Tanda reviewed the hyperwave data. _A lot of them. This is it._ She keyed into the intercoms. "Send the signal, stand by for the shuttle launch, then we go silent under cloak and wait."

"Understood, Your Ladyship."

A last hug. "I need to get going, Tanda."

"I know." She activated another switch on the intercom. "Stations," Tanda ordered, and then squeezed Tali as she got out of bed. "I'll see you to your shuttle, love."

"Mmmf... see you on the other side of a lot of broken Old Machines, love." She nuzzled back, with a last, needy squeeze.

"That's the plan, and the spirit. And my lover's hips. My wife's." She touched faceplates, and then they went down to the shuttlebay while around them masses of soldiers and sailors ran to their stations and strapped on armour and survival gear, and starfighters were shifted by the internal conveyors into position to be launched, pilots doing pre-flight as the ground crews continued to arm them to the last minute.

They touched helmets again. Tali turned to her assault shuttle, giving a little sashay on her hips, before running for the shuttle... waving as the ramp went up.

Tanda tossed her a salute, and turned back for one of the turbolifts at a jog. She was giving orders from the moment she reached the bridge. "Have the main sectoral jamming activate throughout the system. We don't want them finding out about the shield."

"Standing by for full spectrum jamming... Orders issued to the fleet."

Scolus came up on the screen at the back of the flagbridge. "Your Ladyship, I assume we are exempted from bringing jammers up?"

"That is correct, Captain," Tanda answered, turning to Colonel Jorjarlen. "Once jamming is fully established, bring the planetary shield to maximum power." Another round of promotions, though soon their ability to increase their strength would turn into losses of strength if the materialschlacht went on. _How bad off are you, Reapers?_ "Captain Scolus, finish launching the starfighters to join the rest, and then activate the cloaking device."

She watched the last of the starfighters exiting the bay of the _Thunderflare_. And then the view from the bridge screens and all the sensors went completely dead. It made the atmosphere on the bridge more tense, not less. So many had nothing to do, but they were at stations.

Tanda smiled gently. "Have the mess stewards pass food around to the men." She looked at the last sensor update from before they had cloaked: A best estimate of the Reaper force was north of fifteen hundred of the big ships and... a lot more of the little Destroyers. A lot more.

Tanda glanced back to Jorjarlen. "Let them come on. Let them make what they will of the Citadel being in orbit... As long as the jamming keeps them from realizing what they're seeing, we'll be fine."

"Are you in touch with Lady Zorah, M'lady?"

"Yes." Tanda reached out through the force, and felt the battle through her wife's eyes.

The Reapers were coming in quickly, swinging to attack the Citadel straight-on. There was none of the caution and cleverness that had characterised the battle over Palaven. They knew what they wanted, bypassing the Imperial fleet. Tanda was linked inextricably to Tali's nervous tension as power was maintained in the ring and the Reapers grew closer and closer.

And then the Reaper fleet reached the planetary shield, head-on and headlong. The lead ships would start disintegrating and vapourising and exploding against the iron wall of the planetary shield, and there would be no coming back and no repair for those Reapers, as a hideous orange blossom of plasma spread across the face of the planetary shield and a wave of ships slapped into it. Two of the big Reapers and a dozen of the faster destroyers vanished before the rest, burning out, blossomed like some black flower out over the shield in a desperate maneouvre. Tanda could hear Tali's control crew cheering around her wife as they watched it.

"Quick bastards." Tanda drove a gloved fist into gloved hand, and sighed a bit. She had wanted more of them. "Wait to see how they mass..." _Tali... Fire when ready._

The Reapers started forming up, firing constantly in a ring on the shields, releasing drones... _I think it's... commence primary ignition?_ ... Then she said it out loud. "Commence Primary Ignition!" She unleashed hell.

"Fifteen seconds and counting..."

"Stabilise accelerator path!"

"Notch eight, the beam will release through notch eight!"

"Final thruster burn in four, three, two, one..."

"Main cannon countdown, ten seconds and counting, eight, seven, six five seconds and counting three, two, one..."

"Beam emitting... Stabilising... Stable. Spread within normative parameters." The dry voices belied the huge beam spreading, cutting through space like a flashlight. Reapers struck by it saw the light energy shields they were now equipped with glow brightly for a moment, then disappear... They flashed orange into plasma, and then were torn away, melting into flares in the beam being driven outward back into the system at incredible speeds.

Tanda stared in awe as she watched the show through her wife's eyes. Reapers flashed out of existence. And then they rushed forward... Just to find out that this was, in fact, truly a planetary shield. There was no way to attack the Supercollider through it _at all_.

And that left them bunched directly in front of the Supercollider. It kept firing. The Reapers tumbled about in a blind panic, trying to escape the sweep of the beam as Tali'Zorah slowly rolled the station to keep it tracking through concentrations of Reapers.

Tali was firing as fast as was safe, that was for bloody certain, she had the juiciest target in galactic history. The Reapers were being routed from Sanves.

"Before they change their minds..." She reached out with the force to Shala'Raan. _Now, Admiral, and do not let them escape!_ The beam cut off as Tali'Zorah had to recharge the particle load in the ring, but the battle had just begun.

Now they had the Asari Sixth Fleet to join with the Quarians, the Geth taskforces, her own Imperial ships. All coming in out of deep space with their fighters already deployed. This fleet moved smoothly into position to block the retreat of the Reapers, ranging turbolaser fire already reaching out against its enemies.

Attacking! Shala'Raan wasn't used to this, and even for a veteran Quarian Admiral it was quite the responsibility. But she came streaking in with her ships, swarming the Reapers, concentrating fire as best she could... and pinning them. The last was the only job that really mattered, and it was executed well.

It was working. As the Reapers bunched up from their initial attempt to withdraw out of range, Tali had a bead on them again, and once more the Supercollider opened fire. Another hideous white wave of energy leapt out from Sanves and tore through the Reaper force, and the Reapers started to vanish under its power. The Imperial fleet, pinning them in place, started to rack up its own kills with massed turbolaser fire at range, whilst ion cannons left other Reapers helpless to escape the beam.

Tanda waited. _Thunderflare_... "They can either try to flee or to breach the shields. Stand ready. This isn't a core-world's planetary shield..."

And just as she expected, they turned to attempt to breach the shield not long after she said it—to break through and begin to attack the planet... and destroy that damned ring that was lashing out at them, killing them like nothing had killed them before. To take the Citadel, to destroy the weapon that was endangering their entire existence.

 _The population is distributed in blast shelters. My love, if the shield looks about to fall, constrict it around the ring to preserve our main weapon,_ Tanda directed coolly.

Ignoring the fleet that was hammering them from behind, caught between two fires, the Reapers concentrated on the planetary shield. Many of the Reapers crept up to it, and then those started to use their shield-disrupting effect from their legs. The giant Blackstar cannons were hammering at it, and the Reapers themselves... Well, against anything except the Supercollider, they were fairing better with their own shields. Space was swept with endless explosions and the flicker of turbolasers gave it a continuous dim green flash to Tali's eyes.

The number of Reapers being destroyed was still... Stunning. Heartfelt, a relief. They might just do it... But the Reapers were firing on the shield in a steady stream now, and it was struggling to hold, as the generators strained under the continuous pounding. They were still firing... The Supercollider was still firing, too, and killing Reapers as it did. _Reducing shield! ...Ancestors, they're all coming at me!_

She had no choice. The shield failures being triggered by the Reapers were cascading to the point that Tali and her engineers were having trouble maintaining enough of the shield to keep the Reapers out, anyway. And if they got a line on the Supercollider... That, she could not risk. So she gave in. This simulacra of a planetary shield abruptly began a far more powerful defence for the Supercollider.

Constricting the shield reduced the unit power per area by a factor of four, making the shield around the station four times stronger than it had been when covering the entire planet and the Citadel. The outcome was clear: It should be impregnable against any conventional attack and give Tali a chance to cool the generators, stabilise her power systems and concentrate on destroying Reapers with particle fire. It also left the Citadel and the planet unprotected. The Reapers would surely take advantage of that.

They did, and then some. Six hundred more Reapers came tearing in via FTL to reinforce the first fifteen hundred. Now they matched their numbers at Terra and at Palaven. A full commitment of the strength of an Armada whose true reserves, Tanda had no idea of, just informed guesses. No idea, but clearly far from being spent.

Of course, they had one more trick up their sleeve. _Thunderflare_ herself. Tanda gave the order. "Deactivate the cloaking device. Maximum firepower!" As she decloaked _Thunderflare_ , their cannons were linked in according to her sensing through the force on the precise locations of a nearby group of Reapers. One of their number abruptly found itself torn apart by precision hits of every one of the patiently laid turbolaser bolts, and the crew of the _Thunderflare_ now was overwhelmed by data of the battle, the Reapers rushing in, the fleet pursuing, and groups that Tali could bear against vanishing into that horrifying wave of energy.

"Ahead full, bring us hard-by the ring and fire free!"

Also concealed under the cloak hugging her hull had been seven wings of starfighters, all brand new QEQs that had been staged out of the planet, as well as _Thunderflare_ 's wing, and these exploded outwards at the Reapers.

Almost six hundred of the big, powerful and well protected starfighters now blazed forward as _Thunderflare_ swung into the fray, coming in close with the Supercollider, shaping her course to avoid causing complications for the fire control of the weapon, turbolasers firing continuously as the shields were given power only when the Reapers burned through the jamming enough to threaten a starship target, coming in close in pursuit.

"Signal the fleet to close up on us and move inside the shield arc to engage the Reapers more closely as they redeploy! We'll be trying to block them from the planet while keeping the bulk of them clear of our ships for the Supercollider to keep firing!" She worked furiously at the holoplot for a moment. "Here's the course projection... Get it to Admiral Raan for confirmation!"

The ships obeyed, the entire fleet maneouvring in a radical repositioning while it continued to fire. It was slower than an Imperial fleet back home would have been—Tanda thought for a moment of their incredible full power burn to close the trap at Endor with a flash of pain and pride that would never quite subside—and as they did, the Reapers moved in to try and carve the accelerator apart. Tali was going to be a real combat engineer now, re-routing power and trying to keep the ring in good enough alignment to keep firing... and she was, while outside, the race between the two fleets converged on a single point with death coming from every side.

Outside, great sweeping hordes of fighters and drones battled around the Reapers and the ships; the Oculus drones kept trying to intercept her smaller craft, and the smaller destroyers moved to engage to hold the fleet off the heavy ships. As a consequence, the Reaper Destroyers died like flies, but the Reapers were steadily closing with the Supercollider and continuing to concentrate fire upon it. Their cannon lanced through space as bolts of orange and green tore back, Reapers spun off out of control, and exploded, and kept maneouvring, braving the fire of the fleet to stay out of range of that horrifying weapon that Tali'Zorah had transformed the Supercollider into.

They found they could get no closer to the Supercollider, and then the battle was between the fleets at point-blank range, Blackstar cannon projectors turned toward their enemies in the arms of those living monsters, while their particle cannon drilled straight in... Quarian, Asari Cruisers and even a few of the Hammerheads were damaged in short order under massed fire. The Reapers held up better than they did before, but the parts of the dead and crippled ones began to mass along the flanks of the fleet as the guns tirelessly fired.

"Well, we're in it now." Countless Reaper beams were being bounced from _Thunderflare_ 's shields, and power cascades came in warningly as one Reaper or another managed to contact the shields for a moment before the tractor beams shoved it off. Blackstar cannon fire detonated into the energy shields at other points, and lighter ships in the fleet started to explode. The Reapers, despite their hideous losses, were not running, and the ray shields they now had were a force multiplier. Tanda gradually realized that ... They might just lose it. The Reaper fleet was incredibly powerful, and ... It remained to be seen what the Reapers would do next.

These old machines clearly couldn't get through the contracted shield barrier on the Ring by firepower alone, but they could disrupt the shields if enough of them came in contact with the shield perimeter. The planet and the Citadel, however, were both protected only by the wall of fire the fleet converged into the massive firepower and continuous shots of the supercollider.

She found herself holding her breath as she watched on great mass of Reapers break through, lunging clear of the main fleet. They turned to attack the Supercollider, pouncing on its shields all at once. As they began to 'touch' and disrupt the shields, Tali battled with her systems to keep power up, and burned the thrusters hard. Tanda could feel her desperate, her breath baited on the bridge of the _Thunderflare_ as she watched the ring spin.

Barely, with Tali doing her utmost to keep it somehow working... The shields held. Notch Six lined up with the group of Reapers, and before they could scatter, a flash of energy split the night, and at point blank range they disappeared into a tsunami of power and flashed into nonexistence, held for a moment as they began to disintegrate and then spinning into a hundred pieces in the beam which themselves turned to nothing in a second more, the image seared to her retina.

Tanda sighed and sagged into a stanchion. The Reapers started to pull back. Only then! Only then did they turn to the Citadel—and the planet. Tanda and Tali had saved the supercollider, but the other two assets in the system... Were quite defenceless.

"Fall back to defend the planet! Fall back!" Tanda ordered. She had to make a decision in a heartbeat, and she knew what the decision would be. The lives below mattered far more than the uncertain hope of Hackett's Crucible. "We'll keep them off of Sanves. Let them have the Citadel."

It had been her backup plan all along if this battle had failed to defeat them. She strained at her gloves. _I hate the idea of that thing._ "Fall back and consolidate in low orbit... Keep all fleet firing arcs clear, thrusters to the planet! Let's attrite them as much as we can."

Then the Reapers charged right past the Citadel... which started to move. It was not using the thrusters mounted to it, either, and a flash of something profoundly unnatural through the force crept up her spine like an unease in the dark. She could only catch it for a flicker, some connection between the starships and station, and then they were on her again, once again closing with her ships, but now just over Sanves' atmosphere. Escape pods and shuttles started to blossom from it as the stormtroopers and C-sec troopers began to frantically evacuate the Citadel, no longer under their control. As they did, Oculi drones swept through and cut them down. Tanda gritted her teeth, but there was nothing more she could do.

Coming in like that, the Reapers endured more fire, took more losses. Tali just kept firing until she had to stop to avoid hitting the planet. The Reapers slowed, now positioning themselves point-blank with the Imperial fleet to prevent them from suffering more fire from the Supercollider, unable to fire without hitting allied ships.

"...They're coming back to engage us?" Tanda, watched the fleet, swallowing again as the Citadel pulled away. She was suddenly so very, very glad she had evacuated the citadel, having seized on that burst transmission, that thing which was somehow a shadow of the life they had once had. Suddenly the station seemed particularly malevolent. Tanda had been right all along. It really was a trap.

And meanwhile around her, her fleet started to die as the Reapers flung themselves in at point blank whilst others dived for the planet proper. A spinning mass of explosions and traded fire arced through the night's sky of Sanves, nobody there to watch as they huddled in their blast shelters. Her staff was looking nervous as once again the battle turned against them.

...And then... "M'lady, there is a large reversion from hyperspace, _one_ repeat _one_ contact!"

"WHAT THE KRIFF?"

The Imperial officers were too stunned, too shocked to even notice how unusual Tanda's outburst was. The Asari stared in a confusion that the healthy respect and even a bit of fear of the Old Imperials belied.

"Small squadron preparing to revert behind them..."

A ship stood off Sanves. It was in the better part a thin disc about five thousand meters in diameter, with a massive quadrangle pyramid surmounting the dorsal centre, and a series of spine-shaped projections at regular intervals on the circumference of the main hull.

Tanda leaned harder on that stanchion. "Colonel Jorjarlen... Hail them. Politely." It was so shocking they didn't even really notice the ships that followed her.

The only thing more stunning was who answered. "Captain Atarah Shepard under Admiral Daro'Xen vas Bra'katorja to _Thunderflare_ , ma'am, ready to engage."

Jorjarlen stared. Kesea stared. Tanda swayed. _This is insane? This... Nobody told me!_ "I can't believe I'm having this conversation, Captain Shepard, and we're going to have to have a talk later about appropriate information exchange in the command structure. Regardless, I am really glad to see you right now. Engage where you see fit. The Citadel is... The Reapers activated some kind of routine in it that is controlling it. I am not sure we can maintain a hold over it. Concentrate on the Reaper fleet. Crush it!"

"... Something inside the Citadel may be the control hub for the entire Reaper armada, Grand Moff Pryl. Moving to attack, however, Lady Tasiele has launched and will join with the fighter wings. The Admiral is like as not to have her hands full with her ship—we are attacking."

Tasiele led several squadrons of starfighters away from the Trade Federation cruiser-transport which had come in just behind the Bra'katorja, which then fell back, while _Normandy_ went in with the Moreh and two Hammerhead cruisers as a screening escort for the Bra'katorja.

And then Daro'Xen activated the main weapons, and a four hundred meter long section of one of the big Reapers would bend, flux, and shear into millions of pieces, instantly disintegrated into a collection of droplets of formless matter!

The Imperials watched. Their fire control crews recovered and their own fire picked up again. Mumbling, amazed that their Quarians had done it. Had found it, and had done it. Amazed, and heartened at a battle turned from lost to won in a heartbeat. ...Again, again, again. The ship lazily spun to bring more of the weapons to bear... She had a total of eight of the things, and they signaled their readiness on recharging with musical notes, crazed musical notes. As one fired, the next rotated into firing position and was activated, and would be charged by the time it came around again.

The Reapers responded in confusion. Being at point-blank was doing nothing. The weapon could pass through ships it was not targeted for, or _something_. For AIs it was almost painful. They were struggling to counter it, all of them pulling back from the Imperial fleet, trying to find a course on which they could move to attack the Gree ship without coming into range of the Supercollider.

Yes, the Gree ship. _Bra'katorja_. Tanda brought it up idly. Purple nonagon Green perpendicular. Mayhem to Attackers. Sitting for tens of thousands of years, and now Daro'Xen had her operational and in combat.

The Reapers continued to withdraw. "Pull the starfighters back to rearm," Tanda ordered. "Manoeuvre—sixty degrees starboard twelve degrees positive Z relative to system primary. Let's make a shaping operation of it." The fleet accelerated, firing from their concentrated forward batteries and pressing themselves against the Reapers to force them into a position from whence to be destroyed by fire from the Supercollider as they moved to attack the _Bra'katorja_.

As the ships manoeuvred, the Reapers steadily found their original course becoming less and less tenable; they would have to maintain their range and vulnerability to the particle beam as they tried to attack the _Bra'katorja_. And the Gree ship just kept ... felling Reapers, even from very extreme range, though the Reapers were starting to get close.

Then the Supercollider opened fire again, and the beam washed close to the shields of the _Thunderflare_. Tanda held her breath. _Tali!_

Don't worry! Just a little hot! The beam kept flashing, and another dozen Reapers vanished into its hideous power. They could not close the range to the Gree ship without braving that fire once again, and it had just been made quite plain to them.

Without further warning, the Reapers began coming about, covering the Citadel as it kept moving out of the system.

Tanda rocked straight to her feet. Even as her crews didn't realise it yet, she did. "Pull us out of the line and cover _Bombard_ in landing the Juggernauts and the stormtrooper brigade in responding to those Reaper incursions to the surface. Break off three wings of starfighters to assault them. I want the incursions on the planet cleaned up _quickly_. "

She activated the comm line to the Supercollider. "Reestablish full planetary shielding to trap the Reapers on the surface."

"Understood, bringing the shields back up... Did we win, Tanda?"

"Shall we pursue?" Admiral Raan's voice came from the line to the _Stalker_.

"Negative Admiral... The fleet is a wreck, and it needs to heal before it can fight again. And, yes, Tali. We won. For now. But we won."


	70. Chapter 70

"Let anyone tell us Quarians are vagrants and thieves and do ill to us now!" Daro'Xen was laughing. "You've seen it, Grand Moff Tanda'Pryl. You've gotten just enough of a taste of being one of us. You've been spat on just for the suit you wear to stay alive. No more."

"No more," Tanda agreed. "Never in my Empire, certainly."

"And never with this ship, with this station."

"It was a Quarian victory, Admiral," Tanda agreed softly. "I am glad just to have had the smallest part in it. Ground forces are bringing the situation on the planet under control as we speak, now that you destroyed the landed Reapers there."

"Good. We will be in touch, Grand Moff Tanda'Pryl."

Tanda looked at the comm as it switched off, and up toward the _Bra'katorja_ floating over Sanves. Eight hundred capital Reapers, wrecked and ruined and blasted and disintegrated in orbit of Sanves. And yet for all that, for all her confident words to Tanda that they had won, in some way they had actually lost: The Reapers had the Citadel. Tanda was still trying to make sense of it all.

On one hand, losing the Citadel had certainly been a defeat. On the other hand, it could certainly look like a victory. Sanves, after all, was still in Asari hands when the day ended. The Supercollider and the shield were still there. The fleet was mostly intact, the _Bra'katorja_ was fully intact. It was the first time the Reapers had been successfully repelled from occupying a planet.

The Asari were celebrating, at least, unsure of what was going on with the Citadel... it looked like a victory. That was something, and in this war, something had badly been needed. The fact that an Asari world had repulsed the Reapers spread like wildfire through the extranet.

Tanda felt at the limit of her abilities. How would she manage the war? How would she manage the half-deranged Admiral Daro'Xen with the most powerful weapon of war this galaxy had known. In the end, she made her call for a formal Council of War on the _Thunderflare_. At least to the people of the galaxy, it seemed like they hope now. She aimed to capitalise on it.

There were quite a lot of Admirals and Councilors and officers crowded into the briefing room, this time. "Admiral Daro'Xen. Thank you for your attendance and for your rescue of the situation. You showed up with utterly perfect timing, and pulled off something I did not think it was physically nor mentally possible for a non-Gree to accomplish."

She inclined her head behind her purple facemask, in repose but confident, with the tentacles that she had created, engineered into a pack latched into the back of her suit, quietly wrapped around her now, which was also sort of disturbing. "It had to be done, so it was." That at least was the usual Quarian social modesty.

Tanda hadn't forgotten her more strident words, anyway. "We can begin a counterattack against the Old Machines. Or we can use the damage to the enemy to take time to continue fortifying other worlds—certainly the fleet is in an extremely bad situation, with even the Star Destroyers being heavily worn. And in either case we can consider the options for locating the Citadel and proceeding with the use of the Crucible. I now understand, however, that the Citadel has an intelligence aboard it which is aligned with the Old Machines in some kind of fundamental way."

Shepard grimaced. "It's the intelligence that created the Reapers—old Machines. That intelligence was itself created by... an ancient race which ruled the galaxy, once. _They claim_ they created it to solve the problem of their subject and 'tool' races creating AIs which turned on them. ... It decided to kill organic life every time before the organic life could do that, and keep doing it until it 'solved' the problem."

Sparatus stroked a mandible and looked grim. "Could this be why the Crucible needs the Citadel? Because to disable the Reapers we need to _destroy_ the Citadel? A sacrifice, but if we must locate it and finish it... The sooner the better."

Shala'Raan leaned forward curiously. "Is it just a giant bomb capable of vapourising the Citadel, then? Is that really what Admiral Hackett has been putting so much effort into?"

"No." Xen would say from where she sat, tentacles unfolding as her voice projected absolute confidence. There was no question who was riding high in this room. "It is designed to transmit a great deal of energy through something."

Tanda folded her facemask against her hands and sighed. "Then we still don't reliably know what it's going to do. On the other hand, the military operations are relatively narrow in possible scope. The Reapers won't return to this system now that they have the Citadel and they know the Supercollider is shielded. From here on, it merely protects Sanves."

"Bra'katorja is an incredible asset for the fleet, but we are still outgunned, probably three to one, certainly two to one, if you take in most estimates of the total number of Reapers created," Shala'Raan stared at Daro'Xen hard. "And it is an asset you must be cautious with."

"Bra'katorja can handle herself. She can certainly defend any planet she is over if that planet is also shielded."

Shepard glanced about. "They'd save that planet for last—just like they will Sanves. They're machines. They can wait. We've hurt them, but... we can't leave them on Earth. And they know it."

"Fighting defensively, we can respond to their incursions. These odds are odds at which a defence can win," Tevos murmured. "And the shields... We now have more time to fortify more worlds with planetary shields. The Reapers are presently not replacing losses at all, whereas we have the geth and Asari and Salarian yards still intact, and countless reserve ships of the various fleets and the Quarians being upgraded with Imperial technology."

"If only it were so," Tanda gritted. "But they're quite capable of introducing instability harmonics into planetary-scale shields. That would be nothing on _Imperial_ -grade planetary shields, but our's are frankly more primitive and much less powerful. We can defend one planet with the fleet, and Sanves with the Supercollider. Mils and Ova with theatre shields and our imitation planetary shields. Rannoch by virtue of the geth Dyson Swarm. That's it, if we fight defensively. The Reapers will be able to disrupt the shields, land, and conquer the rest. It was a wasted effort."

"If we were to abandon Palaven and Earth to destruction, we might well grind them down. Attritional materialschlacht . The Reapers cannot replace losses," Jorjarlen offered, and looked to Councilor Sparatus grimly. "The human homeworld as well as the Turian, Councilor. If we can shield Invictus with her one billion inhabitants by using the fleet, the Turian race will not die as a consequence of this strategy. You would regain Palaven when the Reapers are defeated and be able to resettle it."

"I can't ask my men to fight on the promise of that, Grand Moff. Could you ask yours to stand by and let Earth burn?"

"And what of the Salarians? Just because we are in the core will not protect us indefinitely!" The Salarian councilor fumed.

"I'm not going to sit here and let you talk about burning my homeworld." Sparatus growled out. "It's not an option."

Tanda folded her hands, and spoke grim words. "I grew up in a galaxy torn in civil war in which fleets of tens of thousands of ships were clashing on the outer rim. A single Confederate fleet broke through the mid rim lines and hit the core world of Humbarine from which my homeworld of Commenor had been colonised—our motherworld."

She let the story hang for a moment, looking around the faces at the table. "One hundred billion people died as a result of that bombardment when they took out the planetary shields with torpedo siege platforms. Earth has a population of less than twelve billion. I don't consider it my right to prioritise humans over other species here which are at a risk of actual extinction."

"The Alliance-what's left of it-won't follow the woman who burned Earth, ma'am, and I'd rather try to assault the Reapers with a knife first." Shepard tossed a fist down on the table and glared at Tanda.

"I am aware of the political implications, Captain Shepard. It is not something I relish to even bring up, let me assure you. On the other hand I don't relish people being turned into husks either. Nor do I relish releasing forces I don't understand on the galaxy, nor fighting a savage defensive war which will probably leave about twenty habitable planets left in the entire galaxy even if we win."

"There will be no planetary burnings, even to save ten times as many lives as they take, Grand Moff," Tasiele sat quietly from her chair shoved into the wall on the far end of the room, and then spoke louder. Her voice cut through the conversation, cut through Tanda's gloom, so that the woman's temptation simply didn't matter, and so faded away. "We have the crux of a problem. It is well established. Now we need a solution. If I wished to 'cut the Gordian knot' and find a better solution than those proposed to this date, I would recommend destroying the Citadel. We have the firepower, we merely need to locate it. I would gamble my hope that the creating intelligence of the Reapers is in fact buried within it, and if it is destroyed, we destroy the Reapers."

"Damn it, we can build another one." Shepard rumbled quietly. "We just need to find it."

"The problem is that from Admiral Daro'Xen's analysis, the Crucible works on a different principle. So we would not be merely accomplishing the same task as the Crucible, we would be eliminating the usefulness of the Crucible," Liara leaned in. "And if we destroy the Citadel and it has no impact, then we have lost our _chance_ to use the Crucible!"

"Using the Crucible means we would be gambling the future of the galaxy on the operation of a device which we do not understand," Tanda folded her hands and greedily supped of pure oxygen.

Liara shot her a look. "Of course, if it fails, we may destroy the Citadel afterwards, certainly. That order is not mutually exclusive, unlike the reverse."

"Except we would... need to attack the Reapers, then get somebody into the Citadel to get the arms open. The Reapers are bound to close them," Shepard delicately offered to her girlfriend, her smile wry that she was playing devil's advocate to Liara.

"Well..." Shala'Raan tried to bring the problem back to known knowns instead of ethics. "We can certainly fight a stand-up engagement with the Reapers wherever they have the Citadel—unless they pull back their fleets from Earth and Palaven and the other sectoral incursions they've made—perhaps even Khar'shan, to concentrate with the fleet defending the Citadel. Remember that if the Reapers only have the force they retreated from Sanves with around the Citadel we will win and destroy it. It is just that the Reapers have plenty of themselves elsewhere."

"So we can either blow by them to take out the Citadel, or blow by them to use the Crucible, is that what you're saying, Admiral?"

"That would be correct, Grand Moff Tanda'Pryl."

"Thank you for the input, then. My only concern with the plan, I assure you, is the fact that we do not understand the weapon we are about to unleash if we use the Crucible." She held her gaze through the visor at Liara.

Liara sighed and turned away. "That I can't answer. Unfortunately. I don't know if anyone can."

Atarah Shepard rubbed at her head, glancing about. "Ma'am. I... don't know. I just want to break the damned things."

Kesea came in the room with an expression that Tanda had learned on an Asari meant she was profoundly sick. She saluted, but with a waver, and put a datacube on the table. "Your Ladyship... A Reaper force has arrived over Thessia."

Tanda reached out and grabbed her to steady her. "I'm sorry, Commander..."

"The Matriarchs have implemented Case Leningrad. Without a fleet and without the shield finished... Thessia is burning, but will fight."

Tevos looked like she was going to throw up. So did Shepard. Liara seemed too shocked and horrified to even be sick.

She finally sputtered. "So we're just arguing over what to do next while Thessia burns?"

"No. Prepare the fleet..!" Tanda began to rise, but Kesea shook her head.

"Two thousand, Your Ladyship. We haven't a chance with our ships still in this condition."

"We need to throw everything into the Crucible," Liara answered. "We can't disparage the dead anymore. Let's trust what the other cycles wrought and planned and this time see it through."

"There is one other option," Tanda answered, her hands curling to fists. "We have Admiral Daro'Xen reactivate the Gree Hypergate and send someone through it to ask for help."

Daro'Xen's mechanical tentacles flexed and then snapped together and she leaned forward. "You are serious, Tanda'Pryl?"

"Perfectly. Can you do it?"

"Can I!? Send me there at once! Don't prezume to doubt zie best."

Atarah stared blearily, and felt like she was letting down the party. "Uhm... who'd we ask, ma'am? I seem to recall the situation was... uncertain where you came from."

"It's a big galaxy. And one single Star Dreadnought would turn the tide at this point."

There was a bit of an uncertain pause, then. One could just feel what the political leaders at the table were thinking: _But they could also dictate terms with how hammered we are..._

Tanda turned back toward her Quarian mad genius. "Well, Admiral Daro'Xen, I can give you the coordinates to the Gate and you can try to make it operational. We can continue to make defensive fortifications even as we wait for the completion of the Crucible, and we will need to locate the Citadel before trying to use it anyway."

"This preserves our options for as long as possible."

"What are your orders if I can achieve zhis?" Xen asked, with her accent as strong as ever.

Tanda took a deep breath. "I'd have to go through personally with a small team. Nobody else has the requisite authority."

"Of course. I will comm you when I have succeeded. The Gree are not so hard to understand, once one is in zie correct mindset."

"Your capabilities are an inspiration to us all. I believe our short term plan is done. You have my assurance... We will attempt to activate the Crucible, regardless the risks, rather than be forced to see our homeworlds burn."

 _Six weeks... In six weeks the Crucible will be ready. I have Six weeks._ Tanda flew to meet Daro'Xen, leaving command in charge of Shala'Raan with the singular order: _Preserve a fleet in being_. Tali was ordered to the rendezvous... As guilty as she might feel about it, she needed her wife with her for this. Not to save her from the Reapers.

Because she needed another force sensitive.

Tanda would meet with them both on the surface of the planet after clearing through control on the _Bra'katorja_ , having also brought along... Having brought Dr. T'Soni with her, and Gillian too. The subdued Liara, worried and in fear for her homeworld, was as quiet as Gillian on the trip down, while Tanda worked on the final effort of re-sealing her lightsabre, her original one, into the special sensor-proofed chamber she had designed for it.

Daro'Xen's tentacles waved grandly as she stood by the Hypergate. "Tanda'Pryl, just in time. We are ready."

"I would hope so, with the message you already sent, Admiral. We will need a large group of your very finest machinists and Doctor-Engineers, since _Bra'katorja_ will not go into combat without you and... I have need of at least two hundred, I think."

Daro'Xen harrumphed. "I have need of my own best Doctor-Engineers to stay about the _Bra'katorja_ and keep her safe for me, but I will send two hundred machinists and... Five Doctor-Engineers." Then she pointed toward Tali, while pointing out in a calm voice; "You have your own best Doctor-Engineer right there, Grand Moff."

The other Quarian... well, Tali stiffened with a gasp of shock at being complimented so by one of the Admirals; "Really?!"

"Truly, Tali'Zorah, I can think of no other who has earned it as much as you in so short a time."

"I... thank you..."

"Now, you had best not reflect poorly on me," Daro'Xen added with a glint.

"I won't, Admiral! I promise!"

"I Need You, Daro'Xen, too, you know. Not just for working the gate; you see," Tanda continued, "The Gree are the only quick way back here. But they don't know how to operate their own equipment anymore. They may have in Tasiele's time—they certainly did, to send her fleet here—but they don't now. You do."

"You must be joking."

"We trade to the Gree the knowledge to operate their own equipment in exchange for the trip back. I need you with us, Admiral."

"Truly, you must be joking... it is not simple, but..." Daro'Xen shook her head. "I loathe teaching the ignorant. Let us hope they have the minds to grasp what they must."

"If not, it is done for the eternal glory of the Quarian people," Tanda replied.

Her eyes narrowed at Tanda for a long moment, and then she turned toward the gate. "We will be ready within zie hour! Your machinists are already heading to zie surface, Grand Moff."

"So this the guilt that you felt when we first met," Tali said softly as the two suited women walked together while Daro'Xen worked on the gate. "The feeling of abandoning all of your responsibilities, because you're not on the front line."

"Yes, that's exactly what I felt, Tali. Now you understand that to leave all you knew for the unknown... Well, I feel it twice."

"Going back, too? But your family! Your homeworld, Commenor."

"And who rules the Empire? Will I even be able to escape them? I don't know the answer to those things yet. Who will I ask for help? How will I convince them? Sailing into a minefield, Tali. But I don't think I'm indispensible, so we're going to do it, and maybe, just maybe, we'll carry through, and bring back reinforcements that can win this war."

"You sure know how to bring a girl down, Tanda'Pryl," she sighed. "Oh well! It's seemed worse with Shepard before. C'mon, I think Daro'Xen is almost ready."

When they returned, the Quarians were debouching from their shuttle. A company of stormtroopers from _Bombard_ was also drawn up to lend a more official air to Tanda's party.

With her tentacles flying, Daro'Xen finished the work, issuing the commands as musical notes and completely buried into her work. The Quarians huddled before the massive gate.

Liara was recording, the moment having brought her out of the miserable funk that the battle of Thessia had induced.

A blue whirlwind spun inside the gate, and then with a flicker, a white flash that burst forth from it, a twisted visage of a strange and ruined city hung on the far side. Liara gasped softly.

Daro'Xen rose confidently. "A Gree Hypergate, Tanda'Pryl. Back to your home galaxy. We'll go through first."

"A little bit paranoid I might cut off the chance for Quarians to still live on the other side, despite everything?" Tanda took a step forward.

Daro'Xen didn't flinch. "Of course I am. With enough cloning, two hundred is sufficient."

"Then after you, Admiral." Tanda leaned into Tali, and watched them one by one, turn into wavery ghosts on the other side of the gate. Liara smiled and waved, the last to go, Gillian before her.

Except for Tanda and Tali. They walked through, arm in arm. Space twisted, and their suits expanded against the lack of pressure as light rushed by across hundreds of thousands of lightyears... Who even knew. But the stars were different. They stumbled, supported each other, and cleared the gate.

Under that alien sky, on the other side of the gate, it seemed so simple to Tanda. Now she was back home. For certain quantities of home. She looked up into the sky, and her voice caught, and her words came out torn and insensible. She cleared her throat, tried again. Raised a trembling finger. "Companion Besh!"

Liara and Tali both stared up where she pointed, Liara's cerulean eyes wide with wonder at the sight. "Truly another galaxy..."

"Another galaxy, and another galactic civilisation," Tanda agreed softly. "Welcome to my home." Her eyes lowered, across the weathered ruins of the pride of the Gree.

Daro'Xen trembled in excitement and pride. And then, from the ruins, on speeder-platforms and walking, they came. They came by the dozen, and the hundred, and the thousand. The Gree surrounded them. The gate was energized with power. They stared. The world seemed haunted and unfathomably ancient...

The abandoned spires... Were on every side. It seemed more ancient than the Leviathans, like it had always been, like it would always be. Like time had never really begun on this planet, and ruin had lasted for eternity.

The Quarians... looked up, and then out. Daro'Xen looked at the Gree as they approached, and then strode toward them alone. As she did, she brought up her omnitool to 'speak' with them, or at least translate. She gave a single look to Tanda, giving her one chance to offer words to them of her own before she started.

Tanda had seen Gree before. "I am an Imperial commander. You can see for yourself what we just did. If you want to use the gates of your ancestors, negotiate with Admiral Xen. We will require transport back to whence we came for this to occur. If you attack us, the secret of how we reactivated the technology of your ancestors dies with us."

She then dipped her head and stepped back, and let Daro'Xen speak.

"I am Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh nar Khalos. What she says is true—though she is also no normal commander of her broken Empire. She fights for life itself against machines who have exterminated countless civilizations. We have learned of your people of old, who bravely came to our galaxy countless lifetimes ago, and returned through this gate." The flashing of colors and shapes... well, that made things complex. "The Quarian people also know the loss of the glories of our ancestors. If you would return us whence we came once our mission here is complete, I will teach you what I have learned of the ancient majesty of the Gree, and teach you make the gates again sing."

There was an inordinately long silence. The Gree seemed to surge and retreat, communicating amongst themselves. Then one on a speeder-platform, bedecked in robes and strange twinelike adornments approached. "Stay and teach us. We will compete to learn. The Empire is fallen. When this Imperial returns from her hopeless mission, we will admit you back to your war. It is no harm to us. But teach us, and make our lands great again in the song. All the greats of the realms of the Gree will compete to learn."

She tilted her head. "I will teach you. What do you mean, 'the Empire has fallen'? She seeks aid to fight the machines who hate life."

Tanda dropped to her knees. "Fallen? Entirely?"

The Gree Master looked down on her with what she faintly thought was bemusement. "Less than one standard Republic time-unit ago, the capital fell to the Rebel Alliance. You quarrel among yourselves as would bring shame among us. All against all. A New Republic has been proclaimed."

The next hour was exquisitely painful to Tanda, enlightening to Liara, and possibly painful to Tali, too, who'd spent the past three years fighting for a country and a service that no longer existed. It was a dizzying tale in bad Gree Basic of the disintegration of galactic power culminating in the seizure of Coruscant by the Rebels.

At least Xen could make it coherent. Her eyes were narrowed in a frown as Tali leaned into Tanda as she listened to it. "Ancestors," Tali murmured, flickering a glance, a frown to Daro'Xen at her relative distemper.

"Oh, I assure you, I am somewhat upset as well. There is both disorder and a risk of being treated like a Quarian were I to leave here," Daro'Xen folded her arms.

Finally Tanda ground her gloves into the ancient dirt, and shook her head grimly. "I need to put together a fleet. I need information. Something! We need to go to Asation."

"I am apparently to be left here. Teaching the Gree." Daro'Xen sniffed and acted affected. "Do try not to get yourself killed, arrested, or abducted? For Tali'Zorah's sake... Tanda'Pryl, you know this is hopeless, but I know you must try. For Tali'Zorah's sake, keep yourself alive."

"Thanks... I think." Tali mumbled, as she straightened. "Soooo... things are... bad. Really bad."

"Things are bad," Tanda agreed softly. "Doctor T'Soni, shall you be coming with us? I will ask Daro'Xen to operate the gate to Asation... As a demonstration to the Gree that we are quite serious, and fully capable."

"Do you wish me to?" She glanced about. "I am an archeologist... and not an Imperial officer."

"You're also a powerful biotic." Pause. "And an exotic alien."

Liara raised a painted on eyebrow. "If you wish me to accompany you, I shall. Forgive any moments of youthful exuberance in advance, please. With the situation as it is, the only pleasure I can foresee is in the grandeur of the civilisation of which you have spoken so much, so I will take it where I can."

"Certainly," Tanda wobbled on her feet, feeling as she had at the worst of her convalescence. She could not be more dazed. She had never really believed it could ever get this bad.

"Then I shall."

Daro'Xen turned back to the gate, and another world of the Gree blossomed before them, as dead as the first.

-

As Tanda recovered, her mood crystallized to a sort of brooding silence, hanging on in quiet desperation. Arriving at Asation by Hypergate, their codes got them up to the Carrack in orbit of that planet. The steady constriction of Imperial authority had left behind a single light cruiser representing the authority of Palpatine's Empire over the remnants of the Gree, nothing more, and the Pentastar Alignment had not bothered to collect it or formally relinquish the nominal authority of the Empire, one more forgotten relic of galactic government.

Inside the tiny and cramped docking bay of a Carrack, a sideparty turned out for _Commodore_ Tanda Pryl, the last effective rank as she had automatically updated the status of the Elrood Sector Force and Akal Zed's death, all those years ago.

"Commander Girralt." The man nearly... fainted, it almost made her laugh. Well, he looked pretty terrified, at least. He only slowly calmed, too, staring at the masked, suited figures before him, instead of merely a long-missing pennant officer.

"Commodore Pryl...? I don't understand, what is the need for the suits? Your code is out of date, I... I understand you were once an officer on Asation Station."

"That is so. I have been ill, separated from my command, wounded in the service of the Empire. But now I need a ship, and with my rank, I shall assume command." She extended her hand. "My wounds prevent me from being exposed to the atmosphere, but let us go to sickbay and confirm my DNA signature if you prefer. Or retina, through the visor." She deactivated the polarisation.

Girralt stared hard. "No, no, that won't be necessary, Ma'am."

"Very well, then. This is a vessel of the Empire, and we will be serving the will of the Empire," Tanda announced crisply, and made sure it was loud enough to be heard by the other officers.

 _Wait, are we legally hijacking a cruiser?_ Liara looked blank faced, Tali... had an unfair advantage, and clung to it for every erg she could.

"This way, Captain... Bringing aboard almost four hundred passengers, space will be extremely tight..." Girralt folded his hands behind his back as he walked.

"For a while." Tanda answered as she walked to the turbolift. Carracks, as fleet scouts and couriers, did have relatively spacious dignitary accommodations. "I will issue command directives the next day, Commander Girralt. Until then, hold orbit over Asation. This mission is of paramount importance to the Empire and I will be locking down the hyperwave transmitter for my personal use accordingly."

"I... I understand, Commodore." He saluted crisply. "By your leave?"

"Granted." Tanda bunked her Stormtroopers through the rest of the crew to prevent any conspiracies, settled the Quarians into making a home for themselves in the cargo bays as they were quite familiar with doing at home, and took Tali'Zorah and Liara and Gillian with her to the warren of main quarters, assigning rooms and bringing up the files.

They were at it long into the night. Liara, Tali'Zorah, Tanda. Record after record, files, media reports... Liara frantically trying to get up to speed from what she had already learned of Holonet protocols.

Slurping her way through tasteless Quarian rations, the mystery deepened with each document they covered. "It's like most of the fleets... Just disappeared into the Deep Core, never to be seen again, Doctor T'Soni."

"That's... odd." Tali said, "Liara, you are the information broker... Any ideas?"

Liara looked up. "Something, or someone, called them."

"Then the game for the galactic government isn't over yet," Tanda murmured stiffly. "It doesn't precisely help us, though."

"No, it does not... But I think I have enough information to figure out where the assets that you desired ended up, now."

"Oh, Doctor?"

"Yes." Liara had Glyph active and floating, and turned to ask, now: "Glyph, present a list of all known Imperial Star Dreadnoughts which have disappeared without returning to the Deep Core region, or whose locations are known outside the Deep Core, please?"

 ** _Reaper_** **, the flagship of the navy of Pentastar, and a** ** _Mandator_** **, her consort.** ** _Iron Fist. Razor's Kiss._** **Both comprising the core bedrock of the fleet of Zsinj.** ** _Guardian_** **, missing from Sector Zero, and...** ** _Lusankya_** **, for one.**

Tanda was quiet for a moment as she listened to the list. Then she choked off a strangled oath. "I thought Lusankya was a prison."

"... It... was," Liara frowned as she brought up the news reports. "It was also an... _Executor_ -class Super Star Destroyer, having blasted her way off Coruscant during the fall of the world to the Rebellion." She was reading from the file as she went. "...Causing the deaths of millions. Currently under the control of former Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard - ruler of Thyferra. Unknown commanding officer."

"Thyferra... Iceheart's made herself director of the Bactacorps!?"

"Yes... it seems... well, here." She projected the information from the very latest holonet news reports: The resignation of Rogue Squadron, the plague on Coruscant, and... the start of what seemed to be a private little war.

"Those men aren't really serving her out of any personal loyalty, just a fear of assassination," Tanda remarked, and as she did, her voice got a certain tenor that made Tali snap her head to stare at her wife.

"Or greed." Liara murmured. "Or lust, or any combination of feelings. Perhaps even duty." She brought up the CO and XOs of the ships known to be at Thyferra.

"I think we've got something to work with, and we don't have any time to waste."

"Love!?" Tali planted her hands on her hips. "You just called this woman Iceheart."

"Well don't kriffing repeat that now!" Tanda didn't wait the night. She ordered the ship on a course for Thyferra.


	71. Chapter 71

The little cruiser hurtled through space. Tanda hung back against the wall, looking dreary and depressed. Commander Zorah, her codes reading valid, acted as her intermediary with the crew. They, after all, had had years to adjust to the slow and incompetent collapse of the Empire which after Endor had held all of the cards.

All of the cards except for one, of course. There had been no unity, and so they had melted away like ice in the sun. Tanda read the account of the final campaign again, and shook her head again. "This is all that we have come to. And people follow the Director and she doesn't even claim to be the legitimate ruler of the Empire anymore. No chain of command, no organisation... Once we fought for galactic unity. Now there is nothing left. Once the fleets stretched across entire systems, and we held the whole galaxy in the palm of our hand!"

She trembled, and ignored it as Tali looked away quietly. "Now, like the fading ring of a distant bell, there is nothing," Tanda lamented. "They have melted. The systems are empty. Peace, order, prosperity, efficiency, all gone. We are back to chaos and civil war in almost just a breath."

Liara stepped into the room. "God of our Fathers, Lord of Old, Lord of our far-flung battle-line..."

"Forgive me, Doctor?"

"One of those old human poems Shepard loves," Liara explained. "The _Recessional_ by Rudyard Kipling. About how without humility, the moral foundation of Empire fast fades. Empire is alien to the Asari, but I think in this moment it is very important. Your Emperor, the Protheans. They all lacked morality, humility, decency. Their Empire melted. I do wonder, if the Protheans had not turned cannibalism into sport, had not sent the other races at war... We need you, Tanda Pryl. You are not the same breed as your Emperor."

"Thank you, Doctor." She folded her hands. "You seem to be suggesting, though, that I am to be compared to an Emperor, Liara."

Liara smiled. "Another poem that Shepard likes—the pertinent part: ' _When you go by the Via Aurelia; that runs from the City to Gaul; Remember the Luck of the Soldier; Who rose to be master of all! He carried the Sword and the Buckler; He mounted his Guard on the wall – 'till the Legions elected him Caesar, and he rose to be master of all!_ "

Tali was frowning at her omnitool. "The first part of the poem is about the soldier who dies, Liara."

"Death in the Heather, or Life on the Emperor's Throne – so whether the Eagles obey us, or we go to the Ravens in the Heather, I'd rather be with Lalage," Liara answered, and looked to Tali. "I rather think I know who you are."

"My Lalage," Tanda offered with a laugh, and she looked to Tali. "We'll see. But I understand what Liara is trying to say. Like a Roman Caesar, I need to win over Isard's troops, it's true. This is not a time of regular chains-of-command. It's a time of fists thrust into the air, hailing a warlord. I hate it, Liara." She looked down to the deck. "It's the opposite of why I joined the Empire."

"History chooses you and not the other way around. Or if you prefer, the Force."

"I have been given that impression, yes," Tanda replied, tapping her fingers together. "Well, I am not going to forget why I came here."

"Good," Liara smiled gently. "That is my fear. You don't want to stand against the tide, but these people would order you, detain you, and certainly if we succeed seek the power you have. My home needs it more."

"I imagine, then..." Tanda shook her head. "Don't worry. I will keep focused to the task. What I want here, now, for myself—I should try to contact my family while I have the chance. Commenor has declared itself neutral. And I may never speak to them again. ...And they may be able to help us, even."

"I think that would be wise," Liara agreed. "Come, Tali'Zorah, you should let her explain what she wishes to her parents."

Tali raised a hand delicately. "I still want to meet your family someday, Tanda."

"I want you to, Tali." Tanda hesitated, sighed. "But of course you can't be my wife or even my lover. Not around Isard. And certainly I can't meet my family publically. Rebel operatives might find them a tempting target then. I'm sorry."

"I'll hope, keelah, I'll hope!"

Sniffling, Tanda watched her go, and began tapping in the holonet routing codes while muttering to herself. "I never thought I was going to ask mom for this much money with a straight face, but here goes nothing..."

-

When the crew eased the levers out and the cruiser reverted over Thyferra, they were tense, and they had very good reason to be tense. Director Isard had certainly been the nominal successor to Pestage, but her reputation was legend and many of the crew, privately, feared Tanda's willingness to swear loyalty to her, especially now.

Tanda was certain of their fear, she could feel it in addition to knowing it intellectually, and it created a problem for her authority as commander. It wasn't insurmountable, but it certainly depended on how things played out with Isard. She kept her own thoughts to herself with more and more careful schooling, reflecting on how the Bacta-world had created the perfect cover for her. Now she had an excellent excuse, and she could play it to the hilt.

Behind her, Liara sucked in her breath. " _Goddess_."

It impacted Tali'Zorah no less. " _Keelah! That's her!?_ "

Tanda glanced up sharply to the viewscreen. When she did, the familiar sight sent a stab of hope through her heart. There had been no more dispiriting moment in all of her life than to see one die, and no greater feeling of reassurance than to watch one victorious in combat.

The women watched as _Lusankya_ loomed over an ISD, making the ship which had been twice the size of any dreadnought, as big as a Reaper, simply... Vanish into the shadows. As large as the Illusive Man's station. As large as the Citadel. A menacing arrowhead mounting a huge bank of engines.

Tanda cleared her throat. "One _Executor_ -class Star Dreadnought, the largest regular ships ever built... Nineteen klicks of the most powerful warship in existence, with flank armoured glacis twenty metres thick, engines that let her match the straight-line acceleration of a starfighter, and shields which can survive simultaneous ramming attacks at 0.99- _c_ by three Reaper-sized starships," Tanda explained softly. "The original, _Executor_ , was Lord Vader's flagship and the centrepiece of DEATHRON when _Thunderflare_ served in the squadron in the prelude to Endor."

Offering some small hope for the state of Isard's not-so little private fleet, they were quickly challenged; " _Carrack cruiser_ Dolorata _state your identity and purpose at once._ " It was almost refreshing to hear, the clipped, professional tones of the traffic control on that massive vessel. Here was a pocket of seeming normalcy amidst the chaos of the collapse of Imperial power, a squadron capable of dominating a system against anything that could be thrown at it.

"This is the Imperial cruiser _Dolorata_ ; Commodore Tanda Pryl commanding. I've come from Gree space, as the situation there did not suit even the retention of a cruiser for escort. I have come to offer my services and allegiance to Director Isard of the Bactacorps, including that, of course, of the cruiser and her fighters."

"Transmit your recognition codes and any appeals you wish to make, Commodore Pryl, and stand by for vectors to a parking orbit." An orbit that would place her distant from those great ships, but under their heavy guns. "The Head of State shall determine whether you will be permitted to take a shuttle down to the planet to present your case to her in person."

She signalled in both the ship and her personal recognition codes, as well as an explanation of her circumstances: _I was badly wounded and afflicted with an unusual disease which, though cured, has precluded my recovery, while in service on the outer rim against enemies of the Empire shortly after Endor. I live in an alien survival and encounter suit and deeply desire the opportunity to seek treatment with the specialist bacta of the Xucphra Corp._

The response to her appeal would come a day and a half later - late in the night for _Dolorata_ , but early morning by planetary time - a _Lambda_ , rising from the planet, with a comm message arriving after it broke atmosphere; Commodore Pryl's hearing before Isard was to happen - _now_.

She touched her faceplate to Tali's. "Director Isard is sending a shuttle for me, Tali. I'll see you soon, I am certain. But I must go for the hangar bay at once."

"You're going _alone?!_ I don't like this idea... be careful, Tanda. _Please_." Concern was thick in the Quarian woman's voice as glowing eyes looked to Tanda's, three-fingered hands coming up to twist nervously around each other between them.

...Tanda held her hand close in, squeezed Tali's as their fingers wrapped. "Do you want to go with me? I confess I was trying to shield you from the danger."

"I _want_ to, but Liara did say she hates non-humans... so I'm not sure if I should. It would make things more dangerous for you, wouldn't it?" Tali asked her, nervousness suffusing her posture.

"I fear it is the case, Tali. I should go alone. I am force sensitive, I am trained... The threat is not as lethal as it would be otherwise, certainly. Promise."

"Then... be careful, my love. I haven't lost you to the Old Machines, I won't to this madwoman!" She gave a brave smile, visible by the changed shape of her eyes through the glass. "Go. Keeping her waiting is probably just as dangerous."

"Quite." She clicked their helmets again, and hastened to the shuttle bay with undignified urgency to present herself to the crew from Thyferra.

The hissing of the ramp dropping revealed a quartet of stormtroopers, and a young lieutenant who looked bored - for a moment, at least, before the enviro-suit clad figure with Imperial rank squares registered before him. His salute was slow, and quite confused.

"I am Commodore Pryl. You are to take me to the surface to see Director Isard. Please do so." She strode up to face them all, her voice modulated through the vocoder, and insisting in her posture and diction there was no accident, mistake, or joke here.

"Ma'am..." Skepticism coloured his voice as he turned - two of the stormtroopers falling in behind as an escort - into the relatively empty _Lambda_ which would head for the planet at once - falling towards Xucphra (formerly Zalxuc) City, the heart of Isard's rule on Thyferra.

She moved to sit, folding her legs, and adjusting her scarf. Her breathing was modulated through the regulator on the suit, and thus gave no hint of any lack of calmness on her part. So she waited, watching them descend to Thyferra from the _Dolorata_.

The planet loomed up with all of the usual squalor of immense jungles. Rather than the romanticism that others felt, Tanda just imagined the dreadful heat, the incredible humidity, the intense smell of the biota. Then she checked herself. It seemed a very Quarian set of complaints, as the cities became visible as they entered the atmosphere, day-side.

Perhaps she had become inoculated to the Quarian way of thinking completely. _Human worlds have deserts too_ , she sharply checked herself. But the thought lingered. Rannoch, despite the temperatures which were literally at the edge of possible human survival, seemed a much more pleasant world than Thyferra, even though it was in fact harder for her to survive on. It was cleaner, and more certain.

The spaceport had cracked ferrocrete, belying the wealth of the grand villas beyond the city proper. The regime clearly didn't care very much about keeping the roads paved, either; anyone important had a speeder. There was one waiting for her, certainly, and she adjusted her red headscarf and, exchanging salutes with the Stormtrooper officer waiting, settled down for the ride. They jetted past grand villas, detoured carefully around the Vratix sectors of the city, and shortly came to a stop in front of a true palace.

The door was opened like it would be for any officer, but the strength of the stormtroopers assembled was overwhelming. She handed over her blaster at the doors, the omnitool a reassuring backup they would never know the true capabilities of until it was too late. _And now it's time to see Isard..._

Grimly, she composed herself under the privacy of her visor. _They probably doubt I am even human_. It was hardly the first time that had been so, but here it was the first time with significance.

Passing a pair of Royal Guards... Isard had kept much of the trappings of power from Coruscant while here, visible in the adornments in the Director's palace. Despite the heat, before her, in the modified crimson uniform she preferred, was the Director of Imperial Intelligence. With an air of finality, the door cycled closed behind her, and the heterochromatic gaze of the once-ruler of the Empire coldly regarded the figure before her without a flicker of reaction to her condition.

Tanda was schooled in her silence, her _mental_ silence, passing the Royal Guards. She was afraid, there, for she had heard the vaguest of rumours in her studies. But she came before Isard... And then she knelt, placing her hand across her chest in salute. "Director."

She almost seemed bored, the figure sitting before her, as she regarded Tanda with an expert eye. "Make your case, Commodore, to join my forces. I am _curious_ -" she paused, the situation heavy with menace - "-why you would choose to do so when your fellows in the fleet flee like vervikks."

"Director, I explained as much in my message to you. If you decide you dislike my services, cut open my suit, and the atmosphere will give me as cruel a death as any you could desire for me," Tanda answered laconically, stiffling maintaining her composure under the suit. "If you are pleased with my service... I am from a rich family on Commenor, you know this. I am not unfamiliar with the fact that the Bactacorps retain a reserve of the best Bacta, far more capable than the usual kind."

A breath. "...I want to walk again without this suit. There is a sampling cuff, if you doubt me: extract my DNA as you please, confirm who I am. Then, I beg of you, Director, let me receive treatment from the best Xucphra technicians. I won't let you down. My service record makes a mockery of most of those of the men who flee from you. I was assigned with my ship to DEATHRON for a reason, those years ago."

There was a glimmer of _something_ in the eyes before her. "You are willing to serve in what-ever capacity I will require of you, even under my other captains?" The question was deceptively casual - with an underlying challenge behind it, and one was left with the feeling of Iceheart coiling to strike.

"I'll tell them they're idiots to their faces if they don't perform to the standards I expect from my fellows in long-gone DEATHRON, but, Director, if they press on, I will obey them," Tanda sighed heavily. "People will pay a heavy price not to be mocked and mistaken for an aliens even the kind ones who made this suit for me."

She rocked back, level onto the heels of her boots. "There, I speak to you an honesty few will. You know, Director, that the fleet loves lying to you. I will not. I remember that Admiral Piett prospered under Lord Vader for his honesty as much as the other Captains died for their deceit."

"I am amused you believe they have a hope of performing to such standards, Commodore Pryl." The woman folded her hands before her. "Your identity shall be verified, your cruiser shall be made part of the fleet. Then, perhaps, Xucphra will agree to experiment in alleviating your... _condition_. You will have a chance to prove yourself against a most stubborn group of Rebels soon enough."

Tanda sighed. "Well, I know how well I perform. I am much higher on the performance ratings than the officers I know are with you," she asserted though it was a guess... Not a hard one. She had been held back by pure sexism, nothing more. "I am a frontier fighter, used to being beam-bait, Director. You will not regret my presence."

"One _hopes_ that to be the case, for _your_ sake. You may leave."

She bowed again. "Director, I have some Quarians with me, the aliens who gifted me the Encounter Suit. May I arrange for them lodging on the surface?"

"Understand you shall be personally responsible for their behaviour, yes?" That was a much more naked sort of warning.

"They are a race of clever machinists, used to living in tight spaces under strict order, and can be easily killed by venting their suits to atmosphere. I can arrange a contract with the Xucphra company for them to monitor the Bacta works for sabotage if you like - I remember from my father's shipping business that industrial action by the aliens is sometimes a problem here, Director." She didn't mention that one-Tali-was an Imperial Commander. There was no need to. She was different from the rest of the Quarians by definition in that, and would face enough scrutiny.

"I recall asking you only a single question, Commodore." The tone of the woman's voice was ice, and her eyes had narrowed a hint. "Captain Drysso is the commander of Lusankya - you will be answering to him. I believe you have served together before. It won't be a problem, will it?"

"I will faithfully execute his orders according to your directive, Director." _Well I didn't expect it to be that easy_.

"Your loyalty shall not be forgotten." She paused, for a moment, and got an almost dangerously teasing look on her face. "You shall be responsible for coordinating fleet operations with the Thyferran Defense Force, and Minister of Trade Vorru for use of your... aliens."

"Thank you, Director. I shall retain the command of the _Dolorata_?"

She gave a single nod. "Pending display of your abilities, of course."

It was bait, and as an Imperial officer, she let herself be baited a little. "Director, my service record is matched by very few Imperial officers. I will not dishonour it with poor performance now."

"See that you do _not._ You will be facing the pirates known as 'Rogue Squadron' soon enough, Commodore. Many officers with excellent service records have come up... fatally short against them."

"Certainly, Director." She dipped her head.

"If you have nothing else, you may go." came the reply from Isard, a curt dismissal. "You shall be permitted to see the Xucphra technicians on your way out."

Tanda rose, and bowed. She turned on heel, and did exactly that. It was by far the most important presentation she had to make to Isard and her agents. A trembling sort of desperation over her condition which had driven her to Isard-and Thyferra-to the exclusion of any other Imperial faction.

Fortunately, it had enough truth in it that it wasn't hard to act.

-

What Tanda had expected to be a quick sample had turned into a day of medical tests at a specialist hospital the Xucphra corps maintained. Undoubtably the very best of the doctors of her home universe were on Thyferra, working on unique and novel applications of the rarely seen specialist strains of Bacta, and they were still confounded by her condition.

She spent an uncomfortable and nervous night on the surface in their guest quarters for patients undergoing extended medical care. Some of the doctors were uncomfortable about her even leaving, but the tests with the highest bacta grades were positive, and she got someone from Isard's headquarters to confirm she was not to be put on medical leave. With that clearance, she left the next morning, confirming by comms that the Quarians and Liara had been allowed to debark the cruiser while she took a cab—over the night the connection to some of her old bank accounts had been reestablished by her parents, and the holonet transmissions through 'neutral' Commenor weren't being jammed—to meet with the 'Minister of Trade'.

Heading into his office, Tanda couldn't help but feel the desperation and heights from which so many here had fallen. Thyferra was a single planet, and planetary minister was a long way down from Moff. She still didn't know what Isard's plan was, but surely the simple humiliation of that accounted for a good half the defections. Still, of all people, or perhaps because of his prior fall from grace and imprisonment on Kessel, Fliry Vorru had taken the demotion with apparent equanimity.

"Commodore Pryl." The white haired, aged former Moff rose from his seat, with a smile, gesturing to the chair before his desk. "A pleasure. Please, forgive my poor excuse hospitality, Madame Director indicated you had certain... specific requirements."

"That's a polite way of saying that I'm stuffed into a suit like Lord Vader." She smiled to herself, and took the seat, twirling at her red scarf a little. She kept her lighter suit with the red scarves precisely to avoid projecting the image of Vader despite not fitting in with fleet styling, that much seemed clear. "I occasionally can eat solid food in a sealed chamber, if it's been very rigorously decontaminated first - thus usually ration packs and such. Otherwise, here I have been for rather more than a year. It's a life, Minister, but I surely did come to Thyferra for a reason."

"Best to be polite, if one can help it, especially with a cosmopolitan woman of the Core." He winked at her, as he went on. "I was also given the impression you had some... unconventional specialists with you that could assist my own efforts, as your own skill should help the fleet and the... Home Defense Corps."

"Commenor is the proudest and oldest world of the Colonies, certainly, but I'd not make pretensions to the same legacy as Alsakan. Yes, the Quarians, they're called. Humanoavian more or less, they have immune systems which relied on symbiosis with bacteria - exposed to galactic standard germs they'd all die in a heartbeat. They're naturally very adept at machinery, technology, electronics. I have two hundred and five of their machinists with me and a few engineers. I was trying to arrange contract work for them which would assist the security situation and also, of course, pit them against the Vratix."

"Well, the situation is... complex there. The Ashern rebels are the real danger, along with the Zaltin loyalists. The Thyferrans are... how do we say, not quite up to the challenge, especially given Rebel predilections - don't believe their protestations about not interfering, a state always finds a way. If they're loyal enough, I could _certainly_ use them. I will not repeat Madame Director's threats if they are not, she was surely clear enough with you."

"I've been an Imperial Officer for quite a long time, Minister. I know how to achieve results, and how to keep subordinates in line. They will be quite loyal. Bacta production must certainly be kept up or our state will collapse quite fast, I do understand. The two areas would be in the Bacta production technology and in custom modification of the starfighters for the Defence Force - there are plenty of upgrades which can be accomplished to regular TIEs when you aren't trying to keep a standard chain of supply and maintenance like it was in the days of the Empire intact."

"It is not just production - if it does not reach its' destination, we will have problems all the same, and there... there, you will I suspect be quite heavily engaged by Rebel pirates. Speak with Erisi Darlit - she's the commander of the Home Defense Corps' fighter wing. Madame Director already denied her request to purchase X-Wings rather than TIEs, so I would expect you to have a... receptive audience to your proposals." He sipped from a glass of water on his desk, and leaned back. "Be _useful,_ and you will go far in this backwater state, Commodore, I assure you."

"I started my first command in a Carrack, and if I'm back to one I don't care so much as some might think. The Bacta treatment is more important. I will, however, take your advice quite seriously. I will be useful. I would hardly mind having a Star Destroyer back again."

"Unless you intend to acquire one... all promotions shall be by attrition here. You have been out of the line for a while, so I shall offer this; Be careful. The Rebels have gone from victory to victory since you faced them at Endor, and are far more dangerous now. Madame Director is... quite focused on this elite snubfighter squadron that appears to have decided to fight a private war with her."

"I shall try to find something," she answered laconically. "There are always opportunities. But as for the Rogues-I will be thinking about it. We have some supply of military equipment, yes? No blockade?"

"Oh yes, quite so. We are an independent state with... channels to the other... Imperial factions." He was choosing his words _very_ carefully. "Supporting the current force does take most of the profits from our trade, of course."

"A supply of AG-2G quad lasers might be possible?"

 _"Hmmm."_ Vorru frowned, and picked up a dataslate to tap at it. "Cannons, yes. Perhaps not including the full set of support equipment, but I suspect I could... _arrange_ for the acquisition of a _Lancer_ 's complement or so."

"Brilliant. I long ago had a plan for upgrading a Carrack against rebel starfighters, never had the chance to implement it before. Those sorts of things were hard to get through channels at the time."

"I understand, Commodore. You wish them delivered directly to your ship upon arrival, then?"

"Say the first ten. I'll work on the utilization of the other half or what number as you can get. Thank you so kindly, Minister. I will have a little surprise for the Rogues."

"They will assuredly have the same for you as well, Commodore. Is there anything else?" He asked, with another smile. "Despite the suit, you are rather pleasant, for a Navy officer."

"I do believe that's everything, Minister, at least for now. We shall have cause to work together, and I thank you for the flattery. As you perhaps know my family was rather well-heeled on Commenor, and I imagine I am rather more gracious as polite company than most of my comrades. But sometimes life takes you to strange places..."

"Certainly." He rose, to take her hand over the desk in a handshake. "That, I know better than most, and if nothing else, that suit spares you from the _charming_ local climate."

"Hrrm, it is rather dreadful out there, isn't it?" She glanced at her omnitool for a temperature readout, and then remarked, "You know, I think we could rather make a lot of money selling these holographic interfaces the Quarians make." It wa a very calculated sort of gesture.

He'd started at seeing her interact with the omnitool, and opened his mouth for a moment in shock. "... They mass make holo-interfaces on such a personal level? ... Yes, we could indeed." A flicker of greed lit his eyes.

"They have the designs for it, yes. If all we have is Thyferra, well, we should make the galaxy come here."

"I shall see what I can arrange, then, though we will likely have to see off Rogue Squadron to be able to set up any large-scale production. Still... ah, you are a woman of many surprises, Commodore. Walk carefully, and you will go far."

"Thank you." She dipped her head, and then turned to go. _Make the Dolorata able to fight the best squadron in the rebellion. Well, nothing like a little challenge..._

-

Tanda's next visit was to the apartments where Liara and her Quarians were settling in. She went up to the office, negotiated past the droid in the front, and found herself in Liara's private office. There, too, was Liara, ignoring her at first, with Glyph and with computers scattered all over the place, including some of her Shadow Broker computers, and holodisplays... everywhere. The woman was busy, and Tanda was about to make her busier.

"Liara... Are you settling in well on Thyferra?" She had rented an entire apartment block for the Quarians and Liara was being called the 'manager', excuse enough, anyway.

"Well enough... Commodore." The asari maiden blinked with the light coming through the open door, standing with a few cracks from the chair she'd been working from. Her info-drone hopped around, and a series of holo-tanks flickered between information feeds, data-cables littering the floor, running between various blinking and whirring boxes. "I have been in worse places on archeological digs. What may I help you with? The amount of data one can access here is... overwhelming."

"Well, we're secure for the moment. But they've put Joak Drysso in command of the _Lusankya_ and Director Isard isn't interested in changing the assignment. I was wondering if once you're set up... Well, you know, the good Director is an intelligence agent, and very paranoid."

"I... see." Liara sounded somewhat nonplussed by the request, visibly thinking. "This has the potential to turn on us if done incorrectly, you understand, but I could perhaps... arrange for certain incriminating information to... find its' way to the right hands. It will take time to cover my tracks, however. You intend to set yourself up to be his replacement?"

"Yes. I know we are pressed for time... But failure will be worse than disastrous for your home, so avoid the risk of blowback at your own judgement, Liara, even if it means delays. I think that is reasonable, is it not?"

Liara gave her a grim, pained glance. "I will see what I can do. I may not have time to inform you before I act, be prepared at all times, for events may quickly move outside of our planning."

"Thank you. I understand that this is a delicate and dangerous work, Liara, the stress high on us all. I do not wish to ever imply otherwise."

"Your family isn't..." She bit something back. "I shall update you with intelligence as I can. Our nominal employer has a great many enemies - which are now _our_ enemies."

"Going after the weakest works both ways," Tanda sighed. "I shall try to make this operation swift, Liara. Is there anything else that you need from me? If not, there is just one more matter for you to pay attention to - which is any alternative source of ships you might wish to keep your eye open for."

"To what level of plausibility, Commodore Pryl?" Steepling her hands in her lap, she leaned forwards. "There are a great many in the category of 'legends'."

"Well, we cannot risk resources on hopeless efforts, as we have few. Nor is a long lead time very helpful."

Taking that in stride, Liara went on, already starting to pick at her omni-tool. "And Tali will be with you on _Dolorata_?"

"Do you want her here? I can accommodate that if necessary," Tanda replied, feeling a bit hesitant. "...I was going to be working on some modifications to the ship, though..."

"I have Gillian. If the two of us cannot solve a tactical problem biotically, it likely calls for a heavy turbolaser." Liara replied, with a sly smile. "I have learned a great deal about chaotic mayhem in my time with Shepard."

"Well, if it comes to it, I'll Vader the Lusankya and see if the crew will be scared enough to follow me," Tanda replied. "But let's not take that risk if we can help it."

"I agree. We will... face enough difficulties already." Liara had already broken eye-contact, working at her information feeds. "Good luck, to both of you."

"Thank you. I will be returning to the _Dolorata_ now... And I wish you the best of luck, too. Dea be with you, Liara." She turned away and left, to make it as though she were satisfied with the accommodations for her contractors, before heading to the spaceport to try and find a shuttle back up.

-

At last returning to her ship, now no longer so desperately crowded... And with Tali'Zorah as the Chief Engineer, she settled into her quarters and started making an assessment of their readiness, rewriting her old plans for the modifications and upgrades which would be required for adding the cannon, and musing about the situation. Without the desperate situation that she had left behind, she would be relishing the challenging of proving herself against this Rogue squadron, and taking a small measure of revenge for the outcome of Endor. Instead her only desire was in finding a way home as quickly as possible with reinforcements.

Then she sent for a report by Commander Zorah and a discussion of how to proceed on upgrades and modifications was what was requested.

She came herself, her blue-painted astromech rolling along behind. "Commodore Pryl, you asked me to discuss upgrading _Dolorata?_ " she was professionally distant, at least until the R3 unit chirruped happily after spinning its' transparisteel head about slowly, whence Tali darted forward to hug her wife with a relieved "Okay! Arthree says there's no listening devices! Did you really want to talk about working on the ship?"

"Unfortunately, yes. But I'm alive. You're alive. Everyone is alive. And I'm into Isard's organization-though she has me taking orders from one of my compatriots in DEATHRON who I have seniority over... Before my promotion to Commodore was lodged," she sighed, but then pressed her helmet to Tali's gently and hugged her.

"He's got the bigger ship. That seems to be how she's playing this... well. From my end, we're short on spare parts, the crew isn't very pleased, especially about taking orders from me, but... it's worse in the other ships from what Arthree hears."

"Well, it's time that I show them that I'm a real Imperial officer and we're going to do great things. We'll let them in on my plan, and teach them well when we do. Here, let me show you... The basic idea, I had when I commanded another Carrack when I was young and a fresh Commander. It's that you rarely use your tractor beams in combat-to avoid the computers messing up-install a fixed selector between the tractor beam power and power to a set of quad lasers positioned one for one next to the tractor beam mounts to share power with their leads. Do the same thing... For the five external umbilicals for the starfighters, which should be launched in combat, and can be uprated with new cabling down the same leads to power a quad laser each, with the hull penetration for the pilot to access the starfighter being a position that the quad laser can be built up along, to take advantage of it. The final two go in from the hangar bay for shuttles and fighter maintenance, and go into this power line here."

"Then in battle you launch your starfighters, turn off your tractor beams, and you've got a total of twelve quad laser cannons - sixty percent of the number of a dedicated Lancer. I suggested all the Carracks in the fleet should be modified like this since they're so fast, so tough, and so well shielded for their size, the best small cruisers the Empire has and perfect for the capability, but, of course, I never heard anything back about it again."

"Let me see..." Bringing up her omni-tool, she downloaded the design, and started to prod at it, to chirping from her astromech. "We'll need some specialist modulators, we can fab them, but otherwise you'd start to get some harmonics in the ring mains... arcs of fire will be rather poor, but with some targeting VIs, the gunners should be able to have enough situational awareness to get shots off during the fleeting moments they can bear... it's not perfect from an engineering perspective, of course, but the _concept_... I'll need to bring some of our people up from the surface for this. It won't meet specifications, but we can do it, including an over-ride to let the bridge use the tractors if they have to... cooling the cannons won't be easy. A long engagement, they'll start to overheat." She looked up from the display projected from her arm. "I can do it."

"I'll get it all for you. Minister Vorru likes the idea and is getting me the cannon, and he's favoured by the Director, it seems, so I'll arrange the rest as well. I think we'll use whatever is left over from the order he manages to outfit a Q-ship if I can get permission for it."

"You'll need a crew for a Q-Ship - and a freighter, I suppose. So... fighter attacks. Is that _all_ we'll be facing then, fighters? Almost hard to believe they could do that much damage... Admiral Raan could see anything like that off with the cruisers when the Fleet was together."

"They're a kind of elite squadron of twelve rebel Shepards," Tanda tried to explain. "Antilles is known as more or less the absolute master of the tactic of having twelve fighters at disparate positions coordinate a massed proton torpedo salvo into a single weak flucating harmonic in the shields to slip several torpedoes through it. He's wrecked several capital ships that had no business taking the kind of damage they did from snubfighters, but he found a way to do it anyway. I can't emphasize enough precisely how dangerous they are, and they certainly have some kind of allies."

"... Twelve Shepards. Flying fighters. ... Okay." Her eyes were rather wide indeed behind her mask. "... I'm not sure if Old Machines are _more_ or _less_ dangerous... if that's the case, we..." Tali trailed off, taking a deep breath of air. "... are _so_ in trouble."

"Aren't we? But Carracks are very rugged little ships. We'll fight them, and do it well. I'll be calling drills continuously from here on out."

Arthree made a sad-sounding little wail as Tali muttered "Isn't _that_ right, girl. If we win, I can keep engineering going, if we don't..." She shrugged, and moved to hug Tanda again. "We'll get through this."

"Be inspiring, Tali. They won't resent you if you're good and steady in combat." She hugged Tali back, as firmly as she could, considering the suits between them. "I'm missing being intimate with you quite a lot. But it won't be for long."

"... Did the technicians say that the bacta could work?! It'd be so _wonderful_ to see you out of your suit again, and not just inside the hyperbaric chamber!" The smile was visible through the faceplate, as Tali giggled and squeezed her wife close to her again. "I'll get started on running the control and coolant lines for when the cannons arrive, and see what I can do for our fighters."

"I, uh, meant just being able to engage in gratuitous public displays of affection," she answered with a flush. "But as a matter of fact, they seem rather confident. We'll see. I have a feeling it will be important for my success in this role. To be blunt, it's hard to get people to follow you here when..." She shrugged helplessly.

"... Don't tell Admiral Xen... but, well, I know. Especially here. Everyone's got their own reasons to dislike us, it seems." The tone of her voice was a bitter sigh, as Tali's gaze fell. "... Be careful, you have to fight political battles along with those that have turbolasers. Mine are just with circuits and strain gauges."

"Here you are not hated because you are a Quarian, but because you are an alien, full stop. Because you are useful machinists with bipedal and basically human forms, you will be treated with more respect and courtesy than many others. You knew my galaxy was racialist, Tali." She looked down to the desk rather bitterly. "You knew, but I regret it all the same."

"We won't be here long, and Liara's got the same... well, she's got it worse here, in some ways." At least projecting a calmness her posture didn't quite reflect, Tali perched on the edge of Tanda's desk. "People will learn, eventually. I hope."

"I learned." She rose to her feet, and hugged Tali again. "I arranged a supply of food you all could eat while I was on the surface. Of course, how much of it arrives depends on how well we keep the spacelanes open."

"Facing starvation concentrates a Quarian's mind _wonderfully_. I've been trying to keep up with the reports, and it looks like we can upgrade the fighters the locals are using, at least all with shields, and the interceptors have the power reserves to take hyperdrives and warhead launchers... _if_ we can get the parts. The pilots, though..." The Quarian sighed again. "The more time they have to train, the better."

" _Dolorata_ 's five can run rings around them, which will help them, but not by all that much. They're still not very experienced." The Carrack had shipped Defenders to impress the Gree, who could generally regard Imperial starships with a jaundiced eye, unlike most species in the outer rim, but of course the pilots, though the best at the time they were assigned to Asation, well, rusty was a polite way of saying it. "That will primarily be a job for our ground contingent, but the Doctor Engineer," she squeezed Tali proudly, "should handle the oversight."

"Hah! I let Arthree do most of the paperwork!" The blue astromech blatted upsetly as Tali laughed brightly. "I can handle it, Tanda. Even if the Vratix are... creepy."

"They are, and we will not really be their friends. For now. ...For now." She squeezed. "The force be with you, Tali. And _be careful_ around Isard's guards."

"...They're the Emperor's old Royal Guards. If you encounter them, hold yourself quiet in the force. They are sensitives."

"... Why are they following her... never mind. I... well, after the Nightsisters... I'll be careful. If they come up here, though, I think that's less 'be careful' and more 'Channel Shepard'."

"That's right. We're going to get out of this alive. We _are_. I love you."


	72. Chapter 72

...Arthree beeped happily, and Tanda quietly slipped a data-chip to her. _At least we're keeping the bugs under control_. So far, nobody had called her to account for sweeping regularly. Tanda's position would remain always the same if she was: _Do you want people so stupid they tell the Rebels everything they know?_ Yet she and Tali knew the real source of the bugs. The droid trundled away with the message, and Tanda was about to get back to work when the computer pinged with an incoming comms message.

From Captain Drysso. Tanda took a breath and composed her feelings to calmness and order. Order, order served the Empire, and order was peace, calmness, harmony. When things were in an orderly way, they were calm, decent. A homogenous society was a peaceful one. She could find herself in her duty, steady herself in her duty, as much as was required for her job here. Her real objective.

"Captain Pryl." The seniormost of Isard's captains, at least in her eyes, flickered into life as a small holo on the desk. "These are your warning orders - you will be escorting _Corruptor_ , who will be on detached duty - convoy escort. The Rebels attacked and captured the entirety of Convoy Delta-Two-Niner about a week ago, and the freighter crews helped them sell the bacta to finance their _own_ operations."

"Thank you very much, Captain. We had only heard rumours of what happened with the Convoy," Tanda answered calmly, folding her hands. " _Dolorata_ is quite ready to provide some surprise to the Rebel Pirates. When is our departure scheduled? I was scheduled to undergo medical treatment on the surface and I should have to delay it if it is necessary to depart quickly."

"It should be a day or two. You will be conforming to Captain Convarion's operations during these operations as necessary. You will receive detailed instructions from him." His face was a stern mask lacking sympathy as he spoke, and any effort at emotion seemed to just make Drysso patronizing to her expression of weakness.

Tanda let out a sigh for the sake of it, though she had been expecting as much. "Captain Convarion is lower on the seniority list, Captain Drysso. He was a lieutenant in charge of a weapons section on a _Mandator_ when I was last escorting convoys and killing rebels with a _Carrack_ , and that's where I made my name, too."

"I did not say you had to obey his _orders,_ Pryl." Drysso replied with a warning tone to his voice. "Conform to his operations, and you will recieve Director Isard's orders for your two vessels through him."

"Understood, Captain." The sigh exhausted from the suit, and this time it was real, though she maintained her rigid posture in the chair. Some things in the fleet were more natural than life itself, these days.

"That will be _all_." The squat, dangerous looking figure gave her a hard look, before blinking out.

Tanda slumped back and keyed in the shuttlebay. "Prepare my shuttle for departure to the Xucphra Specialist Hospital landing pad, please." She was waiting for Tali... And dealing with the unending insults of these officers, worse now than they ever had been when she was serving back when the Empire was not a shadow of faded glory, was proving harder than it had then, too. Nobody in the Milky Way doubted the ability of a woman to lead outright. The contempt came only from the suit. Here, she was receiving both.

Tali breezed in quickly enough, though, omnipresent omnitool on her arm, waving with her free hand. "So..." She trailed off, after a glance up turned into a longer look. "... That bad, huh?" The force provided where masks did not.

"I am being ordered to 'conform my movements' with the second juniormost Captain here by Drysso, for convoy escort, because these idiots cannot screen freighters and the crews seem very quick to defect," Tanda replied. "And I hardly can see how the bacta treatment will fit into two days before we depart."

"... Oh, so we're back to sniping and back-biting, then... how charmingly normal. Well. The bacta, we can do nothing about, that's up to the technicans on the ground. Perhaps it will work better than we expect. As to convoy escort... Admiral Raan wasn't _completely_ lacking in explaining the concept. Civilian captains are prone to panic when you put guns to their heads, and these Rebels... seem very good at that sort of thing. I've been trying to catch up on some of Liara's reports, and... Keelah, it's worse than I thought. We're more or less facing a state-supported unofficial alliance of pirates and commandos. She... _suspects_ they've already infiltrated agents on-world. My people are acting accordingly, anyhow. I trust her feelings in things like this. So... stealing ships out of escorted groups."

"That's what you think they'll be doing, rather than attacking them to destroy them? Bacta is worth an enormous amount of money, and is desperately needed across the entire galaxy right now. The Plague..." Her voice sounded black with bitterness. "Well, I mean, destroying Bacta could ultimately force the Republic to intervene here, damn the consequences. You don't think they will?"

"That they're selling what they took the first time tells me that they aren't getting enough support from the government on Coruscant. Torpedoes, spare parts... they'll have to buy everything they need based off what they steal - like pirates. And they like to think themselves more moral than us... add to _that_... Tanda, they have to come up with _some_ sort of plan to _neutralize Lusankya_. Is there any possible method of doing that which isn't _very_ expensive?"

Tali sounded excited. "They'll have to have a base, keep that hidden and supplied somehow, _and_ pay for their own operations against us. They'll have to steal everything they can!" She gave an embarrassed look. "Like how Shepard, ah, _salvages_ everything not epoxied down to pay for luxuries and not-issue items for her team and herself. Or how a we never let _anything_ to go waste..."

"I can think of tactical ways to neutralize an _Executor_ , but how they come out of an operational or logistical set of constraints is something I'm less clear on, Tali. We're going to have to think about that, and perhaps game it. But I see your point about the enemy going to operate like Shepard operated, out of necessity if nothing else, and also hold the moral high ground."

"You can finish the preparations for our departure while I'm gone?" She laced her fingers.

"Of course! We'll do a last few sims, and I'll set us on thirty minute alert once all the panels are closed up." The Quarian engineer gave her wife a little salute. " _Dolorata_ will be ready for you."

"Honour and Praise for my crew," Tanda raised her hand, and then stood and gently clinked Tali's helmet. "And especially for my wife. See you in two days if all goes well."

She hugged Tali again, and then headed for the shuttle bay, and from the shuttle to the mindless anomie of two days in a Bacta tank.

-

She felt it particularly badly, this time, since it needed to completely fill her lungs, leaving Tanda breathing by direct oxygen filtration into her blood, drugged to suppress the horrifying sensation of drowning. It was the only way to keep someone stable with bacta filling their lungs—and sane.

The next coherent feeling she had was the crisp feeling of cool air on her skin as the drugs wore off, the glowing eyes of a medical droid looming over her as the technicans watched from a viewport into the sterile lab.

"Commodore Pryl, how are you feeling?" crackled over the speaker, as they held their breaths, watching the readouts shift with Tanda awakening.

"I..." She wheezed, coughed. Didn't black out. "I think I'm breathing on my own?" Her voice almost degenerated into laughter as she took another breath.

"That's correct. Take it easy, Commodore. Your lungs aren't used to it, but the readouts indicate you should be able to sustain your existence outside the suit for two weeks or so. I'm afraid it's not a cure, but it _is_ a treatment."

"Two days for two weeks." She took deep, slow breaths. _Is that really even worth it? Well, I'm expected to have only one answer here, so I'll give it._ "A fair trade in death for life. Thank you."

He frowned, and checked the report from the consulting doctor. "Your physician estimates we will be able to double your time outside the suit for this length of treatment with targeted refinement and gradual healing, and perhaps triple, but... no more than that. This is no cure, I am afraid. Your condition would still be ultimately terminal without your suit."

"I understand what you're saying. I'll schedule the treatment within my free time, thank you. For now, I am already late in preparing for a mission; I need a uniform. And some help back to my ship," Tanda answered, betraying her own fear, and luck, over the lack of orders having been sent out yet to escort a convoy. "While I appreciate the concern at improving the treatment, I have my duty now. Director Isard cannot spare ship commanders in these trying times."

"... Of course, Commodore." The technician looked uncertain, as he picked up a commlink. "Someone from the garrison will be summoned at once. You really should be re-learning how to live outside of the suit, not commanding a ship, Commodore."

"You only need to be lashed to your chair to command a ship," Tanda hissed. "Get me a hoverchair. And a uniform," she repeated with a sigh.

What followed was almost comical, as the Thyferrans struggled to meet her requirements - a hoverchair, a uniform - and an intricate leather and worked-metal carrying case for her suit which had clearly been hastily but custom repurposed from some other cause, with the instruction to keep it close at hand, in case a sudden deterioration in her condition occurred.

"Thank you." Tanda fixed out her uniform, and while she did, she didn't bother with rank boards, since Drysso was insisting on calling her a Captain. Instead, she pinned a Commodore's cylinders to her breast and simply wore no boards at all... And slipped the red textile headscarf up and around her hair to contain it, pull it down, wrap it across her shoulders and tie it. It felt far more comfortable than regulation now, and kept her a bit safer from prying eyes. _I'll wear the uniform properly when we're playing by the real seniority list. Until then they can consider it a protest and deal with it_.

Her omnitool trilled as she stepped out under the sun-the humidity in the air striking as almost a surge of the sea - the abbreviated clothing preferred by the local humans became suddenly _very_ logical, as the speeder, escorted by a pair of THDC speederbikes, pulled up for her.

Tanda let the techs help her from the hoverchair into the speeder, pulling a pair of white surface gloves on and trying to be small in her uniform, which at least fit unlike her old ones these days, and headscarf. She checked the reference on the omnitool once she was settled in, to see what the alert was about, while she started sweating. _I think no matter how much Tali and I complained, suit air conditioning was better_.

On the display in calm orange holotext - _First briefing on strategic situation is ready. -SB_

 _Secure? y/n_ Tanda answered as she settled into the backseat of the speeder, trembling a little. The initials were a reference so utterly contextual that she knew that the message was not a false flag by those two letters alone.

 _Yes. Using old high-level Quarian fleet codes._

 _Go ahead, SB. I'm somewhere private for non-aural communications only. Traveling to the spaceport now._

 _Your galaxy is beginning a slide into economic collapse and the eventual loss of central government authority, for the top-level analysis._

Tanda grimaced, and tapped back an answer. _...I'll want to meet to talk about that some time._ She wasn't really sure what to _do_ with the information, though. Bloodyminded, even though she badly wanted to understand Liara's rationale. _Continue with the more locally important segments, please._

 _Immediate threat assessment is a half-wing of starfighters, unknown smuggler support, unknown base location. Commandos already on planet working with dissident elements. THDC morale and quality is low, fleet morale is generally low. Lusankya in poor materiel condition. Severe starfighter and and catastropic pilot shortages. On strategic defensive against very skilled opponents. Ships... sources limited. Ongoing galactic civil war resulting in high warship utilization. Vessels missing due to automation failure greatest promising lead._

 _So the Lusankya needs a drydocking we can't give to her and you're talking about the Katana Fleet._

 _... And the missing vessels of the Separatist fleet. Yes. A poor set of options in a desperate situation._

 _I'll take it under advisement, but speaking as a native, that's unfortunately a very academic set of options, so to speak. Still, if you want to pull together the information on the Katana Fleet that exists, I appreciate the effort. But perhaps other matters are more interesting._ Matters Tanda didn't think it wise to vocalise even here.

 _Civilian vessels are easier to locate. I'm also chasing down leads based on the enemy having transferred all nationalised military assets to local control. Crews will be difficult to convince, I fear. I think you are the most loyal commander to Mme Director in the fleet._ Which was a damning indictment of how bad things were.

 _I'll keep that under advisement. Thank you._ Her speeder pulled into the spaceport, and the staff had a hoverchair alongside to help her out of the speeder and into for transferring her to the shuttle. All the while, she was acutely aware that she would need to walk onto her own bridge for the sake of her respect with the _Dolorata_ 's crew, but the two days in a bacta tank had not been pleasant.

At least it was her people standing by the shuttle, one of _Dolorata_ 's pair of Lambdas, and they stiffened to salute as she moved up the ramp. "Commodore! Commander Zorah wishes you to know we have orders to depart in six hours."

Tanda forced herself to stand, at that, and acknowledged the salute. "Well, let's show them what we can do." Grabbing onto the stanchions of the walkway, she forced herself into the passenger compartment, step by step.

She was met with grins by her shuttle crew. "Good to see you, ma'am! Ready to lift on your command!"

She sat down and strapped herself in. "It's good to see you all, too. I've always hated doctors." _Fortunately there aren't any real ones here_. "All right, I'm ready. Get us skyborne. We've got ships to cover."

"Aye, aye, Commodore!" Amongst _her_ crew, there was no arguments about rank, that was certain! Tali was waiting at the airlock for her, mildly frentic, as the bustle of a ship preparing for a patrol went on around them. "Commodore! We're making final preparations to depart, convoy of a dozen bacta freighters to a central dispersion point, making the customers come to us rather than having to cover the whole convoy to each planet." She handed over a data-slate, finding the relatively primitive devices this galaxy considered normal to be at least quaint.

"Thank you." Tanda smiled, tried to be as happy as she could without looking profoundly abnormal. Headscarf, no rank insignia, but her code cylinders, and she keyed through the data-slate and its report quite calmly as she started forward with Tali. "Five hours before departure. I see... Bacta transports are fast, everyone involved has a Class I. Quite good."

"I'd separate some of the transports from the escort somehow, ma'am. It's what I thought of, while you were down there. They can't replace losses well." Tali replied, her voice calmly professional in public, though uniform regulations were rather lost on a Quarian.

"Do you have any ideas about how to... Ah, Commander. Please give an arm to the bridge," she offered more softly. She wanted to be held by Tali, and it was the one way to get away with it. "Well, do you have any ideas of how to detect it?"

"Force them to give us their navcomp solutions right before every jump." Tali looked up. "Sabotage due to disaffection on the civilian side is the concern, I think. Nobody will defect voluntarily after... what happened to... the dependents of those who... helped the Rebels." She phrased that very carefully in public, offering a strong arm for Tanda to lean on.

"Quite. I will arrange the order to the convoy, then, under my full rank. I can't imagine Captain Convarion intentionally contradicting _that_."

"I'm still not sure who's actually in command of the convoy, but... ma'am... Captain Convarion been rather pre-emptory in this messages so far. He expects us to cover the rear while he leads the convoy."

"Then he'll have to double back if we report an attack... Nobody is in command, Commander. This situation is distasteful and unfortunate. This is what happens when the promotion list is not obeyed."

"Unfortunate. This is worse than _any_ bickering I've seen at home and open insubordination was sometimes _normal_... well, let's let the crew cheer you, shall we?"

"Certainly." She defiantly kept the headscarf on, and leaned on Tali's shoulder. But she walked a full circuit of the hull before coming up to the bridge, letting her crew see that she was really Commodore Tanda Pryl, let them know that one of the aces of DEATHRON was in command and not merely some shadowy suited figure, a ghost of one of the best Star Destroyer Captains of Palpatine's Empire.

Her crew _cheered_ her as she passed them below. So many defeats, so many losses... and she projected a confidence much of the rest of the fleet had long ago lost, as the bridge crew barked; "Commodore on deck!" and officers stood to their stations.

"Gentlebeings, we have all been through a lot. Some of us have lost all that we know. We fight in increasingly desperate circumstances and times. I cannot promise you a triumph on Coruscant tomorrow. But together we are the best, and what I can promise you is that when Rogue Squadron comes in against us and we roll to present our new quad lasers, they're going to think it was Deepspace Besh all over again!"

A spontaneous cheer broke out across the bridge to her bold proclamation, and grins broke out down to the enlisted at the consoles. "We'll follow you to Wild Space, ma'am!"

"I'll hold ya to it, boys! But for now we've got Bacta convoys to run!" She grinned, and slipped from Tali's arm to the command chair that a Carrack, more used to being violently bounced around, still had unlike the open deck of an ISD. And then she strapped herself in. "Stand the ship up for departure! Regular duty stations only." It would be a few hours before they actually departed the system, after all, but forming up a convoy was like herding cats.

Slowly, the dozen freighters formed up, _Corruptor_ lining up at the head of the convoy... this was it. For Tali, at least, her first prospect of action against the traditional foe of the Imperial Navy, and for Tanda, far removed from the last time she had been in this galaxy. "Orders to jump from Captain Convarion, ma'am!"

"Confirm all coordinates." The holoplot glowed like the one from a decade ago.

Acknowledgments—and confirmations—came back, as the chime of the navicomputer brought the levers back, and the stars elongating before them. It was about halfway through the first jump that her omnitool chimed.

 _Tanda, we have a problem. Three of the freighters have different navcomp coding from the others. Looks like they'll throw out a different set of coordinates... five jumps in._

 _Wait, what? The_ _ **coding**_ _is different? So it will produce a valid jump still?_

 _That's right. They've been hacked, I think. This would deliver three unsuspecting freighters right to our waiting pirates... it's elegant, really, of the bosh'tets. I_ _ **hate**_ _pirates._

 _Pull the real coordinates that they'll be going to,_ Tanda answered as she leaned back in her command chair. Gloves still on, as she found herself having trouble parting with them after so long in the suit. But her face reflected a dispassionate frown at the information, and the challenge it represented. _If you can. If not, we'll stay behind at the fifth jump and try to extrapolate their course. I want to set an ambush. Oh, and Tali, don't log that you found this in the_ Dolorata _'s computers until then._

 _Got it. I'll have Arthree run the sim._

It was partway through the third jump that she sent a meaningless astronomical designation - and coordinates.

 _No planets. Just a red dwarf and unformed accretion disc. Nobody'd ever stumble across them there. Everyone else will be in Rishi, and they'll... be light years away._

Tanda rubbed her gloves together and looked at the projection through long-range astrogation of their course, innocently proceeding as planned in the convoy run toward Rishi. This was the old game. The rebels were used to this, and she was used to countering it. But these were the best rebels in the business. The Rebels wanted the ships intact...

 _They're going to make it easy on us, Tali. They have to. We'll just... Wait. They can't capture freighters that quickly. It will take some time. A little bit of spatial separation will let us come on them while they're deployed to recover them instead of ready for battle._

 _And what about Captain Convarion...? We'll have to tell him, and it seems risky to go in alone._

 _That's why we're not saying anything in the logs until the interval before the fifth jump. To have an excuse to only inform him after the_ Corruptor _has gone to lightspeed. You know, his arriving later will be a further surprise for them when they're lined up against us._

 _... This could_ so _go wrong. All right. Let's do this._

"Status report," Tanda ordered aloud, now, and left behind the private conversation with Tali. She projected normalcy and confidence, until her crew needed to know to the contrary. The convoy to Rishi carried on comfortably through its plan of hyperspace jumps, outside of the systems held by the Thyferran government and deep into territory that was loosely claimed by the New Republic but in practice now a collection of de facto independent regimes waiting for the outcome of the civil war.

"Drives running normal, _Corruptor_ is still in position... bacta tankers, also holding station. Situation is normal." This list of reports came back from her bridge crew with the crisp professionalism of an undefeated Imperial Starfleet that was now, too, a dream, and _Dolorata_ ploughed her way through hyperspace, passing her navigational checkpoints easily. Surely it wouldn't be so easy.

-

She let the headscarf drape around her neck, adjusting her straps, using the delicate white gloves to flip it back up, glancing idly at her code cylinders, reminding herself to use the 'fresher, settling down to kaff. The native plants of Terra had a quality it did not, and she missed them, but it was familiar from many watches on Carracks before, and she was glad to have that back. Here she was in her own galaxy, not far from Commenor, running convoys.

"Stand up to Action Stations," she ordered as they arrived at the fourth waypoint, blue eyes abruptly clear and certain. She knew what was going to happen at this waypoint, even if her crew didn't know it, yet.

There was only a single moment of hesitation as the klaxons began to sound - the crew, already on edge, exploded into movement throughout _Dolorata_."Time plus four minutes, ma'am, all stations report ready, TIEs ready to launch on your command!"

"Very good. Commander Zorah, are we ready to make the jump to lightspeed? Signal ready to the _Corruptor_ if so and wait for my order."

"On the line, ma'am, ready to jump on your command." crackled from the comm in Tali's accented voice, the status of repeaters matching her report - " _Corrupter_ copies."

 _Tali, the transports?_ The VSD would not know her real intention and knowledge.

 _The corrupt code is activated, by the check-sums they're feeding me. Three of them._

Tanda watched the rest of the fleet jump to lightspeed. She hung on the moment as her crew wondered at their own lack of motion. _Correct coordinates laid in, Tali?_

 _Locked in. We're ready to follow those three lost tankers!_

"Make the jump to lightspeed!" She settled her fingers into the cusion of the chair. Tensely, she waited for the arrival, not knowing how long this jump was, just that three ships had been diverted onto it. Three ships that she had to retrieve, and the best of the Rebel squadrons, that she had to fight, after so long away from battle here.

As the blue tunnel of hyperspace gave way to elongated starlines snapping into focus, there were flashes ahead, the sensors trilling alarms - hostile craft and weapons fire ahead. One of the bacta freighters trying to evade, the other two with shields down - two dozen starfighters, a dozen X-Wings, and a dozen of... something else the computers had trouble identifying. Tanda curled her lips and muttered in a whisper out loud: "Uglies. Nice to be home, indeed."

And then it was down to business. "Launch the Defenders! They are to cut through the enemy formation and then cover the third freighter." Her hands twisted into the chair. "Ahead full, close with the two freighters, they yielded much too quickly for it to have been by boarding. Standard weapons complement only. Hold the lasers in reserve. Bait them out."

" _Xucphra Alazhi_ reports her weapons disabled, ma'am! The other two are on out-bound vectors... enemy snubfighters reforming for a torpedo attack, ma'am!" The alerts were coming quickly down, as they burned _towards_ the Rebel starfighter squadron with such a fearsome reputation for roughly handling ships... much larger than their own.

"Launch the Defenders! They are to cut through the enemy formation and then cover the third freighter." Her hands twisted into the chair. "Ahead full, close with the two freighters, they yielded much too quickly for it to have been by boarding. Standard weapons complement only. Hold the lasers in reserve. Bait them out."

As the snubfighters deployed the blaze of weapons from the _Dolorata_ attracted immediate attention. The Rebel forces turned to face her, racing through space and dodging the heavy cannon of the Carrack with easy confidence.

"Steady as she goes!" Tanda brought her gloved hands up against her lips, watching the tactical holoplot and sucking in her breath. She had done this before, but never against the very best of the Rebel Alliance. "Stand by lasers. Prepare to shift ion cannon to the two retreating freighters. And tell _Xucphra Alazhi_ to broadcast Imperial military ident and make best possible speed from the combat area, sublight."

" _Xucphra Alazhi_ is acknowledging, ma'am... enemy craft closing... firing! Enemy firing torpedoes!" the alarm rang out across the bridge as the Rebel X-Wings fired off a salvo, spinning away after having launched a perfectly coordinated salvo against them. Against a normal cruiser... such tactics were perfect, to disrupt with the bulk of the salvo then slip others through the harmonics.

"Target the second wave of torpedoes... Helm, bow up, ninety degrees. Cut engine power. Clear the ventral arcs!" She shifted power to the quad lasers at that moment, stabbing her comm. "Quad lasers - fire, second wave of torpedoes first target, then shift to X-wings!"

"Engineering-shields to ventral arc." The _Dolorata_ bucked up, showing her nominally more vulnerable ventral arc - but it was also where all of the quad lasers they'd installed could reliably bear.

The guns started to hammer as the cruiser slewed - overheating alarms sounded in the background as engineering shifted power to the guns, and the deck shuddered as the torpedoes slammed home, to the wailing of alarms... then stabilized as the shields did. "Enemy fighters have broken formation and are evading our fire, moving to pin us between two attacks, ma'am!" The holotank showed the Rogues shifting - only one or two had been hit by the fire, whomever was coordinating them had reacted so quickly to her sudden swing.

"Track one prong of the attack with the ventral surface to keep all cannon bearing on them. Slew under thrusters. Keep engine thrust down. Shift all heavier weapons fire back to the starfighters. Overheat status, engineering?" She watched the fighters blossom into the two groups, their attack for the moment wrecked. _Those X-wings can only do it twice more._

Tali's voice came through with a hint of strain; "It's under control, but if we could avoid too many more hits like that, it _would_ be appreciated!" The ship swung to keep her belly fixed on one of the groups of X-Wings... the Uglies in the group turned to attack the bacta freighter trying to move towards her, battering her barely restored down shields with strafing runs until they collapsed once again.

"Tell the _Xucphra Alazhi_ to evade independently!" Tanda gripped her hands into the armrests of the command chair and fumed. Freighters were unreliable in the best of times, even when not actively treasonous. "Are we broadcasting reports to _Corruptor_?"

"Yes ma'am, since you ordered!" came the quick reply, as the Rogues spun to come about again - preparing to attack her again... and with a flicker of pseudomotion, the _Victory-II_ came flashing out of hyperspace, immediately opening fire on the scattering fighters... and the Xucphra freighter. A stab of desperation flared through Tanda's heart.

Tanda stabbed the open comm line to Imperial forces. " _HOLD FIRE ON THE XUCPHRA ALAZHI! WE ARE RESCUING HER LOYAL CREW!_ " A stab of consternation and regret flared through her, ached in every part of her being. She had tried to keep them safe out of the battle-zone... The rest of the combat flashed away into the searing visage of an arc of turbolaser fire ripping across the open space from VSD-II to the freighter.

There was an almost burning tear across the retinae of her eyes as the reactor went supercritical and blew the ship apart, a single volley from a Star Destroyer against a freighter with shields down proving almost instantly fatal, as the remaining Rebel snubfighters scattered into hyperspace. They'd gotten two-thirds of what they came for... and the bridge was very quiet in the aftermath.

Tanda sank back into her command chair, her headscarf having fallen to her shoulders without being noticed, her gloves gripping the armrests reflexively, and again, before with a sigh she sank down into the worn leather and grew very still. Her voice mustered only a whisper, bleak and frustrated. "Stand down from General Quarters."

"Standing down... ma'am, Captain Convarion... is ordering us to..." The bridge officer trailed off as the larger vessel flickered away. "... _Return to the convoy_ , ma'am."

"Recall the Defenders and begin to conduct a scan for any ejected pilots or escape pods," Tanda answered. "I am to 'conform to his movements', not take his damned orders. We will leave when the scanning and any recovery operations are complete."

"Yes ma'am. We're picking up one distress beacon on a Rebel frequency, and some scattered wreckage. Should I deploy our shuttles to investigate?"

"Yes, countermand orders to the Defenders, have them stay out long enough to cover the shuttle. Recover the distress beacon with any survivor."

She drummed her fingers and waited as the shuttle slipped away from the _Dolorata_ and the recovery operation began. It didn't take long, if only because there was a lack of debris from the _Xucphra Alazhi_ , for she was only drifting plasma, now.

Then they found someone. "One survivor. Human male. Rebel flight gear with insignia removed. We have him in stun-cuffs, moderate injuries from exposure and ejection." would come the report, leaving Tanda with a heaving sigh. Everything else was slowly cooling to ambient background.

"Astrogation, plot a course that will let us overhaul the convoy at the earliest possible waypoint and wait for them, and execute it. Lieutenant Fareen, you have the bridge." She pushed herself to her feet, adjusting the headscarf as she headed toward the turbolift, walking unsteadily, but managing to fold her hands behind her back and stiffen her spine for the journey.

Her crew shot looks to each other after she'd passed—somewhat shaken themselves as _Dolorata_ got underway again, though more from what they saw as a close call with Rogue Squadron.

She keyed the turbolift to detention, staring at the wall of the 'lift silently. Rescuing the survivor had been a necessity, but there was no pleasure in having a captive, only grimness at his treatment at the hands of Isard that was likely. She felt rather floaty, disconnected from it all, as she tried to sort out how to approach that. Of course, increasing her own reliability with Isard was critical to her mission.

The Rogues certainly were only going to be more dangerous now that she had revealed the modifications to the _Dolorata_. She could only surprise them once. But her crew could learn, her pilots could learn, in the same way her enemy knew of her capabilities now. It seemed all so less important than the way that Convarion had savagely slaughtered the loyal crew of the _Xucphra Alazhi_. With such terminal stupidity in her service, Isard wouldn't have lasted long, anyway. Now she was in the odd position of trying to save the woman for long enough to destroy her.

Then she arrived, and occasionally using a handrail for support, she continued forward into the detention wing, tiny on a Carrack. The lack of supplemental oxygen left her feeling weak, and the lack of the suit still left her feeling naked.

"Show me to our prisoner," she coughed.

Two stormtroopers stood to attention, and led her in - they'd stuncuffed the prisoner, and... even for Imperials in the presence of a Rebel pilot seemed much more on edge - in a cell in a prison jumpsuit, he was, and the _expression_ on the stormtrooper lieutenant commanding the marine contingent... "Commodore. There's something you should see from the prisoner's personal effects."

"Please give it to me, then." She walked forward slowly toward the front of the cell.

Turning to the locker... the black-clad officer returned with a worn silver cylinder, expression on-edge all the while.

Tanda exhaled slowly. "The weapon of a Jedi Knight," she spoke, very softly, and looked up toward the cell. "What's your name, Rebel?"

"Which one of Iceheart's latest bunch of lickspittles wants to know, Imp?" He gave her defiance, standing to his feet, to a scowl from Tanda's crew. "You can save us all a bunch of time and let me check myself out of here."

"Tempting. I am Commodore Tanda Pryl. Were you at Endor?" She was certainly not in regulation uniform. Terribly thin, pasty-white skin, headscarf, no rank insignia, just her code cylinders. White gloves, rather than black. Holding his lightsabre. And worried that he might be able to tell.

"You were, I'm guessing, Icehard hadn't managed to make me hate you _quite_ enough yet until afterwards." He gave her a defiant look back, not giving an inch. "You're more colorful than the usual ones she digs up."

"I'm dying, after a fashion. It leaves less time to care for the trivial things in life. What is your name? Really, tell me! I am holding your weapon, it is the lightsabre of a Jedi Knight."

"Corran Horn. You _may_ have heard of me, I was galactic news for a while." He paused for a moment, before only the smallest hint of uncertainty bled through. "What are you going to do with that?"

"Keep it. Being an educated Commenorean woman I never quite believed the usual Imperial line about the Jedi. I was old enough and rich enough to read the Holonet news during the Clone Wars. I collect their artefacts and history as a hobby. A corrupt, self-destructive order at the end, but we'll never really separate ourselves from the legacy. The Empire certainly couldn't, and not for the want of trying, either."

"Don't believe it at all. It's all lies. All of it." came his reply, a bit hotly. "You're one of those vultures who loves to collect lightsabers and robes, I've met people like you. You'd never understand what Palpatine did to the galaxy when he slaughtered them."

"Well, that's one way to look at it," she answered with a sigh. "You are very well known to Director Isard. We have your DNA on file, we would have identified you anyway. Where did you get the lightsabre? Are you some new breed of Jedi being trained by Luke Skywalker?"

He gave her a skeptical look, and laughed to himself. "I stole it. Stole it along with your capital planet." He gave her a taunting grin to dodge the question, crossing his arms before him. "Isard couldn't get anything out of me, what makes you think you will?"

"I'm not asking for the sake of the Empire you have all but destroyed, merely out of curiousity. You see, really, I'm mature enough to admit you handed us quite the defeat in taking Coruscant. Oh well. I am in it for the speciality bacta, Mister Horn. It seems that motivation provided some fire to Isard's forces, though..." She looked down.

"When you are interrogated, please confirm one thing for me." Clearing her throat. "Not _to_ me, of course, I'm not going to bother interrogating you. I mean, rather, when Director Isard has you interrogated."

"What, that your _hospitality_ was excellent? She's tried to break me before. And failed. You seem more scared of her than I am."

"I said, I am just here for the bacta. Director Isard has a plan, and I am executing my part in it according to her directives." She shoved the lightsabre into her belt. It was a good excuse to start carrying one around, if nothing else. "What I am asking is that you will confirm in your interrogation the result of the logs that Captain Convarion killed the crew of the _Xucphra Azahi_ unnecessarily. I am attempting to have him removed, so that we do not further cause unecessary civilian fatalities. I imagined that... Someone with a connection to the Force would be willing to cooperate with me on that."

"Despite my seniority and my previous command of the _Thunderflare_ in DEATHRON, I am stuck here being treated as the lowest ranking officer of Isard's force. I don't actually have command over any of them despite being a Commodore, and despite being higher in the seniority list as a Captain then all of them. And Convarion behaved like a barbarian pirate."

"You may not be able to save yourself, but you may be able to save the lives of others as a consequence. I am an Imperial officer of the line, and I do not commit atrocities, I enforce order. Until the last breath trembles from these wrecked lungs, there's nothing for me." She tapped on her omnitool. "Ah yes, I see that you were a CorSec officer. So perhaps we can understand each other?"

"You, Commodore, are on the wrong side of this war..." He shook his head with a tired sigh. "... The wrong, wrong side of this war. You could do plenty of good for the New Republic, but I suppose we've got to overthrow Iceheart for that. We understand each other. Did..." He shook his head. "Never mind."

"My condition is terminal without the specialist bacta on Thyferra. I am Isard's most loyal officer." She grinned mirthlessly. "I'll have food brought down from the mess. Your lightsabre will be in a safe deposit box at the Xucphra Management Monetary Union by the spaceport. Do remember if you somehow escape that Isard's people have probably been reviewing this footage and will be waiting for you if you somehow manage to escape again."

He gave her an odd look, suspicion colouring his expression. "... You're not lying. Let's... hope we won't meet again."

"I share the sentiment utterly. Good day." She turned away, gripping the lightsabre closer with one hand as she walked. _Cheeky bastard. Why did Isard keep him alive? A force sensitive is far too dangerous for that. But I suppose I shouldn't ask questions. I'm just a Captain, now!_


	73. Chapter 73

While the interrogation was ongoing, _Dolorata's_ new chief engineer had gone down to the shuttle bay—as a _favour_ Tali had asked the search parties to prioritize any astromechs from the destroyed enemy fighters, giving the reason that their nav records might help locate the enemy base... with a secondary unspoken reason that she shuddered to think of Arthree stuck drifting through space as those might be. Even if they were serving the Rebellion, it wasn't like the droids had a choice.

"Got one, seems to be from the fighter that we recovered the pilot from, Commander Zorah," the bay chief answered. "Just in time before we made the jump to lightspeed, too." Tali's friendly disposition and willingness to work hard alongside her crew had won some grudging appreciation from _Dolorata_ 's men, so far.

"Thanks, Chief! Let me get the restraining bolt on and it locked into a hover-pallet, and I'll get them out of your way." Her eyes through the visor showed her grin as she bent to work. "It'd be nice to not be on the receiving end of torpedoes all the time... I'll get him back to my workshop and get started, thanks again! I should have that holotank for the rec room working again by next week."

"Thank you for putting in your off-time on it, Commander," he answered and shook his head. "Don't know why you want a rebel droid, I'll confess. They're fiesty about the cause their masters fight for."

"Ours can be too, you know... but you might consider me a little bit mad if I went on like that! Maybe I'll get something out of him, or from the databanks. Who knows? Thanks again..."

The Chief laughed and shook his head at Tali, saluting the Commander and departing.

Alone, she looked over the green-accented R2 unit, scorched and damaged, but mostly intact. "... Looks like _you_ had an ejection motor."

The R2 defiantly chirped in return. _Where is Corran Horn? I know he wasn't dead when he got on board!_

"Ah, ah, wait a moment. We don't want everyone to think I'm crazy. Or you. He'll be fine, _if_ you cooperate." ... Tali tried to be menacing, but her heart wasn't really in it as she tugged the hoversled along. "You've a lot of customizations, it looks like. What's your name?"

 _Whistler. You don't have the power to save him! You're just an alien working for the Empire! They hate aliens._

She reached up to tap at her omni-tool, the whistles and beeps of droid-speak issued from her mask in time with the blinking light on her mouthpiece then. _I'm a Commander in the Imperial Navy, and I'm here because I have to be. Maybe... you'll find that out sometimes, but... the Commodore and I don't want to be here long. This isn't... what I thought I signed up for. Now, why do you think he's in danger? I_ _ **did**_ _have you picked up, after all. Arthree wouldn't be happy if I hadn't, granted!_

 _Iceheart kills people at a whim, and Master Corran offends her because he can escape when he wants. Why did you save me?_

 _... It was the right thing to do._ It sounded lame to her, even so, as they settled into her personal workshop, set up in a former storage closet, projects and tools everywhere, as Tali brought up the holo displays. "I'm not going to torture you. You've never been memory-wiped, have you? You're like the droids back home."

 _Your species doesn't memory-wipe droids? Everyone does!_ It wasn't exactly an answer, but Whistler seemed to find the concept novel.

"We... used to. It's... different now. We learned a lot of lessons... the hard way." It wasn't really an answer for _her_ part either, but she shrugged. "Now, I'm going to scan you, and... well, as to Mister Horn, I suspect he'll escape on the planet. I'll make sure you end up down there too. You've been working together a while?"

 _I keep him from doing stupid things! And I'll keep you from getting to me, too! You're an Imp, even though you're very nice._

Tali laughed, as she set out her tools, and gently worked the cables into place, warily watching Whistler as she did. "I am an Imp. And thank you for saying I'm very nice, Mister Whistler. Your fight, I admit, doesn't concern me very much... we'll be going back to fight a much, much bigger threat before you can get your hands on us, I think... oh you _do_ have a lot of custom circuitry... and you already wiped your nav-memory, I see."

 _Droids aren't stupid. You should realise that._

"They managed to kill all but nineteen million of my people, Whistler, I'd say so... so, if you'll give your parole, I'll let you out of the frame and take the restraining bolt off, otherwise, I fear it'll be just like your pilot until we get back to Thyferra."

 _Parole, from a droid? You're nuts._

"...Yet not mind-wiping droids isn't? You have an interesting definition of insanity, Whistler." Tali was bemused, as she shook her head. "If I agree mind-wiping you is wrong, and you're a sentient, how is offering you the same opportunity as any other sentient being 'nuts', as you said?" She gave a quizzical look through her mask, running her omni-tool over the droid. "You're free to refuse it, of course, just like anyone else is."

 _The Empire doesn't give parole to biological rebels EITHER._

"And the Republic throws us in prison, more often than not, which is better than being left to starve to death, I suppose. I'm offering it to you, the Commodore will support me on it. You think anyone _else_ on this ship will assume anything other than that I mind-wiped and impressed you? Now, if you violate the parole, of course..." She sighed. " _Then_ you won't get to see Mister Horn again. Or I can just leave you here until we reach Thyferra and have you transferred to the groundside droid pool."

 _Someone trying to be nice shouldn't make death threats!_

Tali smiled behind her mask, and shook her head. "Oh, but that wasn't a death threat. You'd just be stuck with us."

 _I'll give you my parole..._

"Thank you, Arthree says that it hurts, so..." She moved to un-do the brackets, and pop the restraining bolt off. "Chiktikka will be keeping an eye on you, so no trying to hack the ship! I know what astromechs are capable of!"

 _You and your R3..._

Tali laughed. "Arthree is Arthree, Chatikka vas Paus is my drone." She grinned with almost maternal pride as the hatch cycled open for said R3 unit.

 _And Corran Horn is my human!_

-

Tanda returned to the bridge when they returned to Thyferra, having been resting in the interval and trying to recover a sense of balance with her existence outside of her suit. She felt like she was failing at it. "Hail Director Isard immediately. Ignore any other requests until we've made our report." She smiled grimly from her command chair, and adjusted her headscarf. A moment later Isard appeared, frowning at Tanda's non-standard uniform.

"Director, I wish to make an immediate report of the course of events during the convoy escort mission," she began. "As I do not feel I will receive a fair hearing through the regular channels."

The withering glare she got from the holo appearing before her perhaps indicated that this was... dangerous. "Speak, Commodore." Her voice was cold and brusque, and Iceheart's lips set in a thin line.

"People obey when they know that it is rewarded, Director. I am broadcasting my report now. The _Xucphra Azahi_ was destroyed despite loyally obeying, and fighting to survive against the rebel attack. Thanks to Captain Convarion, the rebel traitors on the other two transports are alive and those who obeyed my orders to keep fighting and trying to escape... Were killed. By one of your own Captains. This is the way, Director, than an Empire melts from the fingertips. Please review the logs... I found the Rebel plot, I intercepted it, and I fought to disrupt it. And Convarion made it worse!"

Isard's face went very still, as her mismatched eyes flicked down to read what was scrolling across her screen. Her expression tightened, a fraction. "Perhaps he was somewhat over-aggressive." She replied non-committally, as her expression flicked back up. "Discipline is, however, _my_ concern, Commodore. What would _you_ advise, then...?"

"Publish your own rank table. It's not my business to ask who goes where. But remove the ambiguity. And, Director, you must make clear that you are the leader of Xucphra, and we are here to protect them, not to cause chaos." She sighed. "You can look at me now. You see my eyes, my face, my emaciated body and skin. Why am I here? Because I'll be confined to that suit or outright die without your supply of bacta, Director. I'll speak plainly to you because I have nothing to lose. If you don't like it, kill me, but otherwise, let my record and my coutenance speak for themselves."

"I don't know what your master plan is, and better that I don't; but you won't succeed in executing it if every bacta freighter in Xucphra corp is trying to defect the moment it gets a chance."

"Your advice is taken under advisement, Commodore." There was an edge under her tone, as she drummed her fingers out of sight of the pickup. "Tell me, Commodore. How would you ambush the pirates? I dislike waiting for _them_ to damage our property."

"Pirate ships need fuel just as well as those of honest folk and navies. Supplies. Find out who is giving them supplies, put us between their supplies and them."

"Vorru is working on that. _Smugglers_ , of course. You will lead the ambush, with _Corruptor_ following your orders. If all goes well, we will be..." Her face froze for a moment. "You will have temporary use of an Interdictor."

"...An Interdictor would considerably aide in the execution of such duties. Thank you, Director. If I may, I should very much like to organise a fleet problem to help coordinate and train the Thyferran pilots while we wait, Director."

"It is a better use of the time than any other."

"... You may. Captain Convarion shall be detached to join your... squadron. The remaining three ships shall remain under Captain Drysso, who shall retain overall command."

"I acknowledge that Captain Drysso is my superiour. Director, you should make him a Commodore of the Thyferran Defense Force to make our chain of command clear-cut. Anything else engenders disrespect to the regular chain of command."

"Your _suggestion_ , Commodore, shall be taken under advisement." The tone in the other woman's voice was full of warning, and her red eye was starting to flicker a bit.

"Is there anything else?" She asked with an edge to her voice, hand moving to hover over the disconnect button.

"Yes. I caught a Rogue in the action. A former prisoner of your's; Corran Horn."

"... You captured Horn? _Brilliant,_ Commodore!" Her previous anger seemed to have vanished, and there was even a hint of a smile. "You've done _wonderfully_. I shall send up a shuttle to collect him at once!"

"I'll have him ready for the shuttle, but I expect he's already expecting it," Tanda answered. "I was made from infancy to be an officer and a gentlewoman, and I deliver, Director. I'll stop them and I'll run the convoys through."

"You have my assurance." She was smaller and weaker without the suit, frail and isolated, with gloves that concealed the false skin of her cybernetic hands. But her eyes flickered with brilliant confidence.

Isard gave her a single nod, of visible approval, and blanked the transmission without any further threats.

Tanda sighed, and rose. She needed to eat, even as it offered no pleasure. And she needed Tali, far more closely than the circumstances allowed. She'd settle for seeing her at all. Just as she was thinking it, her omnitool chimed as she stretched aching muscles, and the message blinked into view; _I have the report from the interrogation of the pirate droid._

 _Please come and give it in person,_ Tanda answered, somewhat relieved at the excuse to defer eating and see Tali.

 _Got it! You mind if I bring a drink bulb, and do you want anything?_

Tanda pursed her lips. _I should eat_.

 _I've been having trouble remembering to, and finding solid food appealing, for that matter._

 _I think they've got some meal shakes or something, I'll go ahead and grab one for you._

Tanda would be working on her omnitool when Tali came in a few minutes after the last message, looking up and smiling at the visage of her suited wife. "Thank you for thinking of my health, darling."

"You never do, love." She smiled behind her mask, shaking her head, and offering a large mug. "Here. You should probably have some soups, too, if solid food is... well. It's been a long time since I had any, I admit." Flopping down into a chair before Tanda's desk, Tali sighed and frowned at Tanda's appearance. "You've been wasting away despite my best efforts, Tanda."

"I'm sure my appetite for it will come back, but it's been less than three days since I was decanted," she answered wryly as she took the mug. "And my body was in a perfectly controlled environment before, now I need to function in so many ways again."

"You'll get used to it, I hope." She sipped at her own bulb and leaned back. "The droid, 'Whistler' wiped his navcomp memory. Nothing to get out of him, and he's customised like mad, complete with what I think is both memory wipe and restraining bolt resistant circuitry. I swore him to parole and said I'd have him sent down to the droid pool on the planet. ... I was allowed to do that, right?" Her voice was suddenly nervous as her gaze looked to Tanda.

"If you think it appropriate. You've become quite the droids' rights activist." She looked down for a moment, but was drinking the shake. "This isn't what I fought for, Tali."

"Fighting pirates on behalf of a murderer as your galaxy burns around you and mine bleeds?" _There_ was a strong note of bitterness. "We're going to be late getting back."

The breath seemed so soft, but it bore the weight of the galaxy. Or a galaxy. "I know we are." She looked back up. "I know we are. But we can't just go to _Lusankya_ and seize her, Tali. Isard's Royal Guards... We're going to be late."

"I _know_! I know those bosh'tets will check us, and we'd probably die, but..." She shook her head, violently. "How long will Auntie Raan be able to hold them back?"

"I don't know. But with _Lusankya_ I can win the war, Tali. I need the ship. If they attack before we return... I can still win the war."

"Assuming that damned Crucible isn't a trap that turns everyone into husks or something." Her voice shook with emotion, as her gaze fell. "... At least they're starting to respect you, a little. Now... how do we stay true to who we are while surviving this place?"

"We don't kill innocent people. We are still fighting for a legitimate government against pirates. If we don't kill innocent people, we aren't doing anything wrong. And if that forces a decision we don't want, then... We must accept that as the will of the force."

"It may have taken my strength and my health from me, but I won't let the Dark Side claim my soul, too. Promise."

"Let's hope... let's hope so. I'll get that astromech sent down to the planet, and then we've... just got to keep... it's just hard to stay calm, Tanda. My father, everyone I know, they're back _there_ and I'm here, trying to... I want to scream sometimes, at how little this fight matters on a grand scale."

"Or maybe it does." Tanda hissed softly. "I feel something... Something uneasy about the force in this galaxy, now. Perhaps, since you weren't brushed by the dark, you don't feel it. But it bothers me, and I agree that we have to hurry... To find some way to hurry."

"I can't tell what's my worrying about home... and what's an ill feeling through the Force. Maybe I should be better about it, but I don't... I don't know how to tell the difference, Tanda. I agree, though, we... Liara's the key to speeding this up before it's all doomed. What are the other captains like? I know one's from Commenor, like you."

"They haven't bothered inviting me over for the command conferences. I don't think Drysso likes me, he certainly regards me as a rival, and he held the fact I was in the suit in contempt at the least, and possibly fear."

"As for Captain Yonka... I don't really know. It's said he has a rich lover; Kina Margath, who is a major casino tycoon on Elshandruu Pica."

"But I've never met him personally - just, of course, people from the same homeworld tend to hear the gossip about each other."

"... Invite him for dinner, or something like that. If they won't..." She took a deep breath. "Tanda, your family is sort of a big thing, right?"

"Yes. I've been trying to figure out how to use the investment allowance I was given-mother is shrewd enough that it grew during the late unpleasantness, not shrank. But I... I could have gone farther if I hadn't used my family only to balance out the prejudice against women in the Imperial service. If they hadn't preferred me to be in commerce instead of the military."

"We know Convarion's a fanatic and Drysso probably doesn't like you. What about the other two..." She looked down to her omnitool screen. "... Huh. Yonka's got a similar record to you. Lots of Rim patrol and convoy escort. Very good marks, too. Varrascha... less so. Anyhow, Yonka's background gives you an excuse to invite him to a working dinner, doesn't it? Nothing objectionable about two Commenorians talking about home?"

"Yes, it would. I will, then... Anything to advance the situation close to our objective." She smiled gently. "Thank you, Tali. Don't give in to despair."

"... I'm trying. Varrascha... if you've some reputation of mentoring captains, maybe. Looks like it was corvettes and... is it normal for a Captain to be first officer under a Line Captain? Looks like that's how Drysso ended up where he was, senior of the captains."

"No, it suggests she was up for a seniority promotion and got it, but not enough ships due to the collapse of the situation to receive her own command. I was made Line Captain three days before Endor-Zed had made the rank before being posted to Elrood-and Drysso got the promotion to Line Captain under Pestage, somewhat before Varrascha was assigned," Tali answered as she looked up the details on her omnitool. "I don't want to invite them both, I'll be honest. That will look too suspicious to Isard. She is, quite frankly, unstable."

"Let's be honest, too, Drysso looks competent and... enough like you to jump ship if he feels he doesn't have an out under Isard. Varrascha... I worry less if we treat her well."

"Don't completely underestimate her, Tali. I sense a lack of motivation more than anything else. There's a lot of that here."

"I don't under-estimate her. I think she's _loyal_ Tanda - basically loyal and competent, and sick at what's happening. I've heard a lot of captains in the Fleet, and... I don't under-estimate her. We _need_ her, and her ship. We need _all_ the ships."

"... And we need every captain willing to stand in the line against the Old Machines." The young Quarian woman finished with a sigh in her voice. "I liked... the idea of what I was joining when you pinned the rank squares on, Tanda. I really did."

"You know the great honour it was when I graduated from the Academy. I know you do. We were going to fix a galaxy where poverty, slavery, crime, corporate interests had taken over everything. To keep the peace, after a massive war had destroyed hundreds of billions of lives and planets with histories of tens of thousands of years. We were a bright future, the sharpened sword that would preserve order and a safe galaxy."

"You felt that way, but the Empire, rotten from the top, took all that idealistic fervor to end the chaos... and twisted it into... I don't even _know_. Now it's ashes, and... ancestors, what a mess it is now."

"Well." Tanda smiled distantly. "We're going to go home. And we're going to crush the Old Machines. I've got enough idealistic fervour left for that."

"And then to put it all back together... but we've got to get there first. If we're going to keep our hold on this overloading reactor... well. I'll let the Broker worry about the things we don't have to. To the ideals of the Empire, and the Quarians who you brought to believe in them!" Tali smiled bravely through the mask, and raised her drink bulb in a toast. "Even if almost nobody else still does."

Tanda raised her shake glass. "Oh, we'll find a way to bring that spirit back. At home. Where we all belong. With our Motherworlds."

-

Getting passage to Kothlis on a Corellian YT-1930 freighter had not been easy (she had ended up having to buy it), but it was the only plausible place for Liara to meet with her most likely contact to further her search into the murky world of the missing fleets of the Republic and the Confederacy. It also gave her some distance from suspicion on Thyferra as her plans there developed, but carried the risk that Bothan space was deep into New Republic territory now.

As it turned out, the border was so porous it did not matter all that much once she had evaded Isard's reach, but the laid-back response of the controllers on Kothlis, one of the more notorious Shadowports, was the only true sign the effort had been successful. _They_ didn't care about anything but her creds, and Liara was finding ways to make enough of those.

Once the docking approach and landing fees had been negotiated, the computers largely handled the landing themselves, next to a huge strip of automated traveler's hotels and cantinas which littered the area around the spaceport. Large scale trade was conducted via skyhook to support the manufacturing centres, and it was in the usual dreary shadow of huge factories that the more underhanded part of the business was conducted.

The bar she was heading into had a panoply of old armour formed into an arch around the door. It was named the 'Merc's Last Stand', had originally catered to retired mercenaries and bounty hunters drinking away what remained of hard lives. The clinetele had diversified, but was still rough. Alien waitresses slipped in and out of the crowd, and the eyes on her were plentiful, both from simple curiousity and paranoid suspicion.

Before Shepard this would have involved a _lot_ more staring on her part back at everyone. Now... she'd seen worse. She'd helped _explode_ worse. With a folded pistol at her hip, and a different, more aggressive pattern painted on her face, along with a darker-coloured set of her normal discreet armour, she was (at least in theory) ready for almost anything. With curiousity satisfied by leaving her omnitool on record during her journeys, she checked her datapad again. _What I would not give to have Shepa- no, Shepard would have eventually blown up most of the block._

Over in the corner a pair of blue eyes watched her owlishly, and as promised in the negotiations for the rendezvous, held up a Sabacc card. Blonde hair, the looks of a supermodel, or better, but now covered with demure clothes as far as possible, layers of robes and coats. A bit too warm for the weather, but better than the alternative. The card was a Queen. It was definitely her contact.

Liara took her time and played it cool. First, to the bar for a glass of Aitha, before moving to sit at the table with the woman—on edge all the while. At least it was somewhat simpler, as Liara slipped into the chair opposite with a nod. "It is good to finally meet you in person." she opened with in her accented Basic.

"I confess, you've made a little bit of a stir, Lady," her contact answered. "You're very good at your job. A lot of other people would pay serious creds to find out who you are, but you've covered your tracks very well. I'm glad you chose me of all people to meet with, considering I'm just Dash Rendar's personal assistant." Her lips curled to a bit of a forced smile. "Of course, I have no idea at all how much you know about _me_ , but it appears enough for someone getting called the Shadowbroker to make me an offer I can't refuse."

Liara gave her a calm look, sipping at her drink, stiff-backed in her chair. "One can _always_ refuse an offer, and I apologise for implying to the contrary. My goal is to make sure those I approach don't _want_ to." The Asari maiden accompanied that with a thin smile.

"What do you have that's so interesting for Guri?" Her eyes scanned the crowd more than Liara, now, and the Asari took that as a positive sign.

"A sector where the Droid Rights movement won. Recently." Her voice dropped lower as she spoke it, knowing that it... did mark one as being mostly insane, here. To put it mildly. Nobody was crazier than a Droid Rightist, as far as everyone in this galaxy seemed to be concerned.

The woman got very still for a moment. "A sector? An entire sector? The Republic and the Empire would ally to crush it. Also, I'd have heard of it. A lot of things get lost in this galaxy, but not sectors."

"That's so, yes." Reaching inside a flap of her jacket, Liara slid a second datapad across the table, with a... more than somewhat sanitized account of events, in the event she'd badly misread her contact and needed to protect the whole effort.

Guri read it calmly, and then looked back up. "Not exactly the whole truth."

"I _am_ giving you the option to refuse. If they were not careful, the Shadow Broker would have died a very long time ago... and she has friends to protect."

"I see we understand each other fairly well." She paused, and fiddled with her drink cup for a moment. "My current business partner wants my technology. That's about the best I can expect from this galaxy. How do I verify this?"

"You can ask my assistant Glyph, if you wish."

"Please." She looked curious, particularly since there was no evidence of a droid with Liara.

"... Not here, unless you want to attract more attention than _either_ of us are comfortable with." Liara replied, glancing about for evidence of a tail—professionally paranoid like most of the people here, but she was fairly certain she had more reason for it than they did.

"All right. We'll go back to my room. See you by the entrance." She rose to cover her tab, and then was standing by the door with Liara a minute later, ducking past the grimy coat hangars which nobody bothered to use and the currency vending machine. She walked straight past Liara and kept on going.

Following out a few minutes later, the Asari glanced about—saw her lurking outside across the street from the doors—and followed her down the battered old street, dodging a speeder whose driver cursed at her and showing at least a hint of trust by following the other woman. The woman had trusted a message from the _Shadow Broker_ after all, at least enough to show up to the meeting.

Two blocks of worn-down ferrocrete and suspicious looks later, as well as reckless speeder and swoop driving as a standard set of road hazards, they had arrived at a nondescript block near one of the looming factories that littered the world, industrial smells predominating. "Nice, typical auto-hotel," Guri offered softly as she used her security chit to scan in to the hotel.

Nodding, the asari woman brought up her omni-tool, placing a small sensor by the doorway as they passed. "Of course. I should thank you for being willing to meet with me. The title has less reputation behind it here."

"You've made some interesting moves. I suggest you start hiring protection if you're planning to make yourself a permanent presence, however. But I don't think you are, are you?" She keyed into her own room next. "It seems to me that you're trying to buy my help with a map or a trip to this location where the, ah, 'Droid Rights' movement has _won_..."

"If you wished." Once the door was closed, she tapped at her omni-tool to bring up the hard-light scintillating orb that was Glyph.

"Good afternoon, Shadow Broker." came from the white, glowing sphere, as it turned its optic to regard Guri. "Good afternoon, madame. My databanked recordings indicate you wish verification of the claims made by the Shadow Broker to yourself." A pause. "They are correct, if incomplete."

"Please electronically verify with a data encrypt record that shows an absence of tampering and sustained information receipt, Glyph," Guri offered. "You can squawk on channel Xr-0rb. I understand there will be gaps."

"Of course. Transmitting." He had somewhat of a mechanical voice, still, despite Liara's upgrades with Tali's help before departing here, and it included somewhat more complete information, even so... including a few hints of the Geth... and the Old Machines - but only hints. The fitful ramming through of droid liberation, on the other hand, was there in excruciating detail.

She turned away, and went to the bed, sitting on it, quiet. A few minutes later, she spoke again with cautious deliberation. "Well, it would be a nice place to live. My natural talents would be rewarded instead of feared. What do you want help with?" She looked back up. "I'm certainly more interested in helping you than someone who is only interested in my parts."

The info-drone bobbed about, curious about a new galaxy as per his programming, even if this _was_ rather mundane, before turning back to her. "My upgrading to sentience is recent, but in that time, the Shadow Broker has proven most loyal and helpful to her friends and trusted allies."

Liara gave her drone a small smile, as she folded her hands before her. "Ships. Supplies. We... are fighting... I am not sure you would believe me, if I told you. You would be well rewarded, out of... what-ever remains at the end of this war."

"Ships." Guri laughed softly. "Once I could have ordered around a lot of those, but they've gotten thin on the ground recently. You must have more concrete ideas than that, if you're looking to equip a navy and an army for a war you're already fighting."

"Some, but they are so fantastic as to make my allies from here laugh when they heard of them. Perhaps you may correct me, but I know of only two known sources. One, of droid vessels abandoned in space, and the other, the old spacer's tale of a lost fleet."

"Droid vessels from the Confederate fleet? No fantastic tale, that; a lot of them were abandoned." Guri looked sharp. "Unfortunately the problem is that most did have human crews, the ones in hyperspace were shut down by the signal that was transmitted... And presumably kept traveling forever. Those in systems were cleaned up. Those with human crews, were reactivated enough for them to surrender, or go pirate, or join the Rebels, mostly. But there might be some. You'd need to obtain a copy of the droid control signal to get them. The ships held together by tensor fields would have disintegrated, so supply ships and _Recusant_ -class destroyers would be all that is left." She shook her head. "Of course, I don't know how many that is, assuming there are any at all."

"If this counts as you accepting the offer...?" She raised a painted-on eyebrow. "If it is, Glyph, send her all of the rest."

"That's what I just did, yes. Wouldn't share that much with you unless I had."

Liara smiled, more openly than before. "As I said, it is... hard to believe."

She took receipt, eyes sort of glazing over. Then they snapped toward Liara. Hard. "How did you get the Geth to ally with you against the Reapers instead of the other way around?"

"We gave them what they wanted. Droid code to become fully self-sentient, rather than only in a collective... as well as their Makers, back, to use the term here. The Old Machines offered only Reaper code - at the price of serving them. It was a gamble, but one we decided to accept." _More like one Tali decided to accept._

"I'm impressed. Well. There's one other source of ships, maybe more useful."

"Your space's tale. The Katana Fleet. When I worked for Black Sun, they came up once. There's a small rebel outfit unaffiliated with the Alliance. They hit an Imperial base called Tangrene."

Her look was one of particular satisfaction as she let the moment hangar in the air, and then finished: "With dreadnoughts."

"... Someone's _found_ them?! And... kept it quiet... somehow." Her eyes were wide. "Goddess, I'd started to believe it was as impossible as everyone said..."

"They don't have many of them. But someone has found them, yes. Xizor was planning to use this in some kind of plot, but it all died, of course."

"There isn't much time to waste, then, you must realise that. Glyph has filled you in on the... scale of the problem, and the time pressures we are facing. What do you need... and how would you wish to be addressed?"

"For now? Here? Call me Guri. That _is_ my name. So, there are two things for you to be looking for, Shadowbroker. The Droid Control Signal code, and the Katana Fleet Control Signal Code. The locations themselves are immaterial."

"Both designs should be capable of receiving the control signals - the issue is that the command droids on the Confederate ships are smart enough to ignore them, and that you'll need to dupe the Katana Fleet into thinking you're the control flagship. And if you ping the control flagship, it may send out an override code recognising that a hacking attempt is in progress. Unfortunately, that's just random chance."

Liara shook her head "That means we would need to convince the droids to at least hear us out, and the Katana Fleet is a... gamble. There is nothing to be done, Guri, but do what we can. And quickly."

"I'm trying to piece together some very complicated threads, Shadowbroker," she answered. "We do need to leave quickly, though. I agree with you on that much." She turned to packing.

"You'll find out soon enough after we get where we're going, anyhow." She turned to watch the door, and finished her statement with a low tone. "My name is Liara T'Soni."

"Thank you, Miss T'Soni." She slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm afraid there's only one thing to go on. I can pull an Imperial recording of the Tangrene attack."

"It is not much to go on, Guri. I have gone on less, but... I had help when I did. Let us hope the two of us prove as successful. What is our next step?"

"Pull the logs and try to get any information out of them. I don't suppose you have access to the Ubiqtorate databases?" She laughed. "Sorry; in the short term, we should _leave_ before Rendar comes back. Come on." She went to check out of the hotel.

"Of course..." the Asari woman followed, already tapping up her omnitool. "The answer is yes, but in a way that should be used carefully. Following on what is already... not quite a regular method of access, shall we say. Do we both have ships, then, or? I know you once had a custom model, but the data did not indicate whether you still did."

Guri shook her head. "I've been through a lot. Some of it self-inflicted out of desperation, to be honest. If all else fails, you've got yourself a copilot." That was talk more suited as they left the room, heading back to the spaceport.

"Good enough, come on." She started talking about the ship, as a pilot should, heading back to the freighter - then it was to lift, and start their quixotic quest for the lost fleets. _Almost as remote a chance as finding a Prothean, but we did manage that, didn't we?_


	74. Chapter 74

It was almost predictable that when she had given up on her fellow officers, but had finally gotten herself out of her Quarian suit, and was thus visibly human again, that Drysso would be back in touch with her. Perhaps her new stature in the eyes of Isard had forced his hand, or her demonstrated competence versus the cloud Convarion was presently under. But in any case, the message trilled with a signal from the _Lusankya_ , and Tanda didn't hesitate in answering it. If nothing else, she could snipe with the very best of them, especially now that she didn't care half as much as she did before Endor.

"Ah, Captain Pryl. I was comming to invite you to the weekly captain's conference aboard Lusankya later today." The smile on his face didn't reach his eyes as they took in Tanda's frail countenance.

"Thank you, Captain Drysso. I'll begin preparing for it immediately," Tanda answered, and smiled tightly in a polite reciprocation. "It will be good to be aboard an _Executor_. I was never summoned to the nameship when in DEATHRON. Alas, but the way Lord Vader ran things, that was actually a compliment."

"Being aboard is like feeling that first swell of pride all over again. We begin in four hours, Captain. See you then." The comm cut off before Tanda could reply.

 _Tali, I've been invited for the Captain's conference on the_ Lusankya _, I just wanted to let you know_ , she tapped into her omnitool at once.

 _Understood. Be careful, I'm sure there's lots of knives ready to plunge into backs there... it'll at least give you a chance to see what state she's in. So nice to know the suit does the same thing in two galaxies..._

 _I'm sorry about that, Tali. It won't, you know, not when this is done. Not back home. And I'm going to be back in one when I run out of specialist bacta. Unless we somehow manage regular trade ties courtesy of the Gree, but I think I'm more likely to get an Idiot's Array playing in the Brakarti Grand Sabacc Tournament._ She had returned from her next treatment following the successful completion of the fleet problem. Slowly, she was starting to gain weight, and Tali had forced her to keep up her exercises. A bit of colour was returning to her flesh, even if she had no doubt she still looked terribly unhealthy.

 _Or we'll come up with something. Don't give up hope. I love you... just, be careful, okay? You're better than all of them._

 _I'll take care. Promise. And I'll see you soon!_

As long as Drysso insisted on calling her Captain, Tanda resolved to show up in her non-standard uniform variation, and that very much included while visiting his flagship now. Adjusting her headscarf, the favourite red one Tali liked on her with gold fringe, neglecting rank squares, fixing her full set of cylinders. She knew she was in a delicate place, but she also had a role to play, and part of that was wanting, craving respect, recognition, and her rightful place. She wanted Isard to think that she wanted the _Lusankya_ , paradoxically. Isard would never trust an officer who wasn't lusting for what she felt was her's, and with her final promotion in the wake of Elrood's disintegration, Tanda knew exactly what was her's.

She brought the usual escort of four stormtroopers on the Lambda over to the _Lusankya_ , disappearing like a gnat into the black vastness of the flank of the Star Dreadnought.

Approaching her, her non-standard weapons fit could barely be seen—fewer turbo-lasers, more anti-fighter lasers... and many of those weapons positions were dark and cold on the scanners, as her shuttle flitted into the admiral's shuttlebay—those of her compatriots were already settled into place, several still creaking and popping from adjusting to the atmosphere of the bay. A small side party of stormtroopers was present for her arrival, at least.

She stepped down from the shuttle ramp lightly, looking around the bay. _Lusankya_ seemed at her best here, but Tanda could already suspect some signs of neglect and a lack of full manning. Both were worrying as she walked forward, and addressed the side-party. "Commodore Tanda Pryl, cruiser _Dolorata_ commanding, for staff meeting with Line Captain Joak Drysso, Officer Commanding of Thyferra Station and the _Lusankya_."

"Lieutenant Waroen, Commodore." The young man with the accent of some Core world or another saluted. "Executive officer. It's a pleasure to have you aboard, ma'am. Follow me, please, I'll take you to the conference room."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Waroen. I'm very pleased to see the inside of an _Executor_ for the first time. She is as grand as Captain Drysso promised."

"We've done our best, ma'am. I'm glad to hear it. The Captain is justifiably proud of her despite our difficulties." He gave a grateful nod, and spun on his heel to escort her further into the command tower.

Tanda followed on his heel, feeling like a great deal was being said despite not _quite_ being said. And she filed it away, observing carefully to see any further clues and other evidence of what she thought increasingly was the very poor material condition of the _Lusankya_ , while their progress continued from turbolifts through to the conference room.

There were elements of _dust_ visible—glowpanels having gone un-replaced... and what should be a bustling area of the ship was nearly deserted with only occasional crewmen visible, as the young lieutenant led her to where the other four captains were waiting for her, sitting around the small holotank set into the conference table, with a side table of various fresh tropical foods brought up from the planet at hand. She remained polite, but the short trip had been enough. She wasn't just gambling her life on this asset, but she was gambling her life on a severely degraded asset, at that. _She is still a hammer, and still worth it. But it will still be dangerous in battle, especially without a full crew for damage control._

"Thank you for the fruit, Captain," Tanda offered aloud, stuffing her own thoughts on the Star Dreadnought into the depths of her mind and moving to sit smoothly, mustering her calm as she tried to digest the almost shocking level of neglect within the ship. And lying about it, for the sake of politeness and her own neck. " _Lusankya_ is indeed quite impressive on the approach, as you promised."

"Indeed so. She's the greatest power in the area, certainly. Nothing the Rebels have can _hope_ match her. I hope she will be unleashed soon." He gave a confident grin - Convarion looked sullen, while the other two captains, sitting beside each other, looked... a little uncomfortable at the pronouncement.

"Carida was bypassed by the Rebellion, was it not?" Tanda started peeling a piece of fruit, glancing up at the others. They were of mixed backgrounds, united by the Naval service, but of generally different inclinations. She reached for the carafe on the table, pouring out a cup of water.

"That's so, Commodore." Yonka spoke, smoothly, to a _glare_ from Drysso, sipping from his own water. "Madame Director prefers to keep _Lusankya_ at Thyferra, however, isn't that so, Captain Drysso?"

The squat man who captained the Super Star Destroyer glowered, before clearing his throat. "Yes. I have strict orders, that's so."

"I was just wondering that we might wish to present to Director Isard a plan to bring reinforcement draughts from there. _Lusankya_ could certainly use... A full complement, yes?"

Drysso grumbled. "I need another two-hundred eighty thousand, troops and crew, to be at full complement, that's so. It would help a great deal, though it might strain our supplies. It's a clever idea, Captain, but I have no idea how it would be done."

"I'll work on something," Tanda answered. "I apologise for my condition. I contracted an unusual disorder while fighting on the Outer Rim, and was invalided. I came to Thyferra seeking treatment, and fortunately the Director was kind enough to provide me the very best from Xucphra."

"The Rim's a dangerous place, don't worry about it, ma'am." Varrscha spoke, for the first time, and almost immediately looked back down to her plate after doing so at a look from Drysso.

"I thank you for the sympathy. But I am acutely aware that an Imperial officer must be rather more than an invalid. In these circumstances, however, I like to think it is more important that one continue to fight for legitimate authority. Captain Drysso, you are waiting for our chance to return to Coruscant, are you not? When the Krytos Plague has finished disrupting the Republic's cohesiveness."

...There was a... awkward pause when she said that, glances going to each other, as Yonka's knuckles went white from the fists his hands formed. "... Madame Director has not shared her plans for after this band of Rebel pirates is crushed, I fear. Certainly we should bring the local systems in line and turn a nominal allegiance into a real one."

"Then I imagine our duty and objective is simply to destroy Rogue Squadron. As we saw from the Fleet Problem, I think the Thyferran manned TIEs would be better off remote-controlled by transceivers from children's toys and filled with explosives." She laughed for a moment, and then paused grimly. "That may be less of a jest than I wanted it to be."

A soft ripple of laughter flitted around the table, even from Convarion, and the tension seemed to slip away a bit, before returning again.

"I've been drilling my pilots constantly in the hopes they'll stand a chance." Yonka spoke up, as Convarion gave a grim nod. "My Thyferrans... one X-Wing at Hanalit tore them to shreds. They're _horrible._ "

"Minister Vorru obtained a supply of quad lasers, some of which I used on the _Dolorata_ to good effect. We may wish to consider seeing if a concealed warship-a freighter with cruiser standard ships and a Lancer's quad laser complement-might be prepared for a future ambush, considering our weakness in fighters. And dare I say it, but with all the money from the bacta trade floating around, what of mercenaries? I think the Crimson Aces are still active, and there are the Mistryl Shadow Guards... They like those SoroSuub Preybirds, don't they?"

"We don't need their kind." Convarion rumbled angrily at the mere idea, as Yonka sighed. "Two groups with every reason to hate the Empire? The Director would never agree."

"They've both taken Imperial contracts in the past _and_ we are Thyferra, not the Empire. If the Director does not like the idea, so be it, as it is right now we're flailing in regard to a strategy which would let a group of large capital ships conduct effective operations against snubfighters."

"You may _freely_ make the proposal to Madame Director." Drysso replied with a slight sneer on his face, not bothering to hide what he was certain the result would be.

"I will." Tanda smiled. "So. A half-wing of starfighters shouldn't be a problem for us. How do we eliminate them? They have an operating base, which we don't know the location of, but certainly they also must need supplies. I had been assuming the Rebels were quietly arranging for them to get those."

Her fellow Commenorean leaned back in his chair, folding his hands under his chin. "What intelligence we get, Commodore, indicates that is not the case. Smugglers. Gun-runners. The usual sorts all of us have spent our lives fighting - the fighters themselves - at least the X-Wings - appear to be the extent of support... for now."

Tanda closed her eyes for a moment. "If it's true, they're extremely vulnerable to an interruption in their supplies. Also to turning some of the smugglers and gun-runners, but that is the Director's concern, not our's."

"We haven't managed to stop smugglers before, ma'am, why would we succeed in doing so now?" The other woman at the table finally spoke up, her voice hurried as she tried to get out her question before someone could question it. "Without intelligence, it's a mynock hunt. Ma'am. We're tied to the convoys."

"I concede the point, Captain Varrscha. However, saying we are tied to the convoys may be a bit much. They are unreliable and ultimately expendable if it lets us win the conflict. The hardest direction to attack a Star Destroyer from is astern-when her engines are at full power. It wasn't done much but when under attack by large groups of starfighters and transports with an escort mission the Captain understood to be expendable, it's possible to burn away from the engagement at full power and then launch your _transports_ to ambush the pursuing starfighters with torpedoes and concussion missiles from out of the drive tail."

"Against a normal Rebel squadron, I'd agree, but not against this bunch." _Avarice_ 's captain was grim. "They won't fall for it, and the Director will be displeased at abandoning the convoy."

"Keep it in mind nonetheless, in case the opportunity presents itself, that would be my advice. As for the Rogue pirates, they'll win based on propaganda, not real assessments of military strength. The only thing worse than more convoy attacks would be losing a Star Destroyer." Rubbing her gloved hands together, she mused: "Of course, the Bacta must get through."

What Tanda knew she couldn't say out loud was the absurdity of a situation where their main impediment was a lack of intelligence, while serving the Director of Imperial Intelligence personally. It had a comedic effect to it, in a black way that left the whole war feeling like a little joke.

Convarion nodded to the comments she had voiced allowed, and the fitful conference carried on. "The Director has already put a plan into action to deal with the demand-side of the stolen bacta. I destroyed Hanalit two days ago."

"The demand for bacta is inelastic," Tanda answered rather robotically, feeling a chill spread in her heart. She had been meaning to ask Convarion about his 'battle of Hanalit' where the TIE Interceptors performed so poorly. "The question is... Whether or not it will alter the tactics of the rebels."

"They'll attack us. Try and wear down the fleet in retaliation." Yonka offered, as looks flitted around the table. "Underhanded means and ambushes, of course. But they need us gone to hit Thyferra."

"Well, with _Lusankya_ at Thyferra proper, the only way to do that is to draw us out to the Thyferran colonies."

"Or whittle us down so far that _Lusankya_ needs to sortie... into a trap, as she could crush any effort, even if she arrived late." He nodded to Drysso, who frowned. "We need to _expand_ our power base so that doesn't happen! Corellia and Kuat should be supporting us and giving us a fleet to crush these pirates!"

"And if it were within my paygrade, I'd try to do it." Tanda leaned back. It was clear that accomplishing anything was almost impossible, and frankly a low priority of most of those at the table besides.

As the meeting wrapped up, Tanda would step over to Sair Yonka. "Might I invite my fellow Commenorean to dinner on the planet? I've managed to regain appetite, for the most part. There's nothing like a year on protein shakes to wreck it."

"Oh, I'd love to." He grinned, flouting military regulations himself with a goatee and a custom tailored uniform. "If you don't have a place in mind, I know several that my officers highly recommend - alas, but _Avarice_ claims most of my own time, as I am sure _Dolorata_ does yours."

"There's something relatively private down by the spaceport, I've met an acquaintance a few times there," she answered. " _Likata's Grill_. My shuttle?"

"It will do. I'll comm my pilots to head down themselves and give them a few hours leave. They get little of it enough with how hard I drill them!" He had a smile on his face as they walked through the ship, and he shook his head. "If she was in top condition, _Lusankya_ would be perfect for this operation with her extra laser cannons, but as it is..."

"I'm more worried about a heavy fleet action, anyway. In the end, the Rogue problem will go away. She is in terrible shape, but still one of the most powerful operational ships in the galaxy, probably only rivalled by Kaine's and simply because he has better resources to take care of her. I'm legitimately suspicious of Zsinj's attention to detail with _Brawl_ 's combat readiness. And who in all the hells could ever trust a man who murdered his own mother, a treason or not?"

"Kuat has even more under construction, you know. I think one or two near completion." He shrugged, though a bark of grim laughter was coaxed forth at the comment about Zsinj. "We'll never see those ships here, though, or someone else will waste them, like all the others. You would think the sight of one aflame would eventually numb you, but... it doesn't."

"If I had enough crew... I watched _Executor_ burn. Here is something we all need to work on-training our engineering crews to take over emergency control. I do it. I'm not going to let them die just because I'm gone," she remarked as they settled into the shuttle, and she activated the intercomm. "Proceed to the Xucphra City spaceport."

"Of course, Commodore." Flying out of the bay, Yonka relaxed into the acceleration couch. "I heard of it. I've drilled the crew on it, though we'll hope it's not needed. Your alien engineer, she's working out?" The question had an idle tone to it. "If Drysso had more imagination, he could lean more heavily on his droids, but trying to suggest _that_ was hopeless."

"Tali'Zorah is perhaps the best engineer a Captain could want. If something happens to me, kindly find a place for her in your crew. Hrrrm." She leaned back. "To be honest, I am over-strength on the _Dolorata_ by ten naval personnel, five army, and two hundred stormtroopers, but the Director hasn't let me transfer them to the _Lusankya_ , so I'm not sure it's solely Drysso's fault. I'll suggest buying more droids if I get the opportunity. I suspect I simply care altogether much less about what happens to me, so I'm far more honest to the Director, to be frank."

"Your... condition?" he made an idle gesture with his hand. "I suppose facing death so directly for so long does make one somewhat uncaring of the restraints that once seemed so important. Either you'll go too far, or you won't, and there's no way to tell until you do... I'll find a place for her, if it comes to it. Let's hope it doesn't, we're short enough on officers who grasp the threat."

"I looked death in the face." She smiled wryly, the blur of heat disappearing in favour of the jungle visages below as they plunged down into the atmosphere and lined up for the approach to the planetary surface. "Vader appreciated competence. Even the Emperor would spare the life of a truly competent man who would speak forthrightly, I heard it said. I wasn't given cause for doubt, while the Empire lasted. Sair, this shuttle is secure, by which I meant to say-I spent the last three years helping build a redoubt in the Unknown Regions."

"I didn't lose my ship. She's back there."

"... If you had a secure redoubt and had gone warlady, I would wonder why you came back _here_... Tanda." He stroked at his chin, frowning. "Or why you're telling _me_."

"I didn't go warlady. I was out of contact with the rest of the Empire. Sair, I'm obviously back here for medical treatment I can't get where I was."

"And if I don't get it, or I die for some other reason, everyone I left behind is no worse off than if I let myself die there."

She folded her hands across her lap, and glanced down to the cityscape they were circling now, the dizzying ferrocrete towers in the gaudy curves and spired shapes favoured by the Thyferrans for their administrative complexes and luxury apartments.

"It would be nice to have that level of certainty. To not see everything..." He glanced over at her. "You didn't expect _this_ when you came back, did you? All of it. I... envy... well, it's been a long while since I felt some over-arching goal beyond keeping my crew alive."

"I didn't expect a single damned part of it, it's right. Sair, if something happens, I've got an honourable place for you and your people." The shuttle was landing, and they both knew their talk over dinner would have to be rather more mundane. "Please ... Keep that in mind."

"...So noted. Take care yourself. Dinner, then, and to the sneers of the corporate officers?" Yonka offered a bit rakishly, and with a smile, falling into the old, smooth rituals of polite society.

"I love watching them sneer." She grinned and rose. "My parents never wanted me to go into this career, but I still wouldn't trade it for anything."

"Judicial family myself, so they rather expected it." He led the way down the gangway and to the speeder her pilots had arranged to be waiting. "It's a pity it's not home."

"Home is where you make it these days, Sair. But I will forever miss Commenor, since I am not so sure I will ever see her again."

"At least she's not joined the Rebels, but I am not sure what more I could ask for. It will get better. It has to, eventually. Let's not ruin dinner by being maudilin, though. Have you heard what's been happening with the Core opera scene..."

"I've heard almost nothing, Sair. You'll be able to entertain me like you can't quite imagine."

-

They'd lifted from the planet, and immediately burned out to the hyperlimit under autopilot. Only once they were safe in hyperspace, though, did Liara returned from the cockpit, to sit before her bank of monitors, as Guri brought up her recording of the Battle of Tangrene. Tapping at her omnitool, Liara dimmed the lights and her monitors while updating her new copilot.

As she did, there was a stir in another part of the ship. Gillian came up from the ventral gun position, where she had waited for Liara's return on the surface of the planet, shielded from the sun under the belly of the ship, and where she had stayed during the trip to Kothlis: It gave her access to the stars and quiet. With the ship in hyperspace, though, she habitually returned to the interior. The mottled purple-white was far too chaotic for her comfort.

Guri saw her simply as another figure entering the compartment, interrupting them as she prepared to run the recording. Gillian was still in a full sealed suit, and Guri glanced to her, and froze. "You didn't mention you had a crew, Liara T'Soni."

"Just her, Guri."

"Liara, do you want me here?" Gillian asked uncomfortably.

"You've proven capable of making connections others don't, so I most assuredly do. Gillian, this is Guri. Guri, this is Gillian nar Idenna. She's assisting me while on her Pilgrimage."

Gillian waved awkwardly. "Hi, Miss Guri."

"Gillian nar Idenna. What's a pilgrimage?" Guri asked as she finished preparing the playback.

"Quarian coming of age ritual. I must demonstrate my independence and bring utility back to the fleet."

"Utility. Hrmm. Well, you have helped bring a lot of utility right now, I think." Guri turned back and started to play the attack recording. Five dreadnoughts, the first wave being the late model Z-95s and early model Y-wings of the force, followed by the main dreadnought group... Exchanging fire with the powerful batteries of ion cannon against the three Star Destroyers in orbit. A massive flash spun out from the planet below, and squealing of comms channels, Imperial and scrambled raider, echoed through the tape.

Liara's blue eyes flicked across the display, frowning. "Well equipped for insurgent forces of the period, don't you agree? If they were Katana fleet vessels... that's at least ten thousand crew. Glyph, compare displayed tactics with similar attacks on Imperial forces and display on my screens."

She leaned forward, watching the tracks flicker through the holotank. "They had good intelligence. They knew exactly what to hit."

"Yes they did. The base was completely destroyed. Look at them pulling out now. These dreadnoughts are two hundred meters longer than the standard model, much more limited construction than the traditional type. Adds a heavy ion cannon battery that you can see in action."

Glyph chirped a ready report. "Tactics are similar to those of the Corellian Reistance from the period before the organization of the Rebel Alliance to a seventy percent correlation, but a minimum of twenty percent higher than for standard Rebel groups."

"The audio background is very distracting," Gillian folded her arms. "What is it?"

"Scrambled audio transmissions between the Dreadnoughts and starfighters," Guri answered.

"Why is it still scrambled?" Gillian leaned forward a bit as the recording ended.

"Well, the code wasn't broken by the Empire during the attack."

"Is the recording lossless?"

Guri slowly turned around in her chair to stare at Gillian. "Why would that be useful?"

"Well, I." The young woman hesitated. "Codes get changed often because they get broken often. If it's lossless, it isn't relevant for the battle, since it already happened, but then we could have audio of the people on the fleet."

Liara smiled, as she started to work at her large holo-display. "Checking Imperial databanks for a match to start the decoding process. Thank you, Gillian."

"You're brilliant." Guri smiled faintly and turned back to the council.

"People say that often."

"They're correct." Liara interjected with a smile - finding a match, she started playing the audio as soon as it decoded.

Her hands flew over the holo-display as the comm chatter began to play, face formed into a blank mask as she worked.

The channel squealed in static, and Gillian retreated from the room in discomfort. Then the voices came. "Midanyl, confirm withdrawal order!" Turbolasers thrummed in the background of the audio feed.

A female voice answered. "Direct from the General, we've done enough! Pull off those Star Destroyers immediately!"

"... Midanyl. This may take some time to search, Guri, but we have a code name. Let's see if there's a match, somewhere." Liara's eyes were narrow as she looked up with a frown. "We have a title, 'General', and a codename, 'Midanyl'. They aren't the same person."

"We can also search the records for persons with that voice, to see if there's a match in the Imperial recording archives. Voices are more or less unique. And we can start with recordings that are relevant to Corellia to minimise the length of the search," Guri replied. "That was a very good code, and it might be more than a code-name as a result."

"I think we've got ourselves a lead."

-

"We must finish your training," Tasiele had said. "You must learn to wield the blade of Bastila Shan as a Jedi Knight would. You will be no Knight, I don't have the time, and your cybernetics have twisted your connection with the force. But you are a superb warrior, and by skill in the lightsabre, you may still rival the best," she had said.

So Atarah Shepard had given in and gone to train with her. The gym on the _Thunderflare_ was set for it, and as the fleet was rehabilitated from the pounding it had taken in the recent battles, they practiced. Practiced, and practiced, again and again.

And again. It was getting very familiar now, as Tasiele ignited the single brilliant blade of her lightsabre and Atarah matched it with one yellow blade. And then another.

Getting used to a double-bladed lightsabre had been very, very hard. She leaned back, straightened, closed her eyes. Breathed in slowly, and again. Waited for it, and felt the barest thread of a tingling warning through her mind.

The yellow blade intercepted Tasiele's. They locked, and skittered, and then she spun to the side, trying to drive her left elbow into the infinitely older woman. She was already gone, and it was only the second blade of the lightsabre spinning up that prevented Tasiele's from reaching to her neck.

Dueling with lightsabres was incredible. Dangerous, and incredible. They whirled away across the room, blade to blade. Tasiele seemed to be everywhere. The second blade of Atarah's lightsabre could scarcely keep up, scarcely compensate for her skill. Despite the heavy robes versus Shepard's light combat suit, she moved with a graceful agility that was, truly, superhuman.

She tried to focus on the force, instead of winning the fight. It came to her, reedy, thin, like drawing water through a straw. But it was there. Atarah blocked the blade and counterattacked, pushing Tasiele back in a whirl of alternating blows. The woman yielded ground slowly.

Then Atarah deactivated her right blade as Tasiele made to block it, and the woman's lightsabre swung through air and she tumbled past Atarah. Deactivating her blade for the roll, she came back up as Atarah whirled back to catch her with the remaining active blade.

But instead of having to pull back at the last moment to avoid hurting her, Tasiele's blade was once again in a perfect position to interpose with her own, and locked together, the two were once again odds-even.

The intercomm buzzed angrily. Atarah sighed and drew back, deactivating her second blade. "I am _never_ going to beat you at this. Or we're going to kill ourselves by accident."

"You should not expect to so easily face a Jedi Knight like myself. Already you could last many turns of the blade against a better part of the Lords of the Sith. Do not despair," Tasiele answered as she deactivated her own blade. "You don't have to be good. You just have to be _good enough_."

"For what?"

"I'm not sure yet," Tasiele replied, and reached the intercom. "Jedi Tasiele, here."

"Jedi, the conference is about to begin. Admiral Hackett has arrived."

"Thank you. We'll be up in a few minutes."

"Admiral Hackett!? Which uniform am I going to wear!?"

Tasiele was still giggling about that several minutes later as they went up to the command tower. Shepard was in her Imperial Captain's uniform. Hackett was there.

And Shepard's mother. "Uniform doesn't look bad on you, I have to admit. They call that the Fleet Braid?"

"Standard issue Imperial fashion," Atarah answered, glancing to Hackett.

"I hope you haven't give up on the Alliance entirely, Commander... Captain."

"Imperial officers are interested in the survival of humanity," a male voice cut from the end of the table, sitting next to Admiral Shala'Raan. "There is no need to concern yourself, Admiral Hackett."

"Captain..." Hackett frowned.

"Captain Turla. I am here to represent the interests of the Imperial forces. Governor Jerlak and his ranking officers are otherwise busy and besides, Admiral Shala'Raan vas Thunderflare is the ranking officer in the lists." The Imperial gestured to the suited figure at his side. "The orders are quite clear. She'll make the final decision."

"Are _Quarian_ officers interested in the survival of humanity, then?" Hackett folded his hands.

Shala'Raan glared at him across the table. "The refusal of humanity to accept that the bulk of its population is already safe is troublesome to me. The Alliance will receive equal assistance. Captain Turla and Governor Jerlak certainly have no interest in allowing the death of the human Motherworld. But there are other Motherworlds to be concerned about as well."

Tevos and the Primarch were there, too, and the Salarian councilor as well. Tevos leapt on the opportunity. "That's right, Admiral Hackett. What about Thessia?"

"Thessia seems to be resisting fairly well for now..."

"But that's precisely our opportunity. Since the shield works weren't active when the Reapers attacked, they don't know exactly where they are. The Quarians have been working to strengthen the shields against Reaper disruption tactics, and some final equipment from Ova to complete the shield banks has been made available. Without large Reaper forces on the surface, I think we have a unique opportunity to drive the Reapers from Thessia."

There were nods around the table at that. "It establishes positive momentum," the Primarch offered. "The Turians... would have insisted on it being Palaven, but the unique tactical situation at Thessia and technological position of the shields makes it so reasonable that it may be preferred in the short term. For all the damage we have done to the Reapers, we have not yet demonstrated a decisive victory."

"And what about the Crucible?" Hackett leaned forward and slid a datacube into the projector in the centre of the table. "I came with my own information. We've located the Citadel: It's in orbit of Earth. The Crucible will be ready in another week-two at most. I'm already drawing my ships together for the push, including those ships finally upgraded with Imperial technology under Admiral Shepard's command."

"Let us think strategically," Shala'Raan answered, if nothing else to stop an incipient fight between the leaders of what remained of galactic government. "In another month's effort, the four highest population Salarian worlds, the four largest Asari worlds excluding Thessia, one Turian world and the Hanar-Drell homeworld would be shielded, and the Geth shielding project will also be complete. I grant that at that point, we will have exhausted our ability to fortify worlds. But by then we will have thirteen planets which are defended. Surviving human colonists from planets such as Horizon are being evacuated in regular convoys to Mils and Ova. The fleet is being restored to full combat capability, and can serve to respond to any sustained effort by the Reapers to break through a shielded world."

"It would mean abandoning the Elcor, the Batarians, and Earth and Palaven to extinction. What of Tuchanka, for that matter?" Atarah asked quietly. "I agree that we've got to do something."

"But Grand Moff Pryl wanted us to wait through her attempt to bring back reinforcements from her home galaxy, Captain Shepard," Shala'Raan looked around the table. "As Captain Turla can confirm for you, the forces of the Empire are almost innumerable. Even in the midst of intergalactic combat, if they can shake free but a single squadron we could be victorious. We should obey orders and wait for Grand Moff Pryl's return. The fleet is a highly potent fleet-in-being which seriously constrains and limits Reaper offensive operations."

"And in the meantime people are dying... On Earth, On Palaven," Hackett trembled.

Tasiele stepped up to the table. "Gentlebeings, the situation on the occupied planets _is_ growing dire. Lives are being lost, and lives cannot be regained. Each is precious. Still, Grand Moff Pryl would have already launched an effort to regain Thessia if she had thought the fleet was capable of it. Is the fleet capable of it now, after the repairs have been completed?"

"If the _Bra'katorja_ was fully operational, yes," Shala'Raan replied. "But without Admiral Daro'Xen, there is no way that is the case."

"Then recall her!" Primarch Victus stroked a mandible and tried to suppress his anger. "I am prepared to delay an attempt on Palaven, but not some kind of offensive action... Is she really needed?"

"If she does not placate the Gree, if she does not remain alive to operate the equipment, Grand Moff Pryl's mission is in vain, and we will have no reinforcements at all," Turla nearly snarled. "Intergalactic travel is not quite so casual as you might wish..."

"Captain, Captain," Tasiele waved an arm. "I think there is a compromise at hand. I'll lure part of the Reaper fleet away from Thessia, and then we can draw them off. _Bra'katorja_ can be made to _seem_ fully operational. If enough of the Reaper fleet is drawn away then the offensive to relieve Thessia can be successfully conducted."

"How will you draw the Reapers off?" Victus looked at the Jedi Knight, sharply. But he was interested.

"By attacking the Citadel. As Admiral Hackett's intelligence says, it is now in the known location of Terran orbit."

"With _what_?"

"Myself."

"What about waiting for Grand Moff Pryl to return?"

"We'll start the operation at her deadline. If she hasn't returned by then, this Thessia operation will give us more time to consider our options and complete the Crucible."

"Yes, but you're drawing the enemy _to_ the Citadel," Hackett fumed. "If Grand Moff Pryl proves unable to return with help, it will make our job harder."

"We're not going to get any surprise," Tasiele replied. "Better to draw some Reapers off now, then hand the others a defeat at Thessia, rather than face them all at once over Terra." A pause. "Well, do I have your support?"

Hands slowly raised all around the table. Hannah Shepard tried to smile, wryly, as she raised her own, and Hackett frowned for a moment, and then followed suit. Shepard's mother spoke, softly: "May the force be with you, Jedi."

"Oh, the Force is with us," Tasiele smiled. "That may be all, but the Force is with us."


	75. Chapter 75

Once the political support had been gained, Tasiele worked on preparing the final operational plan. The Quarian and Ovan Admirals were in attendance here, and Asari, Salarian, Turian representatives, Geth too, and Admiral Hannah Shepard. And her daughter. It was an assemblage of every race in the galaxy. The ones not present in the briefing room were attached to the fleet.

Captain Bursk from Ova gave the briefing. "Gentlebeings, sentients, strict adherence to this plan is critical for the successful execution of the briefing." The holograph highlighted a large sector of the galaxy. Red flashes marked relays. "Thessia and Terra are astrographically distant, but linked by the Reaper Mass Relay network, so that they can quickly shift forces between the two planets. This both works for and against us. The disadvantage is that a fleet sent out from one or the other can arrive quickly. The advantage is that if a recall notice to a fleet in transit is sent, ships turning around at a gate will face the rest of the fleet still coming in. The entire fleet has to arrive in the system and come about."

"A traffic jam in space," Matriarch Lidanya smiled faintly.

"It's good to hear you make a joke," Hannah Shepard smiled and stepped forward. "All right, Captain Bursk. I understand the basic theory. How are we going to execute it?"

"Terra." The hologram focused in on the Sol system, showing the third planet and the glowing marker of the Citadel over it. "First Deep Space Fighter wing, Commander Sevaras commanding, will be leading in a group of light freighters from Ova—forty-six in all, every one of them that was on the planet. The freighters have the job of deploying supplies and weapons to resistance movements located here in the Sierra Nevada," she highlighted sections of the planet, "the Altiplano, the Tibetan Plateau and Hindu Kush, Caucasus mountains, Golan-Bekaa region, as well as the organized forces of the Swiss Militias, Spanish and French army units in the Pyrenees and the British in Northern Ireland—Ireland not yet being heavily attacked, along with many other offshore islands, as the Reapers have focused on processing major cities first."

"A diversion?"

"No, general Sanvius," she addressed the Turian Sixth Fleet commander. There were too many Sixth fleets. "Taking advantage of the diversion to help—though I suppose it adds to the seriousness of the diversion. Which is that the _Bra'katorja_ will arrive in system," she used her pointer to draw the holoprojection out to show the system around Venus, "positioning herself in-system of the planet and launching ranged attacks on the Reaper fleet."

"The final component is that the _Normandy_ will cover the arrival of Jedi General Shan..."

"Just Jedi Tasiele, please, Captain Bursk," Tasiele smiled wryly, and stepped forward. "Well, I'm going to board the Citadel. Try to conduct a reconaissance in case we have to consider using the Crucible."

Hannah looked sharply at that, and at her daughter. "And you expect to survive that?"

"Yes, Admiral Shepard. I'll escape in a pod from the Citadel when I am finished, to re-join the resistance on the surface. This should be a serious enough event—we know the Reapers are interested in Jedi—as to provoke a strong response."

"Take good care of her on the way in, Atarah," Hannah murmured, and her daughter silently stiffened.

"Jedi Tasiele's starfighter," Captain Bursk smiled wryly, "will be recovered on remote by the _Normandy_ and the force will begin to pull back, covered by the _Bra'katorja_. Since the Gree ship is not expected to be able to handle close combat without Admiral Daro'Xen personally aboard, your force will retreat at that point. It is expected this will be an adequate enough magnitude of operation to draw the Reapers off Thessia in some numbers."

"And Thessia?" Han'Gerrel leaned into the rail around the holoprojector.

"Certainly, Admiral." The image shifted. " _Thunderflare_ will infiltrate first whilst under cloak, in a variation of the tactic that Grand Moff Pryl used at Sanves. But she will now have a quantum entanglement communicator aboard... Its second will be located on _Stalker_. This will allow her to maneouvre and target using sensor data from _Stalker_ when the main fleet arrives, already being deep behind enemy lines in the system. At that point, Salarian Third and Fourth fleets will begin to arrive by Mass Relay, covered by the fire of the cloaked _Thunderflare_.

"They will close the relay to Reaper transits by moving _enmasse_. Our fleet will arrive at the same time: Imperial and Geth ships in the centre, with the Turian and Asari sixth fleets will hold the right flank and the Quarian cruiser force will cover the left. The left, will pivot around to let the main Imperial force pin the bulk of the Reapers against Thessia." The fleets moved in animated simulation of the operation.

"And my job?" Hannah took a step closer to Han'Gerrel.

"You'll come out of hyperspace on the far side of the planet with First Fleet, covering the arrival of this Trade Federation transport." Specifications of the ship scrolled in the projection for a moment, and then it was located with the Alliance ships relative to Thessia. "Cover it at all costs as it makes its landing run. It contains the last equipment that needs to be in place to create a full defensive shield of Thessia."

"That's it?"

"That's the most critical part of the mission. Despite all we've done here, Admiral Shepard, we cannot defeat the full strength the Reapers can bring against us. The shield needs to be up before the Reapers realise the attack on Terra was a diversion, reorganise their fleet, and bring it back through to Thessia."

"And the Salarian fleets, how will they be evacuated?"

"Their stealth ships will slip away by regular FTL. The rest—won't be. They're going to take cover under the shield, which expands far enough to cover low orbits. With the power available on Thessia and active frequency compensation, we are confident that the shield will hold, and the Salarian ships will provide support against infiltrators until the Reapers realise the pointlessness of trying to penetrate Thessia's defences."

Hannah glanced to Shala'Raan.

The Quarian looked back to her. "The Dalatresses understand that without some risk now, their galactic political position will be severely compromised. The fleets will arrive as promised." She looked no more comfortable, but Hannah thought that was because she wasn't a fan of launching the attack at all.

So she clapped her hands and smiled briskly, stepping up to provide the otherwise lacking enthusiasm. "Thank you, Captain Bursk. To your ships, gentlebeings. It's time for us to attack."

-

The Reapers reacted like they had been gutshot when _Bra'katorja_ arrived off Venus. A fleet blossomed from orbit of Earth, swinging out and back to face them, mustering by the hundreds of great Reapers, approaching cautiously. There was no apparent way to defend against the mysterious Gree weapon aboard, which they still did not completely understand.

And as it turned out, the range of the weapons was quite adequate to open fire now. With each chiming its readiness in discordant notes, the ship began to turn. On the bridge, nervous Quarians from Daro'Xen's command huddled on a ship only their mad genius of a commander began to understand, and she was not there. They opened fire. The first Reaper was struck: A strange flux bent space, and the bio-ceramic composite with natural strands of carbon nanotubes for strength was laughed at by the power of the gravity shear to which the ship was abruptly subjected. The living Reaper twisted, its claws had the Blackstar cannons flung from them, and armour sheared and shattered into guts, and the mind-bending insides disintegrated. Three huge pieces tumbled away.

Then the next cannon rolled into line, and a second Reaper died. A third followed it. They kept on firing until the power feed problems started with recharging; by that point, eight Reapers were already dead, an accomplishment which would have once been hailed as an incredible victory in its own right. Instead it was just the opening round of a battle in the war that Tanda had unleashed. Before the Reapers could process that _**Bra'katorja**_ was no longer firing, the starfighters arrived, escorting the light transports and _Normandy_.

"Jedi Flight," Tasiele reported from her squadron. "Present and accounted for. All squadrons report in."

"Sigma squadron, reporting in."

"Tau squadron, reporting in."

"Beta squadron, reporting in."

"Esk squadron, reporting in."

"Dorn squadron, reporting in."

"Qek squadron, reporting in."

Tasiele leaned into the controls, sighting across the Tibetan plateau as they descended. The Reaper fleet hesitated before them. "All squadrons, shields double front. We're going to make a pass at the surface to cover the transports first. _Normandy_ , you have top cover!"

"Angle shields for high-speed atmospheric entry!"

"Oculi drones, coming in, three o'clock high!"

Shepard's voice broke onto the channel. "Deep Space Wing, _Normandy_ 's got them!" The frigate lunged past them between the mass of drones and the starfighters. The ship had been further modified beyond her shields, and now most of the windows in the hull had been replaced with open forcefields, spacesuited and armoured Alliance marines stationed at heavy ground-based blaster cannon spliced into the ship's power system by Quarian engineers after having been ripped out of fixed positions on Ova. They used the advanced computer sighting integral to the mounts and opened fire. The frigate's point-defence system joined in, and a whole swathe of drones disappeared in fire as Joker cut a turn down into the atmosphere.

The starfighter wing was already diving, forming up ahead of the transports that _Normandy_ was now holding position with and sliding over. More drones were descending from above on her, and the mounts _whumpfed_ into the hull bracing and made the peculiar whine of blaster fire as their shields started to glow red. "KEEP THAT FIRE UP!" Ashley screamed to her Marines. "You should all be aces today, and that's just the LEAST I expect out of yah!"

"Now remember, the main Reapers can't have their shields up. We can't destroy them, but we can undermine their legs. They'll be in the process of lifting off, so hurry. Select your targets carefully! _And remember the Alliance tactic._ When you fire your torpedo salvoes, pull up hard before getting back to ground to evade. That's when you can launch your bombs! Jedi Flight, with me!"

The lead force swept down over the Caspian as trailing groups swept through the great desert cities of the Karakoroum to cover the landing of the transports to the south and the east. Targeting the Reapers, they raced through light ground fire from Reaper ground units that the shields easily repelled, even on the freighters and transports. The main Reapers and Destroyers were trying to lift off, grabbing for their claw-held Blackstar cannons as they did.

The starfighters came in too fast to give them a chance. Pilots toggled their torpedoes, again, again, and again, pulling hard and activating their proton bomb dispensers: Toss-bombing, they lurched and screamed up into the atmosphere, making hard turns to right or left just as the Reapers and pursuing drones got locks. Their proton torpedoes raced in, striking the legs and ground under the legs of Reapers – and some of them, undermined and too slow in getting power up, fell. A few of those were particularly unlucky. Unlike the ones undermined in earlier attacks which had been lifted off the surface of the planet and allowed to heal by their compatriots, a half-dozen of them both toppled and toppled _onto_ the proton bombs, packing them between their bodies and the ground before the bombs exploded. With the full force of the blast now tamped into the Reapers, their carapaces outright cracked.

Tasiele reached out with the force as they swung back from their attacks on the Reapers, now falling, over Baku. She could feel nothing alive. Grimly, she toggled her communicator on. "Select the Cryseefa gas bombs. Low-level bombing run over Baku."

"Copy."

The QEQ-1s plunged back toward the smoking ruins of the city. Beams tracked the sky toward them, and she jinked hard and rolled back up. Then her bombing computer, VI assisted, reported ready, and she activated the discharge tubes. The rest of her flight followed suit, and the gas explosively expanded as it reached the ground, a strange blue mist virulently reacting and growing and spreading through the streets of the city. They pulled up and swinged into a covering approach for the light transports making drop runs over the Caucasus mountains.

Behind them, the husks that were all that was left of the citizens of the once-great Azeri city were melting in the cloud of gas as the air-reacting super acid reduced organic compounds to so much water and carbonated oils on the ground.

More QEQ-1s were racing ahead to conduct the escort for the next set of drops, coming in over the North Pole to descend across North America. As the light transports continued their drops, forces from the California National Guard down to former regular army units and grim bands of Caucasus fighters were pulling equipment, standardised, out of cases. The Aurebesh was overriding with plastic placards in a roughly appropriate language. **MICRO PROTON TORPEDO LAUNCHER**. **STANDARD RATION PACKET**. **BLASTER RIFLE.**

As the runs were completed, drones began to converge on them in great numbers. Tasiele spared herself the time only for a single victory lap over the still-unoccupied and largely intact city of San Luis Potosi. Her Bolivians were getting guns and arms, too. And they would have need of them. As she did, she left them behind once more, climbing for space, and shepherding the freighters out of the grav well while the fighters formed back together, metaphorically licking their wounds and converging with the _Normandy_. Toward the Citadel.

They swarmed and tore through a group of four Reaper Destroyers trying to cover them, torpedoes hammering and ripping through them, and then raced over the carapace of the Citadel, firing on Reapers gripped to its outer surface. A single beam projected from it toward the surface, toward the ruins of the city of London below. The starfighters raced and swooped, firing almost continuously.

Tasiele keyed her comm. "This is where I take leave from the rest of you! Kesalia, take the fighter on... Three, two, one... Mark!" She hit the ejection button and blasted out of the cockpit on retrorockets, while the Twi'lek adept interfaced with the starfighter's VI's and guided it away, the squadron forming up to retreat with the freighters while the rest of the wing swung away with the SR-2 to continue the diversion, space a whirl of tracking beams, mass driver shots, Blackstar cannon fire and lasers and ion cannon mingled together into a seeming wild chaos of battle.

She reached out with the force, and guided the ejection seat in with the last of its energy, before unstrapping and leaping from it from the hull of the Citadel. Her gravity boots locked into place, and through the slim gloves of an Asari-made spacesuit, Tasiele ignited her lightsabre and plunged into the hull of the Citadel.

-

"All forces report ready, Admiral," Captain Sanders coughed. _Orizaba_ was his, and far too soon. But there were so very few left.

And now Hannah was the Admiral. Their shields were about as good as a glorified freighter's. Their hyperdrive was Class III. They had ferrocrete patchwork added to the armour to enhance its effectiveness. Blaster cannon were combined with the light lasers and ion cannon and medium ion cannon and turbolasers to give them a weapons fit on the _Orizaba_ which most of the Imperials considered more fit for a Bulk Cruiser than a Dreadnought. Their mass drivers were now firing warheads fitted with shaped proton charges, because the pure kinetic energy of a solid was nothing compared to what those warheads could do.

And despite all that, it gave them a real fighting chance, both against the Imperial ships which had vanished five minutes before to do battle over Thessia and the Reapers were now their real, shared enemies, the only enemies that mattered. The desperate fight over Charon might just be avenged, and First Fleet, now her's so Lindholm could command Fifth, had been outfitted to achieve that vengeance.

The Trade Federation transport cruiser in the middle swung into position, and the comms trilled. Hannah took a breath and answered. "Go ahead, Admiral."

"Admiral Shepard, make the jump to lightspeed as quickly as possible," Shala'Raan's voice came through. "We have drawn the Reapers off mostly, but stragglers and Destroyers are still in position, against precisely this kind of attack. You should have the transport come in last so you can tightly engage with the Reapers before it arrives."

"Understood, Admiral. We'll be there in minutes."

"Ancestors bless you." The message cut out, and First Fleet and the transport were alone together in the depths of Deep Space outside the Thessia system, once more and for just a moment longer.

"Position the freighter at the rear of the force. They are to arrive on a three minute interval at Thessia."

"Only three minutes, Admiral?"

"Don't want to risk more," Hannah answered. "Stand by—confirm those orders?"

"Orders confirmed." A minute later... "The transport is in position, Admiral."

Hannah opened a general comm line to the entire fleet. "Men and women of the Alliance Navy. A lot of people have counted us down and out with the loss of Earth. But that isn't true. Our backs may be to the wall now, but we all know that we are the people who our homeworld is holding to save it, we are the people our friends and families and loved ones are counting on to save them. Today we're going to show the galaxy that we're not out of this fight. With this victory here at Thessia, we will pave the road to Earth."

Her eyes looked up toward the holoprojector, her heart full of emotions the words didn't reflect, but which lent them passion nonetheless. "Battlestations."

Around her, the _Orizaba_ leapt to the ready. As the stations began to report in, she measured the readiness time against the duration of the jump. And then she gave the word. "Make the jump to lightspeed."

The hyperdrive motivator screamed, and the ship began to elongate, and with a rough snap more like a light freighter than a great Imperial warship, they lunged into the chaotic purple and white realm of hyperspace, the entirety of Alliance First Fleet disappearing. Eight minutes later, they reappeared, a blazing light of the burst of their arrival, bursting into position over the far side of Thessia from the main battle.

Following Hannah Shepard's plan, the Alliance ships immediately closed, firing their mass drivers as fast as they could. The shells proved their use, detonating with power that no mass driver would have provided on its own, and quickly racking up damage, the two Alliance dreadnoughts leading the force teaming up against a single large Reaper as the cruisers went after the destroyers.

Swinging down into orbit, Hannah could see from the tactical, the massive volleys of turbolaser fire from the _Thunderflare_ erupting out of clear space, no visible indication of the ship. She was ripping through a group of Reapears standing near the Relay, which was now debouching Salarian ships by the dozen, two dreadnoughts in each fleet. She could not see the action, blocked by the mass of Thessia, but the comms from the far side of the planet promised victory.

Rolling up against the flank of a Reaper, the _Orizaba_ shuddered under heavy fire from the Blackstar Cannon that the great beast was holding. Her medium turbolasers and ion cannon—the later a savage satisfaction to the crew of the _Orizaba_ considering they had been on the receiving end before—tore back into the Reaper as shield warning alarms went off. They were in point-blank.

And then the transport arrived. Swinging down toward the planet and escorted by a group of Assault Gunboats, the transport's dozen medium turbolasers were firing from the moment she arrived. Even with all of First Fleet as a cordon, seeing a full-up Imperial type starship meant a half-dozen of Destroyers tried to free themselves from the mass.

A forward console exploded. "Fire extinguisher!" Hannah shouted. The big dreadnought was tumbling down, though, leaking plasma that had once been whatever made up the guts of a Reaper. "Bring our main cannon about to bear on those destroyers breaking loose!"

"Understood, Admiral," Sanders turned to the helm himself, and the dreadnought pivoted in space. As she spun on heel, her mass driver opened up, and the burst of proton bombs buried into the slugs detonated around the accelerating Reaper Destroyers. With frigates flitting around them, the Dreadnought kept firing.

A massive blast struck the hull, and alarms started to cascade as a beam burned through the ferrocrete and cut deep into the ship's vitals. Three cruisers rushed to engage the Reaper that was attacking. "Do we still have main power!?" Sanders shouted, as high-strung as ever.

Hannah's own orders set up the Assault Gunboat intercept, and the answer on main power was answered by the badly damaged _Orizaba_ finally blowing up one of the hard-maneouvring Reaper Destroyers. It was followed by a huge wave of heavy rockets from the assault gunboats, which burned away hard to avoid counter-fire from the destroyers.

Two of them disappeared into white flashes and huge gouts of flame. The Assault gunboats cut back on the remainder, and the medium turbolaser batteries of the Trade Federation transport kept up a steady fire, concentrating on the single lead target. Its Blackstar Cannon were blown from its claws, its shields collapsed, and it started to die. But that still left one.

 _Orizaba_ kept firing. The effort was finally awarded by a final silent gout of flame in the haze of the atmosphere, and the Trade Federation transport slipped past her enemies, skirting the terminator and diving into Thessia's atmosphere.

Hannah leaned back and heaved a sigh. Live or die, now, she had done her job. The shield components were on a ship deep into the grav well of the planet. Around them, the battle whirled with the continuous fire of weapons, the death of fighters and drones and dozens of Reapers too, but if the shield could be brought up as promised, they were really going to win.

Winning was almost a strange feeling by this point.

-

It had not been a great effort to cut a hole in the hull of the Citadel and force her way in against the gas. Finally she had come to an airlock from which she could cut the power and then manually force the doors open, to avoid further decompressions. It was there that she removed her suit, feeling the intensity of the ancient evil now rampant in this place.

Or the very new evil. The corpses everywhere, brought up for processing from London, reminded her very much of the Rakghoul Plague's horrifying effects. She could tell the deformed sapiences of the species which maintained the Citadel still possessed real life, but had been hideously modified by the Reapers unaccountable aeons ago. Tasiele pressed on.

Somewhere, in the heart of this station, there was the power that controlled it all, and she intended to head for it. There was a ghostlike quality to the walk, for death was all around, but for the longest time she was unmolested, climbing through the ruins of what had been a bustling, living community.

There was something in here with power. She just wasn't sure what. And then, an individual whose life-force was melting into nothing by the minute, stood before her with strangely iridescent blue eyes. "Jedi Knight Tasiele Shan, the Seventh Generation unto the Revan and Bastila Shan. Rulebreakers from the start!"

"That's right. You're the Illusive Man, aren't you? I assume you found this information out from Ova."

"I don't think my sources are very important to you. Cerberus has established a new base here, and you're not welcome on it, unless you've decided to imitate your illustrious ancestor."

" _Darth_ Revan, you mean?"

"I might mean that. They don't understand the Force, you know! They're completely mystified by it."

"The Reapers," Tasiele smiled thinly. "Their heart is here, isn't it? You have erred so gravely..."

"We'll see who's erred. I concentrated the survivors of my organisation here to control the Reapers. Control them! Imagine the power, greater than anything even of your own galaxy. Numbers are all you have. The Reapers can rewrite life itself."

"So can the force," Tasiele frowned. "And it does not destroy what it changes, unless you turn to the depths of the Dark Side. What you offer _is_ destruction. It has touched you. Make no mistake. You are lost in their power. You will never control them... Nobody will. At _best_ you will end up like someone trying to control the Star Forge."

"Jedi have always limited themselves compared to the true power that humanity could harness," the Illusive Man answered, lighting a cigar and stepping back to the centre of the set of catwalks at the heart of the Citadel. "Do you really think you will convince me to give up the power that humanity could have here? I could ever restore the New Order of the Emperor that your Grand Moff Pryl has so pathetically let down."

"I think I'd make common cause with Palpatine before I let you try," Tasiele answered, and unholstered her lightsabre. "I'm going to find out what is at the heart of the Citadel, and I am going to destroy it. In the name of the Jedi Order, Stand Aside!"

"By all means you can _try_. Kai Leng! This is your chance to kill a Jedi!"

"With pleasure, Illusive Man." The cyborg command stepped out of the shadows. And he was wielding a lightsabre.

Tasiele's eyes widened. It wasn't a real one, of course, but one with flickering energy vents on the side, a wavery, inconstant blade. Imperfect. Attached to a power pack at his back for extra energy, because the Illusive Man had not been able to copy the micronised powerpack of a true lightsabre. But it would surely be good enough for the purposes. She brought her blade to the ready, and ignited it. "You may try, but you are lost, Kai Leng, and you will gain nothing from this."

He lunged with the lightsabre, and cut it in a sharp, sudden, decisive stroke across her body.

That stroke connected with her own blade, a blade that held him firm and sent him skittering back as she batted the primitive lightsabre aside. Tasiele spun to face him, and Kai Leng recovered his balance and spun into another attack.

Above them, the Illusive Man watched in an almost electrified fascination as the two lightsabres clashed, and clashed again. The cybernetic enhancement of Kai Leng tested against a real Jedi. A legend of an entire other galaxy, an entire other galaxy of humans...

Pitted against the second most perfect creation of Cerberus. And Kai Leng knew every trick of a sword that a human could know, executing them again and again. Somehow he made little headway, despite the Illusive Man's pride. But that did not bother the Illusive Man.

"Are you going to let her beat you, too?!" He shouted to Kai Leng, and with a roar of anger the Ninja was goaded into another attack.

"Embarrassed by Kesalia?" Tasiele baited, after seeing the Illusive Man's work, as Kai Leng gritted, sweated and pressed his blade against the unruffled Tasiele, her lightsabre near to locking him in place.

"Not the Twi'lek bitch!" He shoved forward hard enough that Tasiele toppled.

Then he found his lightsabre vanish in a poof of energy before him, like a whisper that had never really existed, and looked down in shock, a shock not reflected on his cyborg face but only echoing in the movements of his body, now.

Tasiele had let herself fall, and in the process she had severed the power cord. Her blade flicked toward him, and Kai Leng flung himself clear just in time—materially aided by Tasiele's need to deflect the shots as six Cerberus Nemesis troopers opened fire on her simultaneously.

"A little bit unfair of a duel, don't you think!?" She shouted as she spun in the air, turning the shots and landing once more to face him, an outstretched hand sending a light fixture plunging onto one of the snipers.

"An honourable opponent wouldn't cut the power to my sabre!"

Tasiele ignored him to leap into the air, bypassing another salvo of shots. She landed on one of the catwalks, and rushing foward, rattling down it, cut a stroke across one of the snipers that sent the upper half of her body toppling down, the indoctrinated, mutated form falling with nary a cry. Shouting down from above, her voice was more sad than angry. "The only honour here is in keeping humans alive, and you've been doing a poor job of that, yourself included! The Reapers are using you all...!"

Kai Leng leapt up to the catwalk, wielding a katana energized with some kind of power field from the hilt. It proved able enough to resist her blade on the first stroke, and now constrained by the catwalk, they traded blows and parries, the Illusive Man shifting to the side to keep himself clear and continue to be able to watch.

It was a very odd form of voyuerism. Tasiele shrugged it off, and turned into herself. She tapped a control on her omnitool with her tongue as her hand brushed her face, and locked her gravity boots into place. Leaning into the connection to the metal that they provided, and centring herself into the force, she delivered a furious salvo of blows, aimed not at Kai Leng but strictly at his sword.

Even as debased as he was now, Tasiele was still going to destroy his weapons... And once again she did it. The sword cracked, the energy was lost from the upper portion of the blade, and letting her lightsabre skitter up, she snapped it off.

He leapt from the catwalk, and she followed him, landing at her feet as the blade glowed before her. Kai Leng formed a last blade with his omnitool, and used it to fend her off as pounding feet came down the corridors. Cerberus Phantoms.

In a stroke, the omnitool and Kai Leng's right arm went flying from him, and as he tried to headbutt her, she kicked him back with one of the heavy metallic gravity boots. Her attention turned to the Illusive Man. "Your soul is all but lost, and you have cost the souls of all who have followed you! Do not persist in this madness!"

"Madness? I am at the hour of my triumph! Grand Moff Pryl may have destroyed this organisation, but you will never be able to stop the clone from ending the strength of _her_ organisation. Humanity will triump by _controlling_ the Reapers!"

"...The clone..?" She looked at the incoming Phantoms, thought of her Bolivian resistance fighters. Thought of the fleet that had fought to bring her here. This was not the time to get to know the force better. With a powerful backflip she lunged over the first group.

"It's hopeless! Your friends have already retreated, and you'll never get off-world in time!"

Feet pounding, Tasiele left the mocking of the Illusive Man behind her, and found an escape pod.


	76. Chapter 76

"All hands, stand by for action...!" This time it was just Tanda and her crew, responding to a report of a raid on the Thyferran Bacta producing colony of Qretu-5. The ship was already at general quarters, but Tanda had let her crew eat as they waited to go into action at their stations, and one last warning blared through the intercoms as astrogation eased the levers and pulled the _Dolorata_ out into realspace once more.

"Launch all starfighters."

"Confirm starfighter launch, Commodore."

Five TIE Defenders detached from the docking collars of the Carrack. At least with that configuration the moment the starfighters were launched they were immediately in action. Her Defender pilots were still better at staying alive than at actually fighting the Rogues—all being veterans, but who hadn't seen action in several years until the last battle, Tanda darkly suspected that was very intentional on their part—and she had accordingly crafted their role in the battle to be one of denial.

"System scan?"

"Eleven X-wings and fifteen Uglies of two types in orbit, Commodore. A group of light freighters is ascending from the planet."

"Calculate their escape vector and send the coordinates forward to _Corruptor_." Unlike with the innocent bacta crews, she was facing pirates and criminals caught in the heat of the moment. There was no doubt about their guilt. And that meant that the VSD-II standing off could be used with absolute confidence. "Signal Captain Convarion to make his jump to lightspeed."

"Confirmed, Commodore! Signalling now."

"Starfighters forming up..."

Tanda watched and listened to the bridge chatter. "Have the Defenders cut through them at high speed, covering their approach with proton torpedoes set to burst ahead of them. Then they are to make one pass with torpedoes and cannon—one pass only. Maximum speed, don't let them get caught up dogfighting with the enemy. I want them to hold course without deviation—issue them specific heading directives!"

"Commodore, that level of control...?"

"They are Imperial officers, let them execute orders," Tanda half-snarled, and switched to her gunnery control. "Fire control, start tracking our own Defenders. I want you to lock onto them with the main turbolasers. They're traveling in a straight line at high speed. When they interpose with the Rebel force, fire at them."

" _Fire_ _ **at**_ _them_ , Commodore?"

"That is correct." She tapped her fingers into her command chair, watching the rapid convergence of the holoplot. "Allow a lag of one microsecond only. No targeting readjusting—just loop for one microsecond in the targeting computer."

"...Understood," the subdued lieutenant replied, and grimly finalised the firing solution. "Standing ready, Commodore."

Tanda watched the proton torpedoes start to salvo from the Defenders. Then, at intervals, they started to explode. The white-blue bursts in the stars drowned through the sensors of the enemy. As she expected, the Defender pilots were shying away from the Rogues. They were aiming toward the Uglies.

Tanda didn't really blame them.

As they continued to figure, the explosions confused the targeting picture of their enemies, essentially creating a rolling barrage in space they could advance under. It was atrociously wasteful of warheads, and they were rapidly exhausting their magazines. But it was doing its job. Many laser cannon bursts fired at them were simply wasted in the expanding clouds; the rest went wide to the point that their shields were comfortably holding.

It was quite the opposite of regular combat. "Forward the Defenders!"

They broke straight in at full power with the last order. No attempt at maneouvring, tearing in on their powerful ion engines, screaming toward the rebels. Then, they fired a salvo of proton torpedoes and opened fire with their quad lasers. Two seconds later they ripped through the formation of Uglies. Tanda watched the interposition.

"Fire."

Simultaneously all of _Dolorata_ 's forward batteries that could range pulsed with fire, green and red bolts disappearing toward a single point in space. The flashes tore at the retina, and then disappeared. As Tanda had hoped, the bolts lanced into positions roughly from which the Uglies would be turning back, hard, to fire into the Defenders as they fled.

Explosions blossomed across a distant sector of space, and silently, two pilots died.

They were Twi'leks, Ugly pilots. Her own raced outwards and away from the mass of the enemy in their Defenders. The disrupted enemy formation continued to swirl to try and engage, before some comm order from an enemy commander brought them snapping back toward her. Two. _Two_. Two kills.

Tanda remembered what one of the Alliance officers had said over Earth. Now it was time to pay the price, and _Dolorata_ was about to be on the receiving end of it. "For what we are about to receive, may we all be truly thankful!" She grinned, belying the grimness of both the statement and their situation.

She did know that they had an ace, and then, finally, Convarion came through for them. _Corruptor_ arrived on the bearing of the freighters. Just as before, her turbolasers were blazing from the first. Unlike the Bacta Tankers, though, the light freighters and smugglers' ships that were taking the bacta off Qretu-5 were quite ready for it. Snapping, aggressive maneouvres saved them, for the moment, and they burned hard to escape.

Then the starfighters turned back toward _Corruptor_ to cover their retreat, and if one didn't bother to count the complete destruction of the surface infrastructure and the loss of eight TIE Interceptors, Tanda had won a clean-cut victory on the behalf of Ysanne Isard. By any other name, of course, it was still more of a defeat; but fortunately, the Director didn't seem to see it that way...

-

" _Nothing._ Nothing! How does one man resist all the techniques of the Ubquitorate! Even an Inquisitor would not be unwelcome right now, if such it took to break him! Damn him!" Ysanne Isard, Chief Operating Officer of Xucphra Corporation was _vexed_. The Rebel Horn falls back into her clutches, and _still_ will not break, and now... _Now I have to somehow reward the officer who caught him._ It had been an oversight she couldn't let last.

She had rewarded people for capturing Horn in the past, and now not an officer who, admittedly, by rank alone ought have a more prominent position in her organisation. Isard knew that failing to reward success was a great way to cause disloyalty, and when she had already hobbled the woman for want for trust, it was especially important. But the question became how to do it when Isard still did not really trust Tanda Pryl.

Forcing herself to calm, she reached for the datapad on her desk, and read through the maddeningly vague file there. Trying to tease out the motivations of Tanda Pryl, beyond the obvious one that she badly wanted medical treatment for the strange condition that seemed to be slowly killing her, was something like crawling down into a Sarlacc Pit. It seemed completely impossible to pull out a realistic way of motivating her.

 _Outer Rim patrol, successful enough to reach Death Squadron and her own command. Rumours..._ When she got back to her immediate post-academy review, she finally found something, and very interesting, too, enough that her eyes widened, a fraction. _... Interesting. Unconventional religious and sexual preferences, only rumoured since her earliest days in the service._ Glancing to her reflection in the desk-set datascreen, Isard kept frowning, lips pursed in a thin line. _How very strange for a woman to have risen so far, to have such a... weakness. What possible gain could she have from indulging so? There would be whispers aplenty if any of her_ peers _found out about such a thing. Still... it is something. If she's repressed herself so long..._

A plan began to crystalise in the woman's head, as she reached for the comm to her secretary. "Call down Commodore Pryl to my estate, two hours after _Dolorata_ returns from their latest patrol." _To lower myself to this... still, she seems... less grasping than Drysso, and if she could be properly cemented to my cause..._ Ysanne Isard shuddered in revulsion for a moment. But it was only a moment. She knew how to act on a mission, and this, after all, was just another mission.

When she reported, two hours after her return from Qretu-5, Tanda demonstrated the usual fear that she felt around the Royal Guards, and tried to suppress (though only to a certain extent—even people with far less reason to fear them than she did frequently held them as an emblem of terror), as she reported to the briefing with Isard in person. Working to maintain her calm at the prospect of being found out, she was left to also wonder exactly why she had been summoned to the Director's palace. She tried to encourage herself: It helped her, since she was not afraid of Isard, which almost everyone else seemed to be, so being afraid of her guards helped her to be more convincingly normal. But this line of thought did not hold sway nearly as well as she might have hoped as Tanda advanced through the palace, her nervousness and subdued nature serving to bely her real feelings, the tense expectation of at any moment being accosted. And then, before her, there was Director Isard.

"Ah, Commodore Pryl. You responded with admirable aclarity to my request to meet you." The woman rose from behind her desk, and gestured towards a side exit-in the unadorned crimson uniform she seemed to always wear, even here on Thyferra. "I did not _reward_ you for capturing one of the Rogue Squadron pirates. This is an oversight I intend to rectify."

"It was my duty, Director Isard. I prefer to have a reputation for probity and execution of duty to any rewards. I would rather be an anchor of the Empire than a band of gold. I need nothing, Director," Tanda answered, moving to walk at her side as had been indicated. "Wealth I put aside a long time ago; I could have had plenty of it, remaining on Commenor."

"Wealth is so very venal - what one can do with it matters more than conspicuously consuming it." She gave a sidelong glance at Tanda, and took a stealthily deep breath. "Duty is all there is room for in your life, truly?" came next, in a deceptively idle tone.

"I wouldn't go that far, Director," Tanda answered softly. "Just not the kind of great wealth that presses ever onward toward graft and corruption. There are pleasures I appreciate, certainly. Fine table water, fine brandy."

"Those are _all_ you appreciate? Almost an ascetic life, it sounds to be." As she spoke, she was slowly edging closer to the other woman, and her voice dropping lower.

"You might say I've lived something of an ascetic life," Tanda admitted, and smiled a little. She didn't sense the slightest bit of threat from Isard, at least in the conventional sense, and that bothered her, as she had expected the Director of the Ubiqtorate to be constantly threatening. "Certainly I'm open to the charge."

"It has been a very long time since you've thought of _yourself_ , has it not, Commodore?" She had led out into a roofed set of gardens - cooler and dryer than the outside, and half a transplanted skyhook garden than anything native. "As I said, I think you deserve a reward for capturing the Rebel... without my help. No-one else has managed _that_. If only my other subordinates were the same, I would perhaps even have time to think of _myself_."

"Well, that's the thing, Director. You're the legitimate heir to the Emperor, and you can simply count on me to treat that as established fact. I... I did spend most of my career, thinking strictly in those terms, I admit. Not about myself, but only about duty." She glanced to Isard, and then dared to loosen her collar a bit. "You might say, though, that it just seemed like a good idea to pour all of my energy into my career."

"And if you were free to... do otherwise, now?" Having manouvered Tanda gently into a corner, Isard was easing in closer to her, reaching her hands up. "Once, I poured all of myself into serving the Emperor. I am here _now_ , however... for myself." With that, she took Tanda's face in her hands, kissing her with full force and not a bit of visible restraint.

Tanda's eyes widened and she fell back into the corner, her headscarf falling with her, draping on her shoulders as she was pushed into the wall. Those cerulean blue eyes seemed legitimately completely shocked. But her lips parted with a kind of everescent weakness, her hands limply at her side. _Oh Dea, Tali..._ But something screamed that she would be writing her death warrant... To refuse.

The gardens seemed quiet and gentle, for what was happening to her... Really, it hardly mattered, and yet, it seemed to anyway. The oppressive heat made the will to resist flee. She realised why Isard was doing this, and that realisation was no help. It only told her that there was no escape.

Drawing back a hint, the other woman _smiled_ —though there was zero warmth in it, for all it seemed to feel sincere. "Did you think _I_ would not know about your... preferences? Or did you not dare to hope that you might find _something_ to fill that empty hole in you? Is that something you... might be interested in, Commodore Pryl?"

 _If you tell her about Tali, you will have a hostage against your conduct for her._ Three years ago, the idea of having the Director of the Ubiqtorate as her lover would have impossibly seductive. Even now, the apparent sincerity in her voice made Tanda waver. She had the force, and that was what had made the Emperor great... Isard _didn't_. But Isard had the respect and power, didn't she? The unending temptation had returned, though over _this_ , it just made Tanda ashamed.

"I think that I simply buried that part of me very, very deeply... _Ysanne_. If this is your desire, I am not... Unamenable. I can't think of a more beautiful woman than the one in front of me, and it flatters me that you would be in the slight bit interested in a half cripple."

Isard pushed herself back with a hand, and continued to grin. "Not half a cripple if you keep holding my planet for me. Consider _that_ even more of an incentive, if you wish."

Tanda felt herself smile. "As the lady pleases," she answered, trying to be... Herself. The temptation flickered in her heart, waylaid the guilt, reminded her that there was no way she could say no anyway, and she stepped forward.

Right into Ysanne Isard's embrace. As she did, it felt like a dark shadow crossed her soul, uncertain if it was what she desired or not, if it was for the sake of her mission... Or a dalliance with a dream of power. Survival and protection of her wife, or a whisper of a future wrought in massed troops upon the plazas of Alsakan.

But the Director's lips were very warm and soft, and Tanda had not known another _human_ woman in more than fifteen years.

Later on, it was that thought which ashamed her the most.

-

It wasn't until the next day that Tanda returned to the _Dolorata_ , distracted and shiftily uncomfortable. She went to her office and started to deal with the usual backlog of reports and paperwork, her expression neutral as if she were overcompensating for something.

It only bought her somewhat of a respite-her wife, worried, had not let more than an hour pass-long enough for word to filter down to engineering - before sending her first message; _Tanda, are you all right?! You were gone for almost a whole day!_

 _I was busy meeting with Director Isard. Are you sure this channel is secure?_ The last part of the message seemed almost accusatory in its own way, a particular fit of paranoia from Tanda as she hastily answered, and then went back to her work.

 _... I thought it was. I can check again, but it will take a few hours to finish running the analysis. Comm you with the results if we're secure?_ came back after several minutes of almost frantic checking for bugs on Tali's end of the conversation.

 _Please do so. Captain Pryl, out._ She rather numbly killed the communications channel, and retreated to her bed. Finishing the reports came off as less important, and she rolled under the quilted blankets that her and Tali had collected for those past years, and suddenly felt so very guilty about them that even sleep held no real pleasure.

Five hours later, her omni-tool flashed again with an incoming message - low-priority, as Dolorata had cycled to her 'night' period of the shipboard day. _Tanda, I show secure, no signs of eavesdropping on our channel._

It might surprise her, but Tanda nonetheless answered immediately, as if she wasn't asleep in the slightest, or had woken at a start like the general quarters klaxon had gone off. _All right. Can you come to talk, then? In person, I mean. There's something we need to talk about._

 _... All right. I'll get a meal shake for you and me. Up in ten minutes._

In dull drab grey, her wife came up, tools still slung 'round her waist, satchel full of datapads, and drink bulbs on each of her tri-fingered hands. "Hi, Tanda. Things... well, what's going on? Here, I got you chokolate."

"Oh, that's so sweet... Thank you." Tanda pushed herself up in bed, half in her uniform and half in nothing, the sheets scattered around, she reached for the bulb, uneasily, though. The glaring contrast between innocence, silliness, commitment, loyalty; and the vicious passion of the Director-it could never be more apparent, and again she trembled.

"... You don't look so good." Tali smiled in wistful remembrance at the quilts, reaching down to pull one of the bigger ones over the two of them, and curling her legs under herself as she perched on the edge of the bed. "Did something happen down there? Pirate attack? I hadn't heard anything, but..."

"Is there a good way to explain something you feel horrified over to the woman you love?" She answered, dully. "Perhaps, perhaps... Tali, I slept with Director Isard, she invited me to her garden and before I knew what was happening kissed me, revealed that she had found evidence of my attraction for other women in her files... I don't know if I should have tried harder to get out of it, but I might well have had to kill her, fight to survive, it could have ruined everything and she was _there_ and I thought I'd destroy everything or put you in danger by saying no..."

"... I need to kill that bosh'tet." There was anger in her eyes, her tone, her frame, as she started to stand, a red haze descending across her vision... and then she froze, looking down at Tanda. "... Oh _Tanda_... you... I'm _still_ going to kill her." She knelt down before Tanda, hands trembling slightly as she reached out for her wife's.

"Po-..." She took Tali's hands, and trembled, all the more for what she forced herself to say. "Possession leads to envy and envy leads to hate and hate leads to the Dark Side..."

"... I don't _care_ about that... not right now... don't sound like Master Tasiele. ... Not now, I can't deal with that. She's... oh, but that bosh'tet is going to _pay_..." Tali reached up to pull her wife hard against her, wrapping her arms around Tanda.

Tanda rocked into Tali, sighing softly. She felt very much like her world was a poisoned thing in that moment, luring her back to a poisoned life... She knew what she had to fight for. But it was that very same impulse that had led her to submit to the Director.

"We'll... get through this. And get away from... _her_." still audibly suppressing her anger. "... Quickly. Revenge is... wrong, but... _ooooh,_ that _bosh'tet_!"

"This is proving to be very hard," Tanda mournfully cried, feeling like she was all weakness in that moment. "My deadline has already past, and I feel like I'm running out of time to get _Lusankya_."

"Tanda..." Tali's voice was soft and thick with emotion, as she squeezed the human woman to her. "We'll make it back _with Lusankya_. I promise. I... things are coming to a point, can't you feel it, that... tension, that anticipation? I thought that's what you asked me up here for..."

"I worry that it's something else. I can only feel this darkness, lurking at the edge of my vision, Tali. I'm afraid it might be able to watch me, that it could see me if I draw on the force."

"... We'll just be careful. I... don't feel anything like that, but I've been cautious. I'll stay being cautious... We just... need to hurry. I know it's dangerous, but... we really, really need to not end up entangled in this. We can come back later and try and put things right, but..." _But the Milky Way is burning._

"If Liara's plans come together soon... It isn't just us, but." She squeezed her hands. "I am much more likely to end up _Lusankya_ 's commander now than I was before, Tali."

"I am still going to be far too pleased to throw that woman in a nice secure room somewhere,Tanda. I... for a while there, I was even thinking I'd let Daro'Xen at her, but..." She shuddered, a little.

"It wasn't like she was forcing me exactly. It's just that if I'd said no, I'd have died... Or you would have. No, she thought at some level, I'd want her, she could control me through sex. Like she is rumoured to do with men, and I now think is very much true." She squeezed Tali's hands, shivering and trying to squirm more under the covers.

"That _is_ forcing you! ... Keelah, you're a mess, Tanda." Tali cuddled closer to her, pulling a blanket over them, and turning up the radiative heat-loss from her suit. "She really did a number on you, but I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere... promise."

"Well I'm not completely sure I faked enjoying it, you understand... Tali, I feel... Guilty. To you."

"... Stop _saying_ things like that! You're my _wife_. You said it yourself, one - or both of us - would have died! We'll... _keelah se'lai_ , Tanda."

"Even though I must do it again?" She held onto those gloves like a lifeline, staring into the wall.

"Even though. We have our people, and the home we'll see again, Tanda." She squeezed Tanda's hands in hers, eyes glowing in the dimness of the cabin.

"Stay with me. For a while, at least..."

"For as long as you need me to be, I'm here. I promise."

Tanda snuggled into her wife. "I will stay strong. For our galaxy."

-

Midanyl, it turned out, was the name of a Senate aide of Garm bel Iblis, the Corellian Senator who was a dead legend, the man who had stood up to Palpatine, lost his family to anti-Palpatine fanatics for his trouble, disappeared. She had served him faithfully in life, and disappeared when he did, now commonly thought to be dead.

Garm bel Iblis had declared the Contemplanys Hermi at the start of the Clone Wars, and, it had turned out, he had lived for a while after his disappearance. He had joined the Rebel Alliance... And _quit_ over the concentration of power in Mon Mothma's hands. So the histories now being released by the New Republic said, and all in all, the coincidence of Midanyl's visits Liara had verified to the _Coral Vanda_ by first finding a match for her image and her voice in a holonet broadcast of a major galactic Sabacc tournament, had led to five visits being uncovered in all.

Five visits to the _Coral Vanda_ , and five dreadnoughts. Guri had asked for tickets with the same breath.

 _They do not truly understand how lucky they are in this galaxy..._ Liara T'Soni, the Shadow Broker, leaned back in her chair with a soft sigh. _Shepard would have loved to see this. An ocean world and jungle... so many garden worlds they think little of_ destroying _them. Let us not dwell on the damage to our credit accounts involved in arranging passage for three for three days aboard a very expensive casino submarine. Goddess, so much... mother would have loved it, if only for the people. A world for well-heeled tourists..._

Guri was wearing incredibly skimpy clothing and grinning with a drink in hand. She could play this part very well, as she stepped lightly at Liara's side. "A legend in the galaxy, the _Coral Vanda_ , no doubt about that. Isn't it wonderful? I'd be happy enough with the views even without the gambling."

"It is really... something." She looked down with some distaste at the white satin-like tube-dress she was wearing, holding a drink herself and glancing about. "The view is _incredible_. I have not been in such a place in... a very long time. University on Thessia, perhaps. My time with Shepard has been... in grittier locales." Looking about again, her false eyebrows knitted in a small frown. "People are staring."

"Well, that's kind of the objective. We have to make this gambler want to talk to us," she whispered softly. And in Asari; one advantage of this galaxy was that not knowing the language any random person was speaking in was no cause for suspicion.

"Yes, well. A man losing a lot of money and not caring will not precisely stick out here, unfortunately. Come on, we've got three days to find him... and gain his confidence. With fewer credits than I would prefer." Liara quietly hissed back. _At least without Shepard, the odds we end having to blow up up the ship are... much lower._

"We're over-thinking this. Come on, let's go find an unattended crew console." She slipped her arm into Liara's and started off.

"... I wonder if consoles here have the same weakness to omnigel that they did back home... _that_ would make things easier. Unless you... _ah_." She looked down to the arm, and up to Guri. "... Of course, less attention this way."

"Precisely." She wandered away. "We should be able to hack it, no matter what," she added in a lower tone. Being able to use Asari was at least a momentary advantage, as Guri added, a moment later, "are you going to try first, or me?"

"By all means, you're more familiar with systems architecture in this galaxy, and I... am unique enough to draw attention away from you if it becomes necessary."

"I'm glad we keep all of this polite," Guri smiled wryly. They wandered through the halls of the Coral Vanda until she found an interface console at one of the passenger assistance kiosks which wasn't presently crewed in the residential sections, and moved to sit down. "The best way to deal with it is to act stupid... Like you were supposed to be here, or it was an open terminal."

"Yes. I am told I seem somewhat..." Liara trailed off, and glanced about, before leaning against the kiosk. "I do not seem like I am who I am, or capable of what I do. I was an archeologist when Shepard found me and introduced me to an all new world of... let's go with... _adventure._ "

"You are indeed very deceptive. You have, as I recall, met some Rutian Twi'leks before and are also aware that... Blue-skinned humanoid females have certain assumptions about them made here. You are exotic. Hrmm, as I expected, the security measures are oriented toward protecting the gambling operations."

"Asari have a similar reputation in our own galaxy... which is somewhat justified. But that is a conversation for another time, I think. Thankfully we have no need to attack such measures head-on." Wide blue eyes glanced down to a civilian datapad. "Still, we should hurry."

"...And, _there_. I have the complete customer loyalty database." Guri got back up quickly and brushed her hair back, just in time, too, as an attendant returned to the area, staring at the console, then back at Guri.

"...Is something a matter?"

"Oh, I just thought this was a public data-terminal."

"We only have those on D deck, Miss. Not many people need them here. Do you want me to give you directions?"

"D deck - no, I'll find one there. Thank you!"

"I _told_ you we weren't going the right way..." Rolling her eyes, Liara took Guri's arm again with a grin. "She _never_ listens. Thank you! Come on, let's go back down." Her posture had _shifted_ markedly - her tone somewhat more airheaded than normal.

Guri took it passively, but was clearly pleased as they got back to their suite. "Now, let's just match people who were on-board during the exact same times as the suspected visits from Midanyl."

"Let us hope there are not _that_ many, or this _will_ get much more difficult..." let me..." She paused, looked up, and fished in her luggage. "Shielded omni-tool. You may find it useful."

"If we are to work together... we need all the advantages we can get. Glyph, cross-reference and send the list to my omni-tool."

Guri took it, and started to work from the cross-referenced data, her fingers turning to a blur. She had memorized the list by, well, memorizing it. "Six individuals presently aboard."

"Let's eliminate the ones who it is impossible to be - and see who's left..." She checked the intelligence database then - crossing out the known impossibilities who could not have found a fleet during the years in question - and seeing who was left.

"Three." Guri projected the faces. "Here, let's see if we can solve it by going to the next step. I think it is very unlikely that the man who found the Katana fleet was rich before doing it." All three of the faces were of men. "So let's see if any of them had their fortunes from clearly defined sources."

"Stand by..." She ran the check, face intent at her screen as the dossiers flipped past.

 _Hoffner_.

"... Here. No real source of income, working in 'independent trading'... but now he's _here_. A regular customer, and regular loser too, it looks like. He's our best match."

"Then let's go pay the 'independent trader' a visit. That means smuggler, by the way."

"I doubt he will be pleased to see us. Still." Liara's lips quirked into a smile. "I am not unfamiliar with the concept, though not so the execution. Shepard will be sad she missed this, though this entire galaxy is safer for her remaining where we came from."

"I am not sure I wish to meet this walking engine of destruction."

"A wise goal - if you did, you might find yourself wondering several weeks later just how you ended up blasting your way out of so many suicidal situations." Her smile was a bit lopsided, as Liara walked along beside Guri. "In truth, she would love to meet you. EDI would as well."

"Why is that? And who is EDI?" The look came off as quite quizzical, really.

"Shepard because she is honestly fascinated by new people... as dangerous as she is. EDI is the unshackled AI of Shepard's ship. Who... acquired a... platform not dis-similar to your own, if badly fire-damaged. Shepard is a... unique woman, shall we say, with interesting friends."

"I'd be pleased to meet EDI. You'll have to win me over to another genius with a penchant for killing." Guri, after all, had her own backstory, and she didn't need another Luke Skywalker in her life.


	77. Chapter 77

Sleeping in a hotel on Thessia was a strange experience in the middle of this war. Stranger still was the nuked-out city further on, which people were simply trying to live around. At some point a little further down, the power grid was gone, and then the buildings became progressively more destroyed around a blackened pit. But a large conference district near the heart of the Thessian City of Roxanos, there was still a simulacrum of the organised city-life of a prosperous Asari State. Of course, like all the other cities, it was no capitol of the planet. In fact, it was merely the least damaged of the large independent cities.

It had made a good place for a conference, though. The people of Thessia still had a dazed and shellshocked look around the city. The innocence of the Asari was gone. Shepard couldn't help but feel that for all she wished Liara to be here, for Liara to see her homeworld liberated, she would still be saddened by it. Shepard was, though she knew they had pulled off something incredible to begin with in liberating the planet at all with the Reaper war continuing. Her attempt to be positive was stymied by the lack of Liara and Tali. Garrus was there, Wrex was there, Ashley and the others. There was no Legion, though, and Liara and Tali left a hole which the sometimes comical banter of Samantha Traynor and EDI could not fill.

Overhead in the night's sky, the great fleet still lurked. Run by a sometimes bickering committee, the commanders and leaders had come down to the surface to try and sort out a new plan of action. So far any effort at resolution had eluded them. Tanda Pryl's deadline for returning had come and gone, however, and Tasiele was gone as a unifying voice. Certainly, there were plenty of good reasons to wait, but even Shepard was feeling called. The Crucible was now ready. They had to try it... Didn't they? What if Earth was lost? Its population slaughtered entirely? What if Tanda was never coming back?

Atarah Shepard had heard the arguments plenty of times. She also understood the impulse that waiting according to orders was the best shot. That Tanda's objections to the Crucible might well be quite well founded and it was more dangerous than a salvation. And that the resistance on Earth was, for the moment, still doing well. All of these things were precisely why no consensus had been obtained yet, and still seemed elusive. What were you supposed to do when your home was under the thumb of a horrifying alien intelligence slowly reducing the population to husks and goo?

For the Alliance personnel, after the liberation of Thessia it was obvious that their duty was to attack. Shepard was outright starting to feel a bit treasonous, dressed in her Imperial uniform and arguing that they wait. She was legally dead...

Otherwise it would be treason.

With a soft groan, she rolled over in bed, finding, again, no comfort. Though the horrifying nightmares had been stopped, all was not well. The agonising about the course of action to take was steadily working away at her. In the end, she reached for the sleeping pills Dr. Chakwas had given her, and drifted off to sleep.

"Shep, what are you doing!? AIIE!"

Shepard started and twisted in bed, fighting the sleeping pills as a horrifying sense of danger filled her. She saw Kasumi staggering with blood on her. And she saw herself. And she felt an incredible sense of danger. The sense forced her to act. She lunged, flinging herself into herself and knocking herself down... Just in time, as a wavering lightsabre venting plasma ignited that would have otherwise sliced Kasumi in two.

Instead it took out a chair, and Shepard started punching herself in the face. "What are you doing!? Who are you!?"

A gloved fist came up, and she went flying through the air, the doppleganger leaping to her feet. "Claiming what is mine, soulless cyborg bitch!"

Shepard staggered back to her feet, and tried to reach out with the force for her lightsabre. She felt herself blocked by the power of the woman before her, and Tasiele's words came back to her. _A powerful Jedi you would have been, without these cybernetics_...

 _Oh shit._

...And then the lightsabre came toward her anyway, despite her lack of volition. The doppleganger stared in astonishment and anger, trying repeatedly to stop it. Instead, it was in Shepard's hand.

"There you go, Shep!" a gasping, wounded voice came from under the cloak. Kasumi had just _carried_ it, and the doppleganger hadn't used enough strength to stop her from walking. The wounded thief retreated, and Shepard faced herself with Bastila Shan's lightsabre.

There was at least a look of surprise on her doppleganger's face when the _second_ blade ignited. "What do you want, really?"

"You. I mean it. I just want to replace you. You've betrayed humanity because you were cyborged. Our people are dying. You've taken the prestige and power of being a Spectre and turned it into convincing people to obey our Imperial overlords who are leaving us to DIE. You need to _go_ , and there's only one place secure enough to take you-Sheol!"

She rushed toward Shepard, and the two clashed with yellow and red blades flashing and arcing. Shepard, slow and unsteady on her feet, concentrated to try and clear her head, falling straight back onto her ass on the bed, but blocking a flurry of blows—and then kicking up to drive her doppleganger back long enough to rise again. Bracing her feet, she parried the next attack.

Every single time she tried to attack, though, her doppleganger seemed to know about it before it happened. Her ability to use the force was much better, and as tips of blades spun through furniture and arced the walls of the hotels, the shouts of Asari outside came to them, trying to respond to the commotion in a Spectre's bedroom.

"Your plan is in the process of failing!" Atarah shouted to her doppleganger. "You know it! You can't just kill me and replace me now! It would have never worked, you know?" The blades skittered and cut into the wall, before Atarah used the second to threaten with a lunge close enough to send her doppleganger falling back. "Would you have killed Doctor Chakwas when she noticed the lack of implants!?"

"Anything to have a _life_ —which you don't! You can't really know the force!"

She stabbed low with the blade, and Shepard felt her boot flash and burn from the strike before she batted it clear. The two separated for a moment. "You can? You have nobody to teach you! I..." She wracked her brain for what could impact her clone. "Are you going to tell mother you killed your identical twin sister!?"

"Identical twin sister? You're the _cyborg_ who _stole my life!_ "

"What if she doesn't see it that way? What if mother likes having identical twin daughters?" Despite the appeal, though, Shepard watched as her doppleganger lunged forward again. She was ready for it, but the blades clashed as shots started to echo from the locked door, an Asari commando response squad trying to burst in. A bedroom was a terribly small place to have a fight in...

The other Shepard knew it.

"You don't have enough skill in the force yet do you? Nobody to train you! You need more than that to fight them... C'mon, you're not indoctrinated, stand down!"

She smiled, lowered her lightsabre... And then kicked Shepard out the window.

Shepard felt herself falling, and falling, tumbling down the stories of the building in wide-eyed shock. Then she remembered a story Tali had told about Tanda on Illium.

A bit of helpful confirmation came from the other Shepard appearing, leaping out of the window after her. She clearly thought that _she_ could do it. Shepard centred herself into the force... And landed gracefully on her feet, though heavily with her cybernetics surging in complaint. It hadn't been perfect, but the pain faded fast and there was no snapping sound of bone. She called Bastila Shan's lightsabre back to her and ignited her.

Her doppleganger hit the ground and ignited her own. Now in the middle of the street, Asari went running for cover as the two women charged each other, Shepard trailing one blade, the other high, and then swinging them in a whirl at her opponent. Somehow, she was in just the right spot, and again Shepard was flung back by the raw aggression of her doppleganger... Her clone.

Had to be. _Had to be_. The probable culprit came to her in a flash of insight. "The Illusive Man made you! Did you know he's been indoctrinated?! He doesn't serve humanity anymore either, he serves the Reapers!"

"And you serve the _Emperor_ , fifty-one million planets locked in the grip of galactic totalitarianism! Some great heir to Jewish freedom fighters YOU ARE!"

"No, I don't. I serve Tanda Pryl, because she's the only one willing to see we're all sentient beings and Earth is no more important than Palaven!"

"TRAITOR!" The clone lunged forward again... And an arcing burst of energy came out of nowhere.

 _Kasumi!_ Shepard gasped, and raced forward, herself. Instead of crippling, disabling, or killing her doppleganger, it just knocked the woman down... And with the force she sent Kasumi toppling and flung the lightsabre toward her.

Shepard blocked it, skittering across the ground. And then she batted it back at her clone. "I don't want to disarm you!" She shouted. "I don't want to kill you!"

The doppleganger rose, staggering, holding the blade unsteadily. And then another voice cut down to the end of the street. An older woman, running as hard as she could, in an Alliance uniform. "STOP! Stand down! Stand back!" She was holding a blaster pistol, clashing with the rest of her uniform.

Hannah.

"Mother?"

"Mother!?"

She skidded to a stop looking at the two, as Kasumi decloaked and climbed to her feet at the older Shepard's side, punching her side and trying to tighten a band of fabric woven over a wound dripping blood. Hannah reached out to help support her.

"Th-thanks... You're as nice as Shep. Hope I don't bleed out..." Kasumi shivered and held her side, looking close to fainting. A cautious sense of decorum lent her the energy to adjust her hood, and Hannah helped her to the ground.

Then she faced the two versions of her daughter. "What is going on!? _Right now_!"

"She's trying to ki-"

"She's trying to ki-"

The two looked at each other and Hannah shook her head furiously. "Nobody should be trying to kill nobody! Stand down, both of you! Nobody's dead yet and that's the way it should stay..."

Shepard's doppleganger looked across at Hannah, then at Atarah. "But I'm the real Shepard!"

"I don't care who the 'real' Shepard is, you've both got my genes! Shut up and listen! You're making me ashamed of you!" She walked between the two of them, glaring. "Are you going to kill _me_?"

The doppleganger hesitated for a moment... And deactivating her lightsabre, turned and ran.

"No, wait! Don't!" Hannah started running after her. "I don't want you to leave, either! We don't need that!"

Atarah tried to follow, but soon found herself falling behind. A minute later she caught up with her mother, anyway, standing there and fuming furiously.

"Why did she run? I... Kasumi sent a message when she escaped the first time, what is going on, Tara?"

"When I was... Dead, I guess the Illusive Man cloned me."

"Sure, fine, but _why are you fighting!?_ "

"She tried to kill me!"

"She's got your genes!" Mother and daughter stared at each other for a moment.

Shepard sighed and shook her head. "Yeah, I know. I... I'll try to find her again and convince her you mean it. I said..."

"I heard! Kasumi had a feed going. Guess what – you know your mother." She panted, and started laughing half-insanely. "The government has been destroyed, the galaxy is wrecked, Earth is occupied by aliens who are genociding the human race, and my daughter has her clone chasing her around trying to kill her! The fleet doesn't prepare you for this one, 'Tara."

"No, mom, it never did." Shepard dropped to her knees, coughing and laughing at once.

"C'mon, Tara, let's get your Doctor Chakwas to take a look at you. And make sure someone is taking a look at Miss Goto!" She offered her arm.

Shepard was very glad for the help.

-

"Well, Captain Hoffner, it appears your luck has run out for today," Guri spoke softly as she finished at the table. "I'm quite sorry about that," she added as she pulled the chits over to herself. "But so the cards go."

"So the cards go," he sighed into his brandy, occasionally stealing looks at Guri. "Ah, but it was so nice to play with such a fine cards lady, and fine lady in general."

"You're welcome. You're quite the raconteur over a table, and you keep your cool."

"Had trouble with cards before?"

"I've played in some pretty rough places," Guri answered. "How about you?"

"My scrapes were more off the cards table, Ma'am." He rubbed his forehead, gazed a bit tiredly at her.

She kept her own look level, her tone neutral. "So were mine. The kind of scrapes which can be solved with fleets, as a matter of fact. And I haven't quite left the business."

"Fleets." His eyes were hooded as he cautiously repeated the word. "Fleets."

"I haven't quite left the business. A few more solutions left in the galaxy... With the right fleets."

"Did you come from Peregrine?" He got up from the table and followed her as she went to cash in the chits. Security looked at him—losers following winners usually meant trouble—but Guri waved them off. Once she got her credits, she gestured to the hallway.

"I did not," she answered. "I have my own agenda. And my own credits. Would you come talk to my association with me?"

"Certainly... I need the money now," he added with a light, nervous laugh. "Fleets are a tall order, but I can certainly provide ships."

"More than one, yes?"

"Maybe." He watched in interest as they headed to one of the lower cost suites. That did not match the profile. But the door slid open... And Liara was waiting. He started, recognising the unfamiliar species of alien. Liara was still quite unique here.

"So I see you two _are_ in cahoots. Or together." A snort, and he invited himself to sit. "Ships."

"We know you have the location of the Katana Fleet," Liara said simply. "It is an incredible achievement."

Hoffner stiffened sharply. "I have no such thing..."

"Don't lie," Guri replied, moving to sit as well, and offering no threat despite the sharpness of the words. "Peregrine is buying dreadnoughts from you. We'd like to buy their locations."

"Of Peregrine? I don't play those kinds of deals," Hoffner answered irritably.

"You know what I meant!"

Liara smiled smoothly. "We'd like to _buy_ the location of the Katana Fleet. Or this alternative source of dreadnoughts that you've found."

"Buy the location. So you can sell them yourselves when the galaxy gets even more desperate for ships? I don't think so. Here; I'll sell you two dreadnoughts at once. You can come back for more later if you want. Same terms that Peregrine got."

The two women exchanged a glance, and Guri hastily nodded and smiled. "Well, thank you for being honest with us, Captain Hoffner. We just needed to make sure the ships would be adequate. Could you perhaps manage three at once?"

"No; two is a stretch. I've been selling them one at a time to Peregrine, only; who you seem to be very well appraised of, I might add. So, you'll get two, or you'll get none at all."

"I see. We must, of course, specify a rendezvous to which the ships will be delivered," Liara added smoothly, not sure what Guri's plan was, but trusting her.

"Name the system. Make sure it's remote and far away from government entanglements."

Liara stiffened. Then she smiled. "The Asation system."

Hoffner _stared_. "If that's what you want. I hope you're not planning to re-sale them to the Gree..."

Both women stared, hard.

"...though quite frankly if that's what you wish it's of no great concern to me," Hoffner waved his hands idly. "Please. Asation it is. The cost, though..."

When he left, Guri stared hard at the door until it closed. Then she spoke: "If I get even one of the ships, I will be able to send a message to summon the rest of the fleet—the parts that are operational, that is. Now the question is how we are possibly going to find that much money."

Liara looked back to her very calmly. "...Do you think you could win it in a sabacc tournament, Guri?"

-

It was another strange day. And by strange, it was a day spent far from her wife, on the surface of Thyferra, in the arms of a woman so cold Tanda thought that she had to have suffered some horrible wounds of her own long in the past, far too long ago to intervene with who she was now, too long ago to excuse her, but surely the cause for such a personality. She tried to have sympathy, for sympathy made her warmer to the woman, and so she focused on what she imagined Ysanne Isard must have suffered, and tried to forget who she was.

Tanda rolled out of bed at some lazy point long into yet another hot night, pulling a bathrobe on herself but not bothering to tie it closed. Ysanne was getting _better_ at this, far too quickly to be truly comfortable. She stepped forward to the dresser, uncorking a bottle of table water kept in ice and pouring it out into a glass, watching it bubble. It didn't taste as good as the water from Terra, she thought, idly. "I hope you enjoyed yourself all the more today, Ysanne," she murmured, softly, and turned back. She had put all her effort into pleasing the woman, regarding that at the very least her life depended upon it.

"It was... comfortable." The other woman sat up with a slow stretch, not bothering to cover herself as she reached for a datapad. At least somewhat discomfited at what she was reading, by the look on her face. "... Another failed attempt to hurt the Rebels, it seems." Tossing the pad back to the side, she held her hand out for the glass. "Despite the smallest vessel, you prove the most successful."

"I started my career as a Captain on the Rim with a Carrack -More time in the class than in ISDs. And I'm certainly very determined to stabilise the situation." She shrugged. "We need more ships, competent starfighters. Especially the later. Do you want anything while I'm up...?" She had detected the subtle cues that Isard was far more used to demanding partners. _Male_ partners. At its most absurd, Tanda had come to realise this entire relationship was a strange shadow play from both sides. But admitting that was tantamount to death-either way. For her. For Tali. And for far far many more people.

"Mmm. Just the water... unless you've some farrberries." Her face flicked into a soft frown. "Ships are _not_ possible. Fighters... what does it _matter_ when you have so many... well, my other captains have so much more firepower than the Rebels. Incompetents, all of them."

She ducked back to the mini-chiller and fished around for a bowl. _Taste in berries. Of all the things to share._ With the water in the other hand, she walked back to the side of the bed and sat htem down for Isard. "Of course, Ysanne. I was thinking of mercenary starfighter pilots who thus have sufficient experience, myself. Distasteful, but if they manage to get themselves killed fighting Rogue squadron it would _especially_ not matter."

"... _Mercenaries._ Has the vaunted Navy slipped so low as to need their aid?" Isard sighed, darkly, reaching for one of the fruits and popping it into her mouth. "Why you, why have none of the others mentioned this... need? All I have had is Dlarit asking for _Rebel_ starfighters to equip her units! As if those of the Empire were not good enough for her!"

"...Ysanne, the Imperial starfighters were optimised for when the Empire controlled the galaxy. In that case, the economics of mass production, the requirement for presence duties everywhere, the need to maintain force levels regardless of attrition meaning pilots did not need much invested in them-the TIE was the solution for the times. We... Aren't in those times anymore. I don't know when we will be again."

She stepped around to the other side of the bed and crawled into it again. She had at least started regaining her appetite, mostly with the help of the excellent food at Isard's table.

"You and Dlarit _both_... The other woman _growled_ and threw her hands up. "Do _you_ also declare the Rebels to have stronger vessels than _I_ could acquire?" Glaring, the other woman's red eye seemed somehow to glow with fury.

"There is nothing in the galaxy like an _Executor_. Never will be, never can be. _Lusankya_ is the finest ship in the spaceways. But, Ysanne, it isn't stronger, it's just different. They make a dozen different kind of hydrospanners for different jobs. TIE Fighters are one kind and hyperdrive equipped shielded heavy fighters are another. Please. You have done feats I can't imagine to keep the Empire together, you've reinvented yourself from the midst of treachery to establish control over the Bactacorps. I'm not doubting you-I'm just offering specialist technical information that would be beneath your concerns in most circumstances."

"And justly so," Tanda elaborated a moment later.

"She's ruined, now." Muttering under her breath, Isard sounded almost petulant at the mention of her Super Star Destroyer. "The Empire is _lost_ , Tanda." It was the first time she had ever used the Commodore's name, and the Coruscanti woman sounded slightly unbalanced as she did. "You want me to let her buy _Rebel_ snubfighters. That would have been treason to advocate, once."

"...She is not ruined, I could..." She trailed off and flushed. "A sorry ship, but they have been turned around from that state before, Ysanne. Aye, I know the Empire is lost. It can be remade, however. And by your hand. Mercenaries, and if you do not want X-wings, Preybirds. Please, Ysanne. We should have no hesitation in fighting for every possible advantage, surely? I want to win you whatever you have planned - and do it well."

"She is ruined. _Soiled_ since that man escaped! Do _not_ contradict me." Again, there was a warning tone, and a flaring glare in her eye. "... Tell Vorru. He can make the arrangements for mercenaries. If they turn on us, however... I would prefer you not suffer your inevitable fate if that were to happen. Choose carefully." She leaned back on her pillow, looking at the overhead. "I want these so-called Rogues _destroyed_. That is what is _achievable_ , amongst what I want."

"... And tell Vorru to allow Dlarit her craft, but they shall _not_ be aboard any of _my_ ships!"

"Understood, Ysanne. Forgive me for not understanding. I will get the very most reliable, who are in it for the glory of fighting Rogue Squadron more than the money." She paused and tried to take a breath, pushing into the pillows and the bedboard as Isard raged so close to her.

"When they are crushed. What then, what then is for us... both?"

There was a long silence after that question, that seemed to stretch on forever, before Isard finally replied in a near-monotone . "... T-then the Empire will rise again, and the natural order of things will again be established."

Tanda bowed her head. "I would be honoured to live to see it be so at your side, Ysanne." _She doesn't even know herself..._ Even with the treachery that Tanda was planning and quietly trying to justify in her heart by Necessity, she was stunned by the realisation. _The only thing left to wash down with the water is ash._

-

"We must attack now." Hackett stood before the assembled Councilors, Ambassadors, Admirals. Their expressions were grim.

"We've delayed almost a month now without a sign of Grand Moff Pryl's return. Admiral Daro'Xen has no word from her. What she does have is evidence that the 'Galactic Empire' has collapsed into chaos from its own internal contradictions," Hackett continued. "Realistically, we cannot expect help, nor even necessarily the Grand Moff's return. And we are all in this together. But we do have the Crucible."

A holoplot illuminated the pseudo-spheroid construct. "All fleets, both upgraded and not—one massive assault on Earth. The Citadel is locked in geostationary orbit over the city of London, United Kingdom. A transfer beam is... Bringing victims for processing. It is an access point into the Citadel. It will be necessary to infiltrate a team aboard the Citadel to activate the Crucible as it is brought in to dock."

Atarah Shepard stepped forward, wearing the armour of a Spectre and grimacing. Captain Turla and Admiral Shala'Raan were both glaring at her—well, the second was inferred from the way their heads tracked together.

"Captain Shepard," Hackett offered, using her Imperial rank, "Will be leading a special commando force to seize the beam. We understand from contacts on the surface of Earth that a strong resistance force exists even around London, and measures are being undertaken to stiffen it. Thus, the landing force will rendezvous with the resistance fighters to advance to the base of the beam."

He demonstrated the positions of the fleet next. "The whole strength of the unmodified fleet will jump with the Crucible and will be used to execute the escort mission to bring the Crucible to dock with the Citadel as it is designed. Hyperdrive-equipped forces will arrive in the system first and will conduct landings on the far side of the planet to draw the Reaper forces into a disadvantageous position and a battle they cannot win in time to intervene with the Crucible operation. The presence of the Imperial forces, make no mistake, is a critical factor to transforming this risky operation into a more certain one."

Shala'Raan rose. "Admiral Hackett, while I appreciate the effort you have put into this mission, the fact remains that we are here to decide on its execution. You are taking that decision for granted."

"I am, Admiral," he looked to her sharply. "I am because we have run out of time. Earth and Palaven will be dead within another two months. The ability to sustain resistance forces in the field is almost over, and when it ends, the mass killing will begin. We must launch this operation within the next week, or there is not going to be an Earth, or a Palaven, left to save. The Crucible is a unique weapon using the Mass Relays to have galactic reach. It _must_ be deployed for us to be truly confident of defeating the Reapers. Gentlebeings, as the Grand Moff would have said—Gentlebeings. We have the capability. By waiting out of fear of something the Protheans and many other cycles worked on, a collective effort of both the galaxy and history, we are dooming our present. We _need to act._ "

One by one the representatives declared their support. Asari, Turians, Humans, Salarians, Krogan, Hanar, Batarians, the surviving Elcor representative. Representatives of multiple governments.

But silently watching them was an iron wing – Captain Turla for the Empire, Governor Jerlak for the civilian territories, Shala'Raan herself, and the Geth. And it was one of the Geth units that stepped forward. "Hackett-Admiral. We appreciate the dire situation of your people and your motherworld. We also, however, appreciate the confidence of the analysis which Pryl-Grand Moff provided to us before her departure. An attempt to utilise the Crucible may have profound unforseen consequences. And even in the state of disorder described in the home galaxy of the Empire, powerful resources remain. For example a Star Dreadnought of the type Pryl-Grand Moff described remains under construction at the Kuat Drive Yards. She may simply be encountering severe delays in recruiting crew for that vessel. Her allegiance is to this galaxy; she has made sacrifices that no individual interested only in personal power would make. She will actively seek out any advantage, with either side in the great Galactic Civil War, possible to obtain the objective of defeating the Old Machines. With our fleet in being, many worlds cannot be attacked. We should remain on the defensive."

"While I appreciate your contribution to the war effort," Hackett replied, "the fact is that we simply cannot wait. I may have faith that Grand Moff Pryl remains committed to doing her utmost to assist us. But she has not been able to do so in time. The galaxy has voted, and we must launch this attack."

Shala'Raan folded her arms and sighed. "Admiral Hackett, while I appreciate your attempts to keep humanity unified and to bring the Crucible to fruition, the tactical situation for our fleet in main battle with the Reapers remains poor. Even with the _Bra'katorja_ , fighting defensively at a location of our choosing and with substantial assistance from the Susskind-Tirii Supercollider, we almost lost. Now, with the _Bra'katorja_ not at full combat capability..."

"Then please bring her up to it, Admiral," Hackett answered. "Recall Admiral Daro'Xen so that the _Bra'katorja_ may be the main long-range firepower of our fleet."

"Then how will Grand Moff Pryl return? Indeed, if we fail, should we not have a reserve, a second chance? A last hope for the galaxy?"

"We cannot risk the now for those potentials, Admiral," Hackett answered stiffly. "We are going to attack. We have no idea if Grand Moff Pryl is even alive to return. One week. Please prepare the Quarian and Imperial forces appropriately; you have agreed to stand with us, and now is the time that it will count and the Quarian people will reestablish themselves as one of the core great races of the galaxy."

"I will confer with Admiral Daro'Xen," Shala'Raan answered quietly, and turned away, taking the Imperials and Ovans with her.

As they walked, Captain Turla leaned close to the figure who had remained in the background during the meeting. "Commander Sevaras, we have had our disagreements. But you are a reliable officer, and you are in touch with the force."

"That is correct, Captain," the Twi'lek answered stiffly, as they walked.

"What is that super-weapon going to do?"

"I sense nothing good in this course, Captain."

Turla smiled thinly. "Then I will make sure to make some good happen. One week, they say."

"One week."


	78. Chapter 78

The three women had tracked down a major Sabacc tournament starting three days later on Antar IV that they had made just in time. Some redevelopers taking advantage of the new New Republic administration had built a large new casino at Temba Port in an effort to respond to the collapse in regular shipping traffic and the end of forced labour on the planetary super-ag plantations that supplied food to the Core. The result was a gaudy, brand new casino holding a massive tournament as a publicity stunt to draw in the best gamblers in the galaxy and encourage the lesser sorts—ideally, people like Captain Hoffner—to follow suit and waste as much money as possible.

Sometimes when Liara heard these things, she was still astounded at the galaxy she was in. Notions of sapient rights seemed completely suppressed, and the agelessness of the regime made democracy seem like a tradition instead of something anyone actually believed in. The New Republic had at least ended forced labour... Privately, Liara was acutely aware that she had fallen in with the wrong side at this point, though she still felt personal loyalty to Tanda Pryl.

Guri, for her part, had prepared by having Glyph pull records of every single Sabacc style on the planet and reproduce famous games for her to memorise. Liara was good with cards, but had only recently started on sabacc; Guri, on the other hand, could collate almost every plan on the planet, execute them flawlessly. And have the perfect face, betraying nothing. If she wasn't Guri, the premier HRD in the galaxy with biological skin, she would have been kept several klicks from the tournament for security reasons.

Instead she'd be playing in it. The problem was that Sabacc and the underworld went hand in hand. She _fully_ expected people to be there who'd recognize her. Black, curled hair and dark lenses were sufficient against that, in principle, and she adjusted the tone of her voice as well, which Liara found mildly creepy. There was nothing more to be done except to trust that it would be sufficient. Guri was certainly confident that nobody would figure out she was a droid unless they saw through the disguise and had previously known she was one. That was a short list.

Unfortunately, as they moved to check into the hotel, Liara pulling the tournament entry fee from one of Tanda's bank accounts for Guri and Gillian handling the luggage, a complication arrived in fine style, his cape fluttering as he strode through the lobby, a beautiful woman in a black jumpsuit at his side, her hair held back by a beaded hairpiece that held the curly strands in place, her skin the same shade as his, the mustachioed figure with high hair, his clothes the finest silk done up in an evening suit below the cape. Two guards hung back.

He was approaching Liara. "My lovely lady, I do not believe that I have ever seen your race before, and I confess your people must have a very fine aesthetic sense to combine that dress with your natural features so well. Please, are you here to observe or shall I be having to face you as a rival?"

Liara stared for a moment. "I..."

"Oh, do forgive me. If you're from the outer rim you may not know. I am Baron General Lando Calrissian—A gambler by trade, but my biggest gamble you may have heard about was this little mission destroying the Death Star."

Liara couldn't help it. Her eyes widened, and before she knew it, Lando swept her up, Guri hastily following to the side. "My species are called the Asari, and we are most assuredly from Unknown Regions," she answered. "I am Doctor Liara T'Soni."

"Liara," Lando repeated with a brilliant smile, which held as his eyes traveled on to Guri. "And who is your friend? I admit, she seems a little familiar to me."

"Kaylata Sunfire," Guri offered with a glint to falsely dark eyes. "And I, like you, are most assuredly a gambler by trade. Perhaps we met on the side of a tournament in the past."

"Ahh, so you're working with a _rival_ ," Lando chuckled as he walked on toward the bar with Liara. "Well, let me assure you I have no intention of taking this personally. If I may be inquisitive, could I know what your doctorate is in, Doctor T'Soni?"

"Xenoarchaeology."

"Well then! What is a respectable Xenoarchaeologist doing around all of us gamblers?"

This time, Liara recovered enough to grin smoothly. "I'm interested in the culture of sabacc. Kaylata let me help her for the chance to record."

"And it will be quite enjoyable to face _the_ Lando Calrissian, I assure you," Guri offered with a somewhat avaricious grin.

"Well don't you worry then, 'cause I'm going to show you _everything_ that makes me famous. There's been enough fighting the Empire for my taste, and I'm trying to get back into private business." For a moment, his eyes were hooded, and Liara, catching it, saw that for all his public persona, he had seen war, and seen it hard and at its worst.

Liara smiled faintly as they moved to a table, Lando ordering drinks for the three and his aide on the fly as he went to sit. His guards headed out to more unobtrusive spots, also outside of the security perimeter for the Sabacc tournament. "So you're confident there's enough money in the tournament to get back into a business as legendary as..."

"Cloud City? Why certainly. I've already got my eye on a few opportunities, let me assure you. These days, we've at least made the galaxy safe for business from the arrival of pesky Sith Lords. That was my key motivation in fighting with the Alliance."

Guri smiled. "I'm also in it for rather high stakes, I assure you, Baron Calrissian. It will be interesting to see you on the floor."

"My dear, I think your presence makes this tournament very interesting indeed," Lando flashed a grin. "I still think that I've seen you before, by the way..."

"Really, it just had to be on the side of something, I'm afraid," Guri repeated. "It is a shame though that we've never made our acquaintance before. What table are you starting at?"

"Fourteen."

"Twenty-three," Guri replied. "Well, good. We're far enough out to face each other at the final table."

"And I hope very much you'll make it, Miss Sunfire. I assure you I will be glad to welcome you to where the champions play."

Guri raised her glass. "To Lady Luck."

"The name of my ship," Lando laughed. "I'll always toast to her."

"I hope she isn't as fickle as her namesake, Baron Calrissian."

A brilliant laugh. "Ah well, me and Lady Luck have a special relationship you'll shortly see. Both of them."

-

Commander Sevaras came as requested to _Conqueror_. She was escorted to Captain Turla's private office immediately. Turla was pouring out glasses of brandy as he regarded her. "Commander."

"Captain Turla, thank you." The Twi'lek sat uncomfortably, acutely aware that Turla was one of the old school Imperial officers who surely had held her in contempt. But now they found themselves as strange allies.

"The Quarian Admiralty is at a loss how to proceed. It is true that Grand Moff Pryl is late, unconsciably late. But she is executing her mission. The Quarian Admirals are Imperial Admirals, in their view, and they have direct orders. They are being asked to disobey them to execute Hackett's plan of attack. As am I."

"What of Governor Jerlak?"

"He would nominally have the authority to override Grand Moff Pryl if she was lost in action," Turla answered. "Of course, he is a coward who allowed his planet to be cowed by the Nightsisters for decades because of the fear and confusion over their stellar position, the aftereffects of the Infinity Wave, and generally the reverence and fear accord to Force users by the late Republic."

"The Quarians will not act without orders from Grand Moff Pryl. Jerlak's authority would be irregular at best, Captain," Kesalia replied.

"I'm glad you agree." Turla folded his hands, smelling his brandy. "Of course, there is the reality that the Crucible is a grave and extreme threat. You recall Grand Moff Pryl's conversations about it?"

"The fear that the device is a Reaper trap."

"Precisely so. The Mass Relays allow its effect to be projected across every known inhabited planet in the galaxy, and probably many others within their range. Our shields might hold it, but how do we know? I am working on the assumption that it is a deadly trap."

"That we'll all be husks after it goes off." Kesalia rocked back, shaking her head and then brushing a lekku back into place. "Yeah. I feel it as well, Captain."

"Because of that, I believe we should report to the Quarian Admirals that they should participate—not Hackett's plan, but on a critical operation to save this entire galaxy. That is to say: Once the Crucible is in place, we are going to swing around the planet—like we did at Endor, it will only take a couple minutes. Come in point-blank and engage the Reapers that the Council forces are fighting. That thing is a giant flying bomb, it will be unshielded attached to the Citadel. A few stray heavy turbolaser bolts will be enough, and for added bonus, the incredible energy stored within means that it will explode with enough power to destroy most of the defending Reapers. Assuming the loss of the Citadel does not disable the Reapers. That would be a rather nice bonus."

"Then what's my place?"

"This is going to require precision targeting, Commander. I need a starfighter there to help target the turbolasers on the ideal position for the shot—and also so that there is no record of the shot in the computer banks of the _Conqueror_."

"So you want me to provide targeting data on a Reaper... That's really on the Crucible." Kesalia closed her eyes.

"That's correct, Commander. Indeed, from my interpretation of our operational orders, I ought to _order_ you to execute it. But this seems rather more wise."

"I can do it, yes. I must, even. What about Captain Shepard?" She reached up to adjust her leather headdress and felt the weight of the world press down on her shoulders.

"I am sympathetic to the unfortunate position that she has found herself in. You will just need to make sure that _Conqueror_ has the targeting data before it becomes necessary for us to turn her into collateral damage."

She drank, and then kept looking down at her glass. "I can do it. I can do it before it puts the lives of Shepard and her team at risk. I'm confident of it."

"Good. With luck we will deal a severe conventional defeat to the Reapers, land even more supplies to the resistance on Earth, and position ourselves well when Grand Moff Pryl arrives with reinforcements. With very great fortune, we will watch the Reapers shut down like I recall the droids doing at the end of the Clone Wars, the control signal lost. If indeed there is some Intelligence controlling them on the Citadel, it will be gone."

"And that would be the war right there."

"Yes. Regardless of that, though, there's another factor. After this war is over, the rest of the galaxy cannot see the Empire as having abandoned them at their hour of need. This plan of execution follows the spirit of Grand Moff Pryl's orders while guaranteeing us the affection of the galaxy's elites. The galaxy as a whole will be one with the victory when the Reapers are finally destroyed."

"I understand your motivations, Captain Turla. I will make sure that my part is executed well." _And that is most manifestly not why I am doing this, but if that is your benefit in this good act, so be it, Captain._

"As I would expect. Good luck, Commander." A pause. "And, I suppose, may the force be with you. I will be explaining the operational plan and the justification for it to the Quarian Admirals later today."

-

This sea belonged to the dead right now, it seemed. Overhead, the wood creaked in the masts. Tasiele looked up at a night's sky full of malice. Nominally the ship she was on was more than three hundred and fifty years old. Its crew was only eating from the nets they had cast on the journey—Tasiele included.

They had told her stories about when the fish were almost entirely gone; a hundred and fifty years of efforts to restore the stocks of humanity's motherworld had largely worked. If the Reapers succeeded, then the fish would be available for another race to come around and fish these waters, some other day. Life went on. That, itself, was calming.

Behind her, two men and three women leaned hard into the wheel, mounted on a moving tiller. The Captain took a sight, then shook his head, grimacing, and gestured below. "I hate doing that, but..."

"Captain?"

"Sighting off the Citadel. It's been in the same place now for two months—over London. Killing our people, Captain Anderson says."

"I'm afraid it's true, Captain," Tasiele smiled sadly. "But if it helps us, it is still help."

"Lets me have another point of reference to fix the course." He opened the chart catalogue and pulled one down onto the historic chart table.

Below them, the hull was silent except the creaking of the rigging. There was no engine to disrupt the sound of the water rustling past her wooden skin. Her name was set in brass. _Charles W. Morgan_. The crew had worked her out of her port to the east of the great, dead city of New York, and Tasiele and Anderson had found her, journeying east from Vancouver to rally resistance operations in the east, which due to the population density and less rugged territory had been much more heavily attrited than those of western North America.

Then the word had come of Hackett's operational plan, of the Crucible. Tasiele, despite her reservations, felt she had to be there. She had gone with Hackett, and finding the _Morgan_ sheltered in an anchorage off Cuttyhunk Island, the crew of historical reenactors had bent their backs into the ropes and set out quietly across the open Atlantic ocean.

That had been sixteen days ago, and now Tasiele wondered what had gone on in the interim. The force still lent her confidence of Tanda's return, but she could not deny these people hope, even as she felt that within the Crucible lurked something dangerous. So she had to be there to talk to Shepard about it before she went up.

The Captain marked their position on the chart again. "Well, almost there. Bishop Rock should be North Northwest by twelve nautical miles."

"Twelve nautical miles? That's rather close."

"Aye, and the light is out. The Isles of Scilly are great killers... Well, were, once upon a time. The kind of time we're back in."

"We'll be all right," Tasiele answered. "I know we will."

"I hope so. The water's shallow here; it rose less than two thousand years ago, you can still see the fieldstone fences from the iron age, from the lowlands they farmed in those days."

"Men on the lines?" Tasiele had been learning how the rhythm of the ship worked; some of it seemed familiar, the timeless way of keeping order on a ship, nautical or starfairing. Lead lines, of course, would never be needed elsewhere. For sneaking past the Reapers, however, she could truly think of nothing better—just slow.

"I'll see to it. But I hate going up deck without some overcast, 'jedi'. You know, seeing that damned thing in the sky." He shook his head and turned to go.

Tasiele watched him go, and fancied that he wished badly he were in the age when the _Morgan_ had been young. A few minutes later, another figure arrived. Anderson.

"Miss Shan," he offered, handing over a mug of coffee, cut with who-knew-what in the way of nuts and cobbled togeter from a mixture of fancy beans from an abandoned store and instant.

"Thank you." It was boiled and horrible, but with the condensed milk made something of a meal, and warmed her stomach as autumn threatened outside. The autumn at the end of the world.

"The Captain says we'll be in the Solent in two days," he offered, drinking from his own mug. "We'll meet with the local resistance there, and try to press in as close to London as we can to support and cover the landings."

"And then fight our way into a Dead London being turned into a trap for us, probably for exactly this reason."

"Well what else do you plan on, Miss Shan?" Anderson looked so harried, and in that moment, so old.

Tasiele shrugged her shoulders. "I will go along with it, and trust that the force will show me a better way."

-

As the X-wings made a pass over the field under their delivery pilots, the whole constellation of Xucphra techs, Line Captain Drysso, Flirry Vorru, and Erisi Dlarit was concentrated to watch them come in. Arriving, too, was a slick aircar guarded by speeder bikes.

They were not being handled by regular pilots, as these X-wings hadn't been sold from Incom. Instead, Minister Vorru had found them broken down into kits, seized from Incom when they had been first investigated for supply the Rebels and sitting unused and unassembled ever since. They were first generation, early-model X-wings, in storage at a Navy Supply and Reutilization Centre co-located with the Carida academy.

But there were eighty of them, and that counted for _something_. Vorru had managed to convince Carida to send one of the Evakmar Corps transports that were normally sitting under the planetary shields of the fortress world, with nowhere to go and nothing to do, to deliver the shipment, threading its way through ill-defined territory of sectors reluctant to acknowledge the Republic. Despite all of Isard's pleadings and efforts, the Corps transport only held a single battalion of stormtroopers as replacements despite the dozens of _armies_ undergoing training, drills, or simply sitting in cantonments on the surface of Carida.

The lack of any sizable number of troops arriving along with the X-wings was a demonstratation of just how far Isard had fallen. And Tanda, leaning against the woman in the back of the aircar as the airconditioning ran at full blast, could only reflect on just how subtly terrible it looked. Ysanne Isard was weak, and didn't have a plan, and vaguely knew it. But she was obsessed with the insurgency against her Directorship of the Bactacorps rather than engaging in long-term thinking, and now, here they all were, piling out to stand on the ferrocrete tarmac as Imperial painted X-wings landed and troop transport barges came in from the big Evakmar to land the pathetic show of a single battalion's reinforcement.

Above them in orbit, the Preybirds of the Mistryl Shadow Guards they had hired and the Nebulon-B frigate housing the mercenary starfighter squadrons had also arrived. They would be following the Imperial reinforcements down in order of precedence. That was another sad part of the show. A military review to welcome mercenaries: This was the Empire, less than four years after Endor.

Isard was distracting herself as her eyes flicked over a dataslate, glancing up as the transport slowed. "... Vorru has succeeded. As have I. You will have to leave shortly, my dear Commodore, to keep an appointment with the Rebels. He has succeeded in locating their next rendezvous with their smuggler friends to acquire munitions. Alderaan." Mismatched eyes flicked up to fix the blonde across from her, Isard's lips curling in distaste. "... And a _lease_ of the Interdictor _Aggregator_ from the so-called High Admiral Teradoc."

"You had better not need more than that to score another victory against them. They make your compatriots look like _cadets_."

"Of course, it has been made clear to Captain Convarion that he is to obey my orders at all times in battle?" Her eyes flicked back ahead after she asked it, while they came up alongside the others, a variety of salutes and bows being offered. _An ambush at Alderaan..._ In all of her service, and before it, Tanda had never seen the planet, before or after it had been destroyed. Once she had come to the private theory that it had been destroyed as part of a coup attempt by Tarkin against the Emperor; now she was not so sure.

"Yes." It was Isard's last word on the subject, as she stepped up to the others, nodding in acknowledgement. The heat was brutal in the heavy weave of Imperial uniforms, but her nominal superior did not let it visibly affect her. Dlarit was full of pride - she'd won, in a way she hadn't expected, even if Isard refused to let her X-Wings deploy to the ships, it _did_ let her deploy the Quarian-modified Interceptors aboard the vessels stuck with THDC pilots. Vorru, having gone somewhat native had a smug air to it - Drysso's face had a hint of sourness to it he just couldn't shake - mercenaries and Rebel fighters alike sat poorly with hard-line Naval opinion.

Tanda folded her hands behind her back, and by sheer willpower resolved to maintain her composure against the horrifying heat as the X-wings made a low and slow final pass behind lining up and beginning to land, taxxing into position one after the other. Their pilots left them stood up, opening the cockpits, and they came with droids, at least. In theory, they'd be fully operational. The mercenaries were descending into the atmosphere next.

"It is a small but critical improvement in our situation, Director," she offered softly. "The upgraded Interceptors will now be on the ships, which will really tell in terms of our capabilities."

"Says the woman with Defenders." slipped out from Drysso, as Isard's gaze moved to him. He quieted quickly at her quite _blank_ look. "This is not the place to squabble. Once we have crushed the Rogues..." She trailed off at an aide rushing up to her with a datapad, which she took. The look of naked _fury_ that spread across her face was new - and terrifying, as she turned without a word back to her aircar, as nervous looks amongst the group on the reviewing stand were exchanged.

Tanda hastened after Isard, waiting for any kind of signal that she should remain behind, feeling her blood curdle, her body flush, the difference between artificial hands and living flesh becoming more apparent in moments of stress.

The Director's body was visibly quivering with a barely repressed anger, hands clenched into fists as she stalked along, her eyes minutely widening in surprise that Tanda had followed her - after a moment's hesitation, she beckoned Pryl to follow her as she climbed in.

As soon as the door cycled, the crimson-clad woman positively exploded. "Those _incompetent_ fools let Horn _escape!_ Those... Tanda, I want you to take care of the families of those who have so clearly _failed_ at the simple task of guarding a single pilot, will that be a problem?" It was soul-chilling, the normality of how Isard spoke of such things.

In a single moment, Tanda realised she had reached a shatterpoint. She couldn't murder the families... Had she mortally erred in following Isard? It had been a natural reaction of someone who felt affection for another. She had thought nothing of it, and for a moment a wave came over her-like she was afrad of the fact she might actually care for or pity this monster next to her. This woman next to her...

 _But I cannot kill the innocent. Not now. Not for this mission. Will the Storm Troopers follow me if I kill her?_ Her eyes flicked outwards, toward the Red Guards, let by Carnor Jax. The Royal Guards. They would fight her... Drysso would have his crew on _Lusankya_ follow him... A gnawing terror lanced into her heart that a simple, casual act had led to the end of everything.

Then she stiffened her lip with a smirk. "I'd be proud enough to organise the firing squad, Director, for such incompetence. But you have already given me orders; there is no way I can wait long enough if I am to make my date with Rogue Squadron. Begging your pardon... Ysanne."

"... You _will_ have take your ship to lightspeed in hours to make it to the ambush in time, won't you? Well, don't worry, the wheels are in motion to deal with them already, anyhow. Good hunting against the Rebels, my dear Tanda. I shall eagerly look forward to hearing of your victory in person." Some of the fury seemed to slip from her as she leaned back into the leather seats.

"I'll go to the _Dolorata_ immediately by your leave, commandeer a shuttle right here," Tanda offered as they moved past the main terminal. "And return with victory."

"Driver! Halt!" Heterochromatic eyes sparkled as Tanda's confidence seemed to drive back the red haze, at least a little. "You have leave. Go. Crush the Rebels. Then we shall start to put the galaxy right."

"Long Live the New Order!" Tanda spun out of the seat, and before closing the door, snapped a salute to Isard. _The Republic died a just death, having killed itself-its democracy was chaos. The Empire was evil. ...What do I do? What is my way forward?!_ She ran for a civilian shuttle to commandeer it while around her the Shadow Guards were landing, unaware of the events developing around them. Her stomach churned, and her whole worldview was undone.

-

The cigarra smoke hung heavy in the room. Cards shifted their numbers and were laid down confidently from table to table. People on the heavily screened balconies could only watch, jammers and shields keeping them safe, as the numbers of filled tables slowly declined. Some third-level Holonet News Network program was reporting on the fourth round as the tournament steadily advanced.

Right behind them, a revue show with Twi'lek dancers was going on in the next auditorium over for when the audience was bored or simply wanted something else. Open rooms for casual players and slot machines were located strategically around the central position, and droids scurried everywhere delivering drinks.

All of that might as well have been a million lightyears away from the tournament tables. They were concentrated into that single auditorium now, and there was only gentle, standardised background music to provide white noise against the spectators. As the contestants narrowed, two faces kept appearing.

One of them was altogether quite expected. Lando Calrissian had dominated table after table through all four rounds. His cape draped on his chair and smoking a cigarra he had sent several highly rated players seeded against him home early. A trademark grin on his face, three days of play and four rounds had left him in an expectedly strong position.

The other one was 'Kaylata Sunfire'. Her stoic, unmoved express that seemed completely unflappable was already cursing the professional commentators who made a sport of trying to read the faces of the players at the table better than their rivals. She had certainly demolished her rivals at the table, too. She sometimes started to get predictable, and then switched up her style to a completely new one. It was a strange way of play, but absolutely effective, noteworthy to the commentators. Dangerous to the other relative neophytes at professional Sabacc that she had been initially placed with.

Exactly as Lando Calrissian had predicted, they were inexorably pressing toward a meeting at the final table.

A trumpet flare rose from the revue hall over the synths behind her as Liara watched in a kind of morbid fascination. Even as Shadowbroker the notion that a cards game might hold the fate of life or death for her entire home galaxy had never occurred to her. She was only distracted when a rustling beside her resolved into Lando's personal assistant.

"Well, hello there."

"Doctor T'Soni," she offered smoothly.

"I never did get your name," Liara answered.

"Maycee," she answered, and smiled vaguely. "I confess, Doctor, I find you very interesting. I've checked all the records, and there isn't a single file on your species, the 'Asari'."

"I wouldn't expect there to be, actually," Liara grinned, a little. "We are _very_ far out into the Unknown Regions."

"Lots of interesting things happen out there. Did any happen to you?"

Liara snapped her head around. "Mind explaining that?"

"You don't come off as just a Doctor. You've played the underworld game for quite a while in sabacc tournaments if your story is real. I was wondering on the scoop."

"Well, Miss Sunfire and I certainly have our own interests that are a bit deeper than just my watching her play Sabacc."

"...Lando will be _so upset_ ," Maycee answered, and mocked a pout. "Oh well, you really did not answer my question."

Liara pursed her lips and tried to sort out how to respond. They needed the money. Somehow. And just in case Guri wasn't good enough... They were already out of time. She needed a backup plan. "You might say, Maycee, we're in the same business that your boss just left. Saving people."

"At a sabacc tournament?"

"I'm just as surprised as you are. And as a matter of fact, I'm also not Sunfire's girlfriend. Dinner with the Baron General, tonight?"

"Ooh he will be so pleased. The mystery will make him even more interested, you know."

"I'm counting on it."


	79. Chapter 79

As the ship hurtled through hyperspace, Tanda buried herself in her cabin, leaving command to the _Dolorata_ 's former Captain and current XO. She was reading on her datapad, shoved into bed, only in her skivvies with a blanket pulled over. But when the door trilled and Tali asked to enter, feeling as worried as ever over Tanda's potentially fragile mental state when she returned from visiting Isard, Tanda let her in immediately. But she kept reading.

"It's not chokolate this time. I don't actually know _what_ it is, but it is from Commenor!" Tali was smiling as best she could as she moved to sit beside her, offering the drink bulb in their usual ritual, as she squeezed in beside. "What are you reading, Tanda? Can't be nearly as boring as what I've been looking through to keep myself busy."

"It's a biography of a Terran human, Tali," she answered, setting down the pad to take up the bulb, and drink from it like she were still in a suit, in a shared ritual with Tali'Zorah that helped to centre her, looking focused even so. "I feel quite inspired, so I suppose I am enjoying myself, after a fashion. It is not light reading."

"... _Hah._ Mine's a ship design theory textbook by Lira Wessex. I think you win. How... have things been going? I don't have the best feeling about this plan of ours, and there's muttering among my crews about... where we're going."

"Well. I like to think of the positives: This mission helped me escape orders from Director sard to kill the innocent families of Thyferran guards who managed to let Corran Horn escape," Tanda answered grimly.

"That Bosh'tet."

Tanda nodded, and then quietly continued. "More murder, more death, and we are heading toward Alderaan... Well, at any rate. Isard has no plan for the future. The New Order is dying around our ears, Tali." She cleared her throat and smiled. "So I'm reading this biography. It's about a man whose name is worthy of some Count of Serenno: Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios. And it's about the harsh measures necessary, the vision necessary, to sustain strength in ... In a revolt. To create a natural future for a land."

"Trying to find some future that won't be growing from a poisoned seed?" Leaning into her wife, Tali sighed. "... We barely even remember what it was like, before the Fleet. It wasn't always a Conclave. We had Kings and Queens, once, and republics, and all the rest... now that's all gone. A... _tabula rasa_ , my translator says, is the Earth term. And it'll be that way for... most of the galaxy, won't it?"

"Yes. I am afraid the old governments are gone for all the people of the Milky Way, one way or another. Hmm. He was interesting, Bolívar. He believed in the rule of Reason, the rule of people who were educated to rule-but he also believed, passionately, in Liberty. He was a member of the elite who led the furthest provinces of a great Empire of Terra to revolt, to become independent countries. He envisioned a confederacy of those countries... There would be an elective President, not a King or an Emperor, but the President would serve for life, so as to be above partisan politics, and would be elected by a special Franchise and the Senate. There would be a tricameral legislature, with Tribunes of the People who would impeach corrupt leaders and censor the government when it violated the liberties of the people; an elected lower house, a hereditary upper house. To me, it sounds like a compromise between Empire and Republic - a great liberator who still saw the limitations of the kind of democracy which begat the clone wars."

"I confess to being intensely taken with the man's vision. It's funny, but if Miranda hadn't made an allusion to his 'Decree of War to the Death', I would have never heard of him. Now I feel inspired by him. Tali... We're not fighting for the Empire anymore."

"... My uniform says differently," Tali answered sharply. "Don't forget what you've come from. Quarians prefer obedience and consensus. Don't turn into a warlord. If there is no more Empire, make the change... I'm... what _are_ we fighting for Tanda? What... will your people accept this? And how do you avoid... I don't know. We aren't very good at government. Ours... _works_ , but..." Tali shrugged. "The Fleet is - was - a special case."

"I think they will." She looked at the wall. "We're fighting for the Empire, Tali, sure. But it's... It's an Imperium. It's an idea, it's a vision, of peace and order. Who knows how real it is. How real it ever was."

"We're certainly not fighting for Isard. But what central government is left? Am I supposed to obey Rogriss and the Moff's Council when I deal with the Madame Director?"

"I will carry forward what was good, and discard what was bad. That was what Bolívar envisioned. And Quarians, as the authors and architects of this New Order for the Milky Way, will be a part of that."

"It feels like all that we have left, Tali..."

"No, they'd never understand, and our entire _galaxy_... we'll be able to recover, Tanda, but it will be years upon years before it's... we'd be drawn into the same stupidity that brought all this down. And..." The Quarian woman trailed off, with a sigh. "Always human models. A part of me feels like Admiral Xen. We're so _small_ compared to all this. What she wanted was _wrong_ , but she... sees how fragile our people's recovery is. I don't want to think about the future, where we'll start to fade away from being at the forefront of everything again. You know I'm right."

"What about bringing your blood-cousins the Maladkai into galactic society? Is that not a worthy task? Will that not increase your influence, to be the centre of culture, the shining example for them? Tali, what about the _Geth_? They're not just any droids; they're _Quarian_ droids."

"No, they're the _Geth_. We can't make the mistake of thinking they're _ours_ again. They want to help us, and perhaps we'll build something together, but... they'll be confident in making their own decisions, and there's less than twenty million of us. The Maldkai are our cousins, but..." Tali twisted tri-fingered hands about each other. "... The scale of everything here. It worries me. Makes us feel fragile. Ancestors, we've lost so much, by the time we regain what we were, how beyond us will everyone else be?"

"We will chart our own course..." A shiver. "And the odds will be rather more even by the time we get back, dare I say it."

"... I don't want... some others might feel darkly smug about that, but feeling _any_ positive emotion from the idea makes me feel ill. I just want the war to be over. I... you _have_ to think about the future. I don't _want_ to. Don't want to be someone that has to."

"I am going to treat the Quarian people as my own, Tali. Tali! I... Commenor is here. You have adopted me. Your wife, your compatriot. Please don't feel ill. We're going to find a way."

"... I... okay." There was an audible sniffling noise through the mask. "... Bad time to have this conversation anyway, when there's about to be more lasers and torpedoes where we're going, and... _keelah_ , I don't want to think about being near where that many people died will be like. What it will be like when we get back."

"...I confess, I wonder, is Rannoch at peace now?"

"Honestly? I'd suspect it's close to paradise... well, for a biological Quarian. But if it wasn't so humid here, so would Thyferra. The Geth don't live on the planet. It'll be Quarians. And we'll be helping them." Tali's voice sounded wistful, as she spoke; "I've got a few in my suit now, you know. We'll... I don't know. If we can _really_ learn to trust each other? Work together? ... Then..." She took a deep breath. "... Then I'll take what-ever my prize share is from helping take _Lusankya_ and use it to pay that perfect Cerberus bosh'tet. Ancestors, I'd take an _indentureship_." She was speaking faster, nearly babbling. "... Kriff, I hadn't meant to say that out loud."

"...You're so sweet, Tali. You missed what I was asking about, too," she offered, smiling. "You are going to be more than just a successful Doctor-Engineer... When they paint my portrait, you'll be holding my hands—well, my mechanical hands. I love you, and we're going to do this _together_. That's why I share it with you."

"... I meant..." She sounded so _sheepish_ as she spoke hesitantly. "... I didn't want you to feel despondent about leaving the bacta. If Miranda could fix Shepard, who was _dead_... if the Geth can help Quarians..." She reached to take Tanda's hands in hers. "... By when our children are grown, I hope _none_ of us will have to worry about suits. How's _that_ for hope to hold on to?"

"Our children..." Tanda smiled, and tried to hide what she felt inside. _How do I do that without calling on the dark side?_ "Aye. It's a wonderful dream."

"Not a dream. Hope. A future. ... When you think of it, your heart doesn't tell you something's _wrong_. I've... learned that's how the Force tells me things. It means, somehow... somehow we'll be on a beach. A family."

"One of us, my love, will be sweating more than the others." She grinned, and leaned in to kiss Tali's helmet on the side where it wouldn't fog, daintily.

"I'll have to ask Miranda to fix that." Tali replied with a laugh.

"If she can, I will be dutifully thankful for the opportunity to share a beach with you on Rannoch without a portable air conditioning unit." Rubbing herself into Tali, she set aside her datapad. "Did I mention I rather like the clarity and honesty of the Quarian people? It would be a good thing for galactic culture to imitate... Us. I aim to make it us. I... I really meant it. Without Commenor, what am I but an exile like Gillian, in need of a home?"

A cough, and Tanda smiled. "Well, regardless. That home-you gave it to me in your arms, Tali."

"I included you in all those Quarian 'us' declarations, love." Tali was grinning as she crawled into Tanda's lap. "You'll have Commenor. Some day. Our girls need to know all their ancestors. ... but I'm glad to know that you a substitute for the home you _will_ see again in my arms, Tanda. That's _incredibly_ romantic of you."

"Well, I know where love is and why I feel it toward you. And nothing can change that." She tapped at her omnitool, and music started to play from the speakers in the room. "Dramatic, I know... But we are going to have to pull away from each other to get ready for a battle."

"...Speaking of which, I'll get headed back down to engineering and make sure Lieutenant Thyree's fighters are ready to go... and... very much look forward to when we can stop hiding this."

"I will hold a second wedding ceremony, a human one, on the day I proclaim my new regime."

"If anyone disagrees with it, they may fight." She kissed Tali's helmet again. "Let us gain a victory. _We_ need it. Not Isard. Us. It will be our victory, and it wil help us—help us to create what I have envisioned."

"... I think even Turla might smile at that point." Tali snickered back at her, giggling. "Let's. Just... we _need_ to win this."

"Yes, we do. How bad do you think.. The graveyard... Is going to be?"

"... I don't know. Bad. Worst wherever the planet... was. Keelah, to... _destroy_ a planet like that. I can barely even think of it. The... _waste_ of it all."

"It was a waste. It most assuredly was a waste. ...It was all a waste. All of it." Certainly the destruction of Alderaan, but as she lapsed into silence, one could not help but feel that she meant rather more than that.

-

"All stations report ready. The ship is at General Quarters, Commodore!"

Tanda punched the intercom to the general frequency. "All hands prepare to revert to realspace."

The alarm chimed, and requiring more precision than could allow for verbal orders, considering the unpredictable vastness of the horrifying debris field before them, the astrogator immediately pulled the levers. _Dolorata_ reverted to realspace, just ahead of _Corruptor_.

In the Graveyard of Alderaan.

Tanda sank back in her command chair as a wave of melancholy sadness spread over her. Then in a flash, she saw someone before her. A man... Hair turning gray... Sad, but smiling, looking at her.

Her eyes widened, and she forgot the bridge around her. Reached out toward the man with her hand. He seemed to shake his head in response, and began to fade away.

As he did, another man took his place. With dark hair and eyes and grand sideburns, he stared sternly, hints of braid on his bust visible. A whisper seemed to drift across the bridge. " _We have been ruled more by deceit than by force, and we have been degraded more by vice than by superstition. Slavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction._."

Tanda felt transfixed, as if she had been stabbed in place. Only as the second apparition faded did the worried calls of her bridge crew reach her ears. She raised a hand, and shakily waved it. "I am fine! Prepare to rig the ship for silent running." She didn't know if she had seen force ghosts, or apparitions of her own imagination under the power of the melancholy sort of spirit that seemed to permeate her heart and soul, or if it was some vision of those, not in the force, but of the past, which was yet real and different from the manifestation of a powerful old ghost of the force. Either way, she felt an electric shock, a guiding reassurance. _A Star of Destiny._

"Yes ma'am." The L'tenant turned away, somewhat uncomfortably.

Down in engineering, Tali'Zorah vas Dolorata mumbled inside her helmet; _Joy. The bloody-handed maniac and his ship full of idiots who couldn't pilot a garbage scow. In a place where billions died. I'm sure this won't cause problems or anything. Ancestors, I half wish I was a Marine right now! All right..._

She tapped at her omnitool, sending a final message to Tanda; _Standing ready. Let's... not die._

 _Would be kind of important._ Tanda took advantage of her senior rank to comm the Interdictor via whisker-laser as the three ships hovered cold and dark in the outskirt of the Graveyard. "Now I remind you, Captain, that this mission is against Rogue Squadron. I will personally keep them off of you with _Dolorata_ if I must, to uphold Director Isard's honour to Admiral Teradoc, but you must be prepared to accept some damage to hold your position for the plan to work. This is a fight against the most deadly foe the Rebels can produce, pound for pound. That man commanding those snubfighters directly assisted in the killing of our beloved Emperor."

"If I'm threatened with destruction, I have orders to withdraw, Commodore." The man commanding _Aggregator_ replied calmly. "I shall conform until my shields are down and my command at risk of being destroyed, but then I must retreat to preserve my ship."

"We'll try to keep it from that point. Understood nonetheless." She folded her hands behind her back. "Well, very good. Make your crew properly understand that this is a real opportunity for vengeance for Endor."

Powered down, watching the area around them with their passive sensors, the three Imperial warships held their positions – waiting, at Condition Two, for either the Rogues, or the smugglers that were to provide them with the munitions they had been using to embarrass Isard's forces so often.

"This place is profoundly unpleasant..." Tanda sighed, leaving the bridge. The melancholy was wearing on her despite her flash of vision, and so in an attempt to shake it, she had taken another set of departmental paperwork which Tali had used as an excuse to see her wife again, as Tanda spent great deal of time sitting in her cabin, mostly looking out at the endless asteroid fields, watching the hours count past and hoping for a reoccurence of the electrifying visions that had come when she first arrived.

"I agree... fighting Rachni was less creepy than this... it's... _keelah_ , but I hate it here. It's like being on that Reaper Dreadnought was. Echoes of an evil, injust act."

"Well, there's all kinds of theories about what really happened," Tanda answered defensively, though her words rang hollow even in her own ears.

"There's no way to justify this, Tanda. Even by your galaxy's looser standards of planetary bombardments." _Which horrify me every time I hear stories of them._

"Yes, I am just questioning that the Imperial government sanctioned it at the highest levels." Tanda replied, very defensive, now.

"I think there's enough daylight between 'ideals' and 'reality' right now to fit this ship through, but I'll... possibly acknowledge the point."

"I never believed the propaganda line, okay, Tali? But long ago I came to the conclusion it was an attempt by Grand Moff Tarkin to conduct a coup against the Emperor: Surely he had acted without orders against Alderaan, and his next step would be to destroy Coruscant to kill the Emperor too quickly for the Emperor to muster a response. Even when I discovered the Emperor was a Sith Lord, I thought that was true, even truer in fact, since Tarkin surely knew and surely would have planned to fire at range where a Sith Lord could not stop him in time." A sigh. "Of course, I might be wrong, and the Emperor might have sanctioned it. He was a Sith Lord."

She saw the face of the younger man again. He pointed toward the star. Tanda's eyes widened and she snapped toward Tali, but Tali was looking out the viewscreen herself. She had never seen the ghostly mirage which seemed to call her to account for not decisively rejecting the Emperor's tyranny.

"It's not... wait, that was odd." The Quarian engineer stepped closer to the viewport, squinting into the tumbling chaos of the shattered planet.

"...Tali..?" Tanda asked, as she pushed herself to her feet.

"I thought I saw something glint out there."

"There's a lot of things in the Graveyard. Including Rebel sympathizing Alderaanians, armed with weapons, to guard against pirates-so mark that rough vector and note it. There might be a ship watching us... But we can't afford to blow our cover to investigate it and ruin our chance at an ambush."

Her comm chimed; "Commodore. We've picking up some hyper transitions on the edge of the elliptic. Looks to be a gaggle of smaller contacts."

"Well... No more waiting, at least! Stand to, Tali. This is the critical moment for us." Tanda headed to the bridge.

"... I love you, Tanda." With that, Tali headed to her station as well... and as the Imperial ships held their positions, quietly waiting, they watched a group of light freighters jump in, lining up with the Rogues... and a few minutes after, a second group, which moved to rendezvous. "... No further contacts, ma'am, the freighters are matching velocities with each other"

"Wait." Folding her hands before her, Tanda watched her repeater displays carefully. "We want the transfer operation to be well underway. That is the point of maximum inconvenience."

The tension grew on the cruiser's cramped bridge – waiting for the signs of pivoting and shifting that were the lighterage operations of light freighters... and then the dance started. Tanda let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding. "Launch all starfighters, primary targets are the X-Wings. Ahead full acceleration, bring shields and weapons to power. _Corruptor_ is to stand between _Aggregator_ and the threat - target the freighters. Grav wells on _Aggregator_ to full power."

Even with their undoubted surprise, the Rebels immediately reacted, their formation splitting and reforming – moving to attack the Victory shielding the Immobilizer that held them in place. It was almost depressing, how little their ambush seemed to have gained them

"Stay on them! Precision fire, go after the X-wings, ignore everything else." Terrifyingly, a Carrack at flank speed-further massaged by a Quarian chief engineer-could quite well near to keep up with slower snugfighters. As she flexed her muscles with the show of her turn of speed, her extra laser cannon flailed hard whenever they had an open arc. Their arcs _were_ restricted, and she certainly didn't turn fast, but Tanda tried to keep the ship maneouvring to sweep her fire into the X-wings while they went after _Corruptor_ in turn.

Gritting her teeth as the formation seemed to flow like water around the turbolaser blasts, Tanda was finding Rogue Squadron impressive even now.

The TIEs were set upon by the Uglies and ripped to shreds in a whirling dogfight, their still green pilots proving nowhere near a match for the enemy fighters, though their shields and warhead launchers allowed them to at least tie up their opponents for a few crucial moments. Her Defenders slammed their throttles forward, giving one screaming head-on pass - one X-Wing went down, and the formation broke up a bit before re-forming, and then they were whirling to come about again - a volley of torpedoes, somewhat ragged, were loosed at _Corruptor_... and one of the Uglies went down to a quad laser burst. She was hurting them, at least... but a rippling set of explosions erupted along the _Victory-II_ 's flank, and with multiple localized shield failures, Convarion rolled his ship to keep a fresh front to the enemy.

Tanda activated her comms line to the _Corruptor_ urgently. "Captain Convarion, use your tractor beams on the rubble to increase your rate of turn to keep your shields covering their attack vector. It's an old smuggler's trick." She tried to disrupt the Rogue's formation with a surge of acceleration after the salvo to get _Dolorata_ in close, issuing constant helm orders that kept the ship pivoting like a madwoman's steed. _Five years in command of a Carrack I know damned how to put one through her paces._

The Rogues swung away, kicking more power into their engines – _Corruptor_ was firing at the starfighters, now, having scored a few lucky hits on the cargo operation, with the Interdictor still safe far astern of her... and then came a sharp warning from her sensor chief; "Captain! Unknown starship approaching our flank from the Graveyard!" Convarion had ignored her advice, at least so far.

"Main batteries open fire on pre-prepared plot Aleph-4!" _Bless you, Tali!_

Her finger stabbed the comm button that connected her to auxilary control down in Engineering. "Commander Zorah, pin down what that contact is at once!"

It was irregular, certainly, but the crew had gotten somewhat used to the strange alien standing occasional watches on the bridge, and her efforts to help her wife grow as an officer were rewarded as there came a sharp; "Databanks show it to be a... Alderaanian War Cruiser, _Thranta_ class! There's something off about... wait one, bridge!"

"But there haven't been any of those in service since..." _No. Don't second guess her. Let her work._ Tanda turned her attention back to _Corruptor_ as her ship's batteries kept firing whenever they got a clear arc, _Dolorata_ continuing to wildly shift and reposition herself to fire on the Rogues.

Down in engineering, Tali's eyes flicked across the masses of information scrolling across her HUD. _No warning through the Force, so no malice directed against us... It's trying to follow the X-Wings... no malice means no organics, and... ah-ha, one of the X-Wings is broadcasting an Alderaanian IFF code... and transmitting targeting data in the clear!_ "...Oh, you little bosh'tet, _my_ ship!" She shouted in exitement, to the startled glances of her engineering crew as their chief flew to life, hands dancing across her omni-tool and console in a frenzy of activity.

 _Corruptor_ was still firing at the X-Wings and again directing her heavier weapons against the freighters - one of them erupted from a heavy turbolaser hit, but with an unshielded flank, she didn't want to move too close in and allow herself to be hit by... what-ever that was coming out of the asteroids.

"Move in closer to _Corruptor_ , tet's try to cover her shield breach! The Rebels have to go for it, it's their only chance."

They had the same idea she did, and the Rebels were trying, the fighters... well, at least two thirds of the Imperial fighters were gone by now, and down in engineering, Tali'Zorah was sweating inside her helmet as the climate control automatically tried to compensate. Omni-tool humming, the geth programs loaded into her microcomp working with her, her thoughts raced almost as fast as the computers she was orchestrating. _This couldn't be planned by those pirates... okay, you want an IFF, so I've got to... clone it, overwhelm the fighter's transmission with my comms array, and it looks like you're following targeting data... no way you were intended to be anything other than a really dumb VI escort, so... come on, come on..._

Up on the bridge, Tanda had her own problems, sharply ordering her helmsman; "Bring us around to engage them! They can't be on both sides of her at once!" _I can't believe we've lost two dozen TIEs already._ "Helm, hurry, they're going after her shielded flank. Keep our ventral surface rolled as much as possible to maximum anti-fighter firepower." She stabbed open the comm link to the _Corruptor_ again. "Captain Convarion, I advise again, make your turns with the aid of the tractors on the asteroids. Keep them off your open flank!" Again there was no answer, and Tanda thought she could feel the contempt Ait Convarion held for her right through the comm link.

A series of concussion missiles from a trio of... not quite TIE Bombers burst upon _Dolorata's_ shields as they focused on her, the Uglies went after the remaining fighters, and the X-Wings bored in again against _Corruptor_ , firing another ragged salvo.

Wavering, the Victory's shields flickered and then... a last pair of torpedoes, launched late, made Corruptor's bridge tower erupt in flames as she went out of control, as Tali broke in with a girlish squeal of triumph into Tanda's comms; "I have control of the Alderaanian War Cruiser _Valiant_! Letting the pirates think she's still on their side, awaiting orders!"

Tanda interfaced immediately with open comms, her face paling at the sight of an Imperial warship sickeningly starting to fall into the asteroids, crew demoralised and in a state of chaos. She flung all of her strength and confidence in her words. "Crew of _Corruptor_! Your ship's bridge has been lost! Transfer control to engineering and continue the fight! We have reinforcements! A fresh cruiser joins the fight! Evacuation is forbidden! _Stay the course_!"

Something in Tanda's words had the right effect on the right people. She lurched back to somewhat uncoordinated life after a heart-stopping thirty second plunge towards the asteroid plane... but she _did_ start to climb back up... as now the X-Wings took their last torpedo salvo towards the Interdictor, having used the confusion of _Corruptor_ 's plunge to break past her and towards _Aggregator_. They had to use it on her... and avoid the still very-dangerous Carrack in so doing.

"Commander Zorah, it is our duty to keep them off of Teradoc's Interdictor."

"Working on it..." came in a distracted mumble in her wife's accented voice, ordering the Alderaanian ship to continue to conform with the Rebel movements.

"Wait until they're lined up on their attack runs, Commander Zorah, then hit them with everything."

"I'm not sure how much that will be, Commodore, but I understand."

Turning her attention back to her own ship, Tanda highlighted a vector for her helmsman. "Redline the engines. Try to keep up with them. Weapons, keep preferentially targeting the starfighters."

A chorus of acknowledgements met her orders, and anxious eyes watched the displays as the distance to _Aggregator_ ticked down

There was a sudden "Firing!" from the comm to Engineering as _Valiant_ cut loose with all of her weapons on a group of fighters that thought was friendly, and the Rebel attack... broke up into chaos as another X-Wing flared and exploded. The smugglers' freighters were starting to scatter, cargo transfer apparently complete.

Tanda stabbed down her finger to break into an open comms line. "Commander Wedge Antilles, this is Commodore Tanda Pryl. If you surrender now we will extend you the courtesy of your prior military service and be treated as prisoners of war. If you continue to fight, you will be treated as the pirates you legally are."

The voice that came back was calm, unpanicked and cool despite the reverse just inflicted upon his forces. "Last I checked, you can't speak for Iceheart, but it's nice of you to offer. If _you_ surrender, I'll see to it you aren't treated as prisoners at all."

"... Ma'am, they're turning towards _us_ now... Trying to cover the freighters escaping into the Graveyard." Her XO looked to her with a look of suppressed worry, as Tanda let a small smile onto her face.

"But, don't you see, it's just a feint," Tanda answered confidently. "They _need_ to use those torpedoes on the Interdictor or they shall have no chance of escape and survival."

"Ma'am, they could still scatter if they disabled us with this salvo. _Aggregator_ is unlikely to push them very hard given the... current state of our fighter screen.

"An evasive will let them..." There was a short pause, as Tanda's old sense of duty warred with the new. For a flash, she thought she saw the face again—but this time she was sure it was just her imagination. It didn't matter. "Do it, Commander, evasive maneouvres!" _...I am not here to win Isard's personal war against Rogue Squadron._

The alarming sound of warhead tracking sensors starting to lock onto the ship echoed over the bridge from the EW stations, lasers started to splash on their shields... and then the Rebels kicked over, hard, trying to streak past her at speed and line up on _Aggregator_.

"Present the ventral hull." Once again she cleared the main bank of quad lasers... But the X-wings were rapidly receding back toward the Interdictor, and the shots were difficult ones to make.

"Turn _Valiant_ on those transports, Commander Zorah, she's too slow to keep up with Aggregator now." She keyed in to the open line to _Corruptor_. "Focus on the transports with your operational batteries."

The transports were scattering, distant flares of fire and flashing of shield impacts marking occasional hits, but the two other Imperial capital ships were firing steadily at them - one X-Wing sheered out of line from a lucky long range quad laser hit, but the rest lined up on _Aggregator_ as the survivors of Teradoc's pilots charged at and... mostly died trying to stop them.

Tanda held her course, lining up with the X-Wings and continuing to fire as the Rebels made their torpedo runs, though holding back the heavy turbolasers lest overshots strike _Aggregator_ 's shields.

The torpedo launch was successful, if badly scattered by her harassment... and then, as Tanda allowed herself to start to hope that just perhaps she _might_ have won the great victory against Rogue Squadron that had eluded all other Imperial officers for years... _Aggregator_ dropped her grav-wells to reinforce her shields.

...Tanda pounded her fist into her command chair in wordless frustration as the Rebels scattered, flickering away into hyperspace before the grav wells were brought back up, the remaining X-Wings not even enough to take out the shields with that salvo. _You damned coward! We_ _ **had**_ _them!_ Her frustration was great enough for her to mutter sarcastically aloud for all her bridge crew to hear "Wonderful. What a valiant commander you sent me, Terad-." cutting off as _Aggregator_ flickered away, her commander so keen on preserving his ship that he did not even wait for orders.

The disappointment was palpable on the bridge as Pryl sighed, and spoke tiredly. "Send out shuttles to sweep the field for survivors. ...Did we at _least_ get any of the freighters?"

"Looks like three of the first group and one of the second-damage to some of the others, but they made the jump."

"Well enough. Enemy starfighter losses?"

"Two X-Wings, one of the modified TIE Bombers, and four of the other Ugly-type... against... two-dozen TIEs, ma'am.

"Wait, we lost two-thirds of our fighters?" Even for Tanda that was a bit much...

"... Yes ma'am. A good half in the first minutes, and they... ran over most of what was left on their way to Aggregator."

Tanda clasped her hands gloved hands together. "Very well. Commander Girralt, I wish to extend my apology for commandeering your ship. You are about to receive a much better command. Take a team of twenty-five men," - they were still over-complement - "to _Corruptor_ to take command, restore order, and get her ready for the return to Thyferra."

Eyes shining with pride, the man stiffened to attention, giving her a sharp, parade-ground salute at that. "As ordered, Commodore!"

Turning her attention to the intra-ship comms, she went on; "Commander Zorah, take another twenty-five, and once the shuttles have returned from _Corruptor_ , proceed to _Valiant_ to assume command."

There was a long silence from the comms as Tali stood there with wide eyes. _She's... giving me a_ _ **captaincy**_ _?!_ "...Understood. The ship must be automated, I'll keep you updated and form on _Dolorata_ once I have her under control."

With the one prisoner, a Sullustian woman, taken from the wreckage, and several of their own ejected pilots recovered, the trio of vessels hovered in place as repair work on _Corruptor_ and _Valiant_ proceded.

Tanda would keep her cruiser at stations until both of the other ships were ready with reports, and dutifully secured one more prisoner. In the end Commander Girralt reported that he would need another three days to make repairs to _Corruptor_ 's hyperdrive, or else he could return via emergency hyperdrive while working on the repairs—but the inability to do some of the work quickly when the emergency hyperdrive was laid on would mean it would take four days longer than _Dolorata_ and _Valiant_ to complete the return to Thyferra. For security reasons, Tanda ordered the second course of action, and then directed _Valiant_ to follow her back to Thyferra... _At least we're all coming back. We came too close to that not being the case._

Tanda was not feeling well by the time they arrived back over Thyferra, having already stretched her time between bacta treatments to the limit, and drawing on the force to sustain herself outside of her suit. She signaled her readiness to report to Isard in person as she wished.

… Brusquely, _immediately_ she was summoned to the service, to see Ysanne Isard looking even _more_ upset than she'd been when Tanda had left. _... What's gone wrong in my absence...?_

Any further internal musing was cut short by Isard's sharp; "Report, Commodore. The Rogues are not destroyed. Why? And _where is Corruptor_?!"

"They surprised us with an Alderaanian War Cruiser being run by droids out of the graveyard. Captain Convarion ignored my recommendation after one of _Corruptor_ 's shield generators failed to use his tractor beams on the Alderaanian rubble for leverage to maneouvre more rapidly. The Rogues lined up another torpedo run, hit the bridge. The crew panicked and prepared to abandon ship. I was distracted talking them down into doing their duty and bringing secondary engineering bridge up." She cleared her throat. "To interject in the narrative, _Corruptor_ survived, but had to return on her emergency hyperdrive while repairs are completed to the main hyperdrive; she will not be back for another four days."

"Good," Isard answered with almost a snarl. "Continue."

"Of course, Madame Director. We continued to pursue the Rogues after this point. Commander Zorah, my engineering officer, hacked their controls and gained control over the War Cruiser. The battle at that point seemed like it would end in total annihilation for the enemy, and it _should_ have. The Rogues got off a salvo at the Interdictor, but Teradoc's captain transferred grav well power to the shields—even though in my professional opinion, it was unnecessary. Almost like he had secret orders to allow Rogue Squadron to escape."

The signs of Isard barely restraining her temper were on full display, as she folded her hands together, tightly enough for her knuckes to turn white. "Which they did."

"We got five of their allies and two of them. One of the Rogues killed, one captured, a Sullustan female. I'm having her transferred down to your custody. Four enemy transports destroyed. The rest escaped." Taking a breath, Tanda went on. We secured the War Cruiser and brought her back as a prize, and Commander Girralt showed good service in restoring order and discipline on _Corruptor_ and preparing her for her return to Thyferra. Two dozen of our TIEs were destroyed—I fear the Thyferran pilots continue to perform below the level of competency required against the Rebels."

Isard... twitched visibly. "Teradoc had the gall to say to me that he'd only lend me toys if I would promise they would not return broken! Add to this what has happened in your absence..." Her teeth audibly ground. This was a new kind of fury from Isard. "Girralt may keep _Corruptor_. You will have to find a new officer to command your cruiser, however."

Tanda's eyes widened a fraction. She felt a tug of involuntary fear, that her plans were about to be laid low. "...What is to be my new assignment, Director? I shall make a recommendation by tomorrow."

Isard's voice was cold as she spoke. "Find out just how far the rot and treachery has spread in _Lusankya_ , and excise it. _With prejudice_."

"There has been an incident aboard Lusankya, Director?" Tanda paled a bit even as a creeping, disassociated feeling of awe began to spread within her.

Isard gave her an icy look, a look that spoke volumes about her desire to be questioned at that moment. "You are to relieve Lieutenant Waroen immediately, Commodore, then carry out my orders."

"Understood. Director, there is one problem however. ...I will likely need treatment again in the next few days. If I must resume wearing my suit for a while to stabilise this situation, I understand, Director," she added a moment later, if perhaps reluctantly. ...But Tanda very much wanted Isard right now to think that she was still quite beholden to her. Nothing could ruin the moment.

"When Lusankya is stable, Tanda... then you may. I am sorry, but this must be done. She is _unreliable_ , and that cannot be."

A sigh was forced. "I understand. I will restore order at once. May I bring my associates to the ship? Quarians are innate machinists and I would find them useful to monitor for sabotage and check systems status reports against the reports of a disloyal crew."

Isard waved her question off. "Go. Do what has to be done, I only insist you ensure there are no traitors left aboard that ruined ship."

 _Ruined?_ Tanda saluted crisply. "Understood, Director. I will right her. By your grace to leave?"

"Granted." Isard waved the woman off.

Tanda hastily used her omnitool to alert the Quarian lieutenant in charge of the rest of the shore party, securing transport up from the surface, and trying to figure out if she could get any of the ground-based stormtroopers as reinforcement. Her hands were trembling so much that she could not send the message, and had to try, and try again. _Lusankya_...!


	80. Chapter 80

That evening, and it was very late in the evening indeed when the round was finally over, Lando would be waiting. It was the promised suite, completely private, with no interruptions and nobody else present, except for Lando's personal assistant. Maycee kept their trialana fruit wine filled and hung in the background.

Liara arrived in the white dress, and Lando was waiting with the most winning smile imaginable. "Such a pleasure to see the wonderful Doctor T'Soni again," he rose as he spoke, bowing and stepping forward to pull the chair out.

Liara breezed forward with the balance worthy of a fighter to sit in the offered chair. "Thank you very kindly, General Calrissian. You are doing well in the tournament, I must say."

"So is your friend Miss Sunfire," he replied, holding an orange glass up. "Lady Luck makes her own decisions, though. The beauty of the galaxy, however, is constant."

"What about the beauty of the universe, General Calrissian?"

"Oh, please, call me Lando... The universe?" He leaned back. "Ten thousand galaxies threaded through the local supercluster, and I would imagine they all have beauty in them, perhaps beautiful women..."

"I can assure you about the beautiful women," Liara answered, rising to the occasion of the implication. "I'm from one of them."

"Did you know it's commonly believed that intergalactic travel is considered impossible here?" Lando didn't lose his composure, but he did look very interested, now. "I imagine that is... An Unknown Region, Doctor. So how did you get here?"

"Gree Space," Liara answered, levelly. "Through a Gree device."

Lando's face lost all expression. Liara grew quiet, watching him. Then he smiled, slowly. "That's quite the story. I assume that..."

"Proof?" Liara activated her omnitool for the first time. "There is plenty of that. There is also the reality, General Calrissian, that my galaxy is threatened..." She started to tell about the Reapers, leaning heavily on the omnitool and its wonders—generating equipment and models through the fabricator—to reinforce her story. Sometimes they ate, and the conversation went long into the night.

But Lando was shaking his head. "You know, I left this saving galaxies business for a reason. You're asking a tall order. You need to go to the New Republic—and I _can_ introduce you to the wonderful Princess Leia—to get the support you need."

"Oh, I've got a plan to get that," Liara shut off the omnitool, smiling. "I most assuredly have a plan to let us help ourselves. That will also avoid causing problems for your struggle with the Empire by diversion of resources—they are hardly dead yet, particularly Warlord Zsinj."

"And this plan brought you to a gambling tournament?"

"I know someone who's been selling Katana Fleet dreadnoughts."

Maycee gasped.

Lando leaned back and pursed his lips. "The Katana Fleet. Well, two hundred of those big stretched dreadnoughts would get your people out of the scrape they're in, Doctor. Another thing people don't necessarily believe in." He grinned. "I've seen stranger, though. ...Go on."

"Kaylata and I have a plan to recover the fleet. Five have been recovered and sold so far. Our lead wants to sell us two. We can run the command signal from the two we retrieve, and send the rest to our pickup point—control them back to our home galaxy, crew them, put them into service on our own. But we need the first two."

"You're going to make some ship-broker _very, very angry_ at everyone involved in this plot, my dear Liara. What do you want from me?"

"To lose the tournament to Kaylata, of course."

Lando launched out of his chair with a start that made Liara gasp. "My dear, you can ask many things of me, but I do _not_ throw card games."

"The Hero of Endor is going to let a galaxy die over his honour at the card-table?" Liara flushed. "Look here, I..."

"No, no, my wonderful Liara, I could never do that. I am just asking you to trust me. It seems we have the potential for a business arrangement," Lando answered, holding his hands up grandly. "If Miss Sunfire wins, all well and good. But we'll stack the odds on your mission. If _I_ win, I'll loan you enough money to buy your two dreadnoughts."

"And what's in it for you, General Calrissian?"

"Five dreadnoughts. A hundred and ninety should be enough for your purposes." He flashed that brilliant, winning smile of his. "You save your galaxy, and I get two hundred and fifty percent interest on a short-term swap loan. I'd say we all win, Doctor."

"What about the ship broker?"

"I can hire plenty of guards for the price of five dreadnoughts, and I _am_ Lando Calrissian. Of course, if you could stuff him into a locker on one of your dreadnoughts and only let him out when you get back home..."

Liara extended her hand across the table, and abruptly she was all Shadow Broker, in personality, demeanour and general countenance. "You've got yourself a deal, General."

He shook her hand steadily. "Then let's drink to it, my lovely Liara. The Katana Fleet."

"The Katana Fleet..."

-

Tanda sent for Tali at once, asking her to make the rendezvous from the _Valiant_ using the Stormtrooper Transport they had originally boarded the Alderaanian ship with. Tanda got aboard with a large detachment of _Dolorata_ 's crew-stripping her down to the bare minimum and putting her under her original Chief Engineer-the force including all the stormtroopers, and aides carrying the boxes of their possessions, crowding the shuttle as Tanda stepped up to her wife and leaned in to the cockpit of the shuttle. "Make course for the _Lusankya_ with all haste." Tali didn't know yet...

Starting slightly in her chair, Tali turned to give her a look, phosphorescent eyes wide through her visor. "... _Lusankya_?!" Inflection rising sharply, three-fingered hands flitted over her suit, checking for weapons and gear. _Are we_ boarding _the ship?_

Crewers kept marching aboard until the inside of the transport was as packed as a turbolift tube, standing room only. The moment they had the full draught aboard, the doors were sealed and they set out. Tanda reached out to hold onto a grab bar and steady herself. "I have been ordered by Director Isard to assume command of the _Lusankya_ ," she spoke, trying to keep her voice neutral and professional as she did.

" _Oh._ " There was a great deal of meaning in that single word, as Tanda's wife started checking a different part of her gear. "How... _bad_ is it, Commodore?"

" _Lusankya_ is in poor material condition, and beset by treason. The Lieutenant who is Second in Command, who I feel to be competent and reasonable, is presently the acting commander, so the number of officers removed was not great. We will set things right. The contractor group, including the new hires, is being sent up. I believe we are also getting eleven hundred regular Imperial personnel from the surface of the planet; there will be little else to rely on, unless we bring aboard Thyferrans as regular crew, which may require press-gangs. She is most certainly badly short on crew. Your job as Chief Engineer and commander-in-remote of the _Valiant_ -our personal combat drone, in a sense-will be quite difficult, surely the challenge of a career."

A smile broke across Tanda's lips, though she was starting to look dangerously unwell. "Nonetheless, there's nothing else really like her."

Even that was an understatement, or would have been if there were not more of her class. Half the size of the Citadel. The immensity of an _Executor_ seemed to know no bounds. She just swelled and swelled and swelled, and kept swelling. It was almost disturbing, that compact arrowhead, contrasting with the open Citadel. Grey. Dark. _MASSIVE_. They were less than a pinprick as they approached the vast internal bay fully capable of docking _Corruptor_ or _Conqueror_ and taking her into lightspeed.

"Challenge of..." Tali trailed off. The scale started to sink in the closer they got to the docking bay. " _Keelah..._ I'll see you again next galactic cycle. Maybe." She was quiet for another few moments, then almost frantically turned to her omni-tool to start working on familiarizing herself. _Frantically._

They drifted into the hangar on final approach, the shuttle pilots handling it themselves until the very last docking tractor grasped them and settled them gently down within the bay. A noticably reduced ship's company barely filled a quarter of the reviewing area. Tanda reached up to adjust her braid, settled down her cap for the first time since she had arrived, and finished adjusting her rank squares as a Commodore. "Commander Zorah, with me, please."

She would wait until the reinforcements dispersed from the transport to join the crew ready to be reviewed. And then in a measured stride, descend the ramp of the transport, gloved hands behind her back.

"Of course." _Ancestors, I hope you know what you're doing._ She adjusted her olive scarves, nervously fiddling with the Imperial rank displayed on them... and followed Tanda out, as a reduced, dispirited ship's company awaited their new commander. An _Exceutor_ commanded by a _Lieutenant_... and with a crew visibly terrified of her. Isard's handpicked new captain of her Super Star Destroyer.

"Do not doubt, that you are still the hope of entire nations for order and unity in the universe," Tanda began as she walked. "Forgive me, comrades. I will give you everything I can; but I am a frail woman, whose health was robbed in the service of the Empire. I beg you to trust me, in the confidence that if you trust me, all shall be right with our ship. _Lusankya_ can and will be the pride of the fleet. We will make her so together. You will see me, over the next days, forced back into a suit which will terrify you. I will, however, win you over with deeds. I am not asking you to obey me, but to follow me, in this adventure and every adventure subsequent to it - adventures of military bravery which is called for in these desperate and dire times. I cannot promise victory, but I can promise that my last breath will be spent in the service of this ship, and that it will not come later than your's. I take unto you my commitment to treat you justly as my family, without whom I may be the author of no victories! My record is known: I have served the Empire and to the Empire I have ever been true, for my entire life. I served at DEATHRON and I was one at the rear-guard at Endor. I have seen so very much of bitterness and I know you share that with me. Please, comrades, remain disciplined, work harder than you thought possible, and be confident in this ship. I will handle her as my own daughter, and you as my children also. In these times the usual platitudes have fallen short. The dream of the New Order will remain alive as long as we are fighting. Long Live _Lusankya_!"

Her words were met by an uncomfortable silence, as the crew held their ranks, not even daring to glance at each other - whatever had happened aboard the ship had left them more terrified than even the crews of DEATHRON had been of Vader, or so it appeared to be.

"Well, I will be the first to lead by example. Turn-to, _Lusankya_! I will work alongside you in the days to come. Dis-miss!" She turned away.

Obeying orders with a fear-filled aclarity, the crew dispersed. Tanda Pryl had herself an _Executor_ —if she could convince the crew to follow her.

"Come with me, Commander Zorah," leading _her_ personnel while the transports started to arrive from the surface-the paltry two thousand people she was bringing aboard the _Lusankya_ seemed to disappear like a single drop of ink into milk-to a brief tour of the ship before concentrating on the command tower. "Sweep my quarters and office, please, Commander," she offered before heading toward the bridge crew on duty.

"Understood. Come on, Arthree."

The bridge crew gave her sidelong glances - naval troopers stiffening to attention as she passed, and the Lieutenant who was her second-in-command stiffening to salute. "Captain on the bridge!" echoed out in the old style as those on the command walk came to attention as well, the crew on the consoles in the pits below continuing to work.

Tanda didn't waste a beat. "Stations! Shields up. Charge all turbolaser batteries. Bring engines to standby. Full up on all weapons and shield capacitors and charge the hyperdrive motivators. Bring the reactor to full power immediately."

There was a very real hesitation before they started to-a bit sluggishly-start to obey her orders. Uncertain... just what the reasoning _was_... and there were a great many lights glowing an angry crimson on the status displays as Lieutenant Waroen would announce, a good twenty minutes later. " _Lusankya_ is cleared for action, Commodore."

"Put together a list of everything that failed to work, Lieutenant Waroen, and forward it to Commander Zorah immediately. Also explain why it took so long," Tanda answered coolly.

"We have not been allowed to conduct any exercises but simulated ones, as per Director Isard's orders to... the former captain, ma'am." Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he frantically searched for any mercy in his commander's face. "The crew is... somewhat out of practice, and were likely not expecting to make ready to depart orbit without warning. Ma'am."

"Well, Director Isard hadn't told me I didn't have permission to conduct exercises," Tanda answered laconically. "Lieutenant, when we stand down, you will see to it that every division chief makes sure we stand down into a regular state of readiness. Specific reasons for the deficiency in response time must be provided by all the division chiefs as well. I expect them by this evening. We do not have much time."

"Ma'am... yes ma'am." His face was paling a bit. "I understand, prepare the ship for action generally." He nodded, sharply. "Do you expect trouble?" Almost as quickly he answered his own question. "I suppose so, after... Captain Yonka."

"Captain Yonka?" Tanda started. "What happened to Captain Yonka?"

"He defected, ma'am. With a public holo-message to Madame Director. It was the day before those..." He visibly shuddered. "Commodore, the Royal Guards came for Captain Drysso. You... didn't know? He... he insulted her a great deal in an open message and killed all the loyalists in his crew. The Director... in turn... executed the families of the _Avarice_ 's crew on Thyferra." Waroen was pale, face a bit splotchy from stress and terror—rumours about Pryl and Iceheart had spread through the fleet, if vague and uncertain.

"I just got back from Alderaan hours ago." She rocked, a bit. "Killed all of their families, did she? I had certainly not heard about that. Well, Director Isard exacts a terrible price for treason. Don't worry, Lieutenant. I'm not going to get your family killed, or the family of anyone here." She turned away. "You have the bridge."

"Ma'am!" He turned back to the command walk, stiffly walking along as the crew snuck nervous glances up at Tanda as she walked past.

She walked back to her cabin, hoping Tali was finished sweeping for bugs. _She had better be, anyway..._

When she stepped inside there was a pile of metal and circuitry piled up on the desk as her wife, her droid, and her drone were comparing notes. "That... _seems_ to be all of them, but the terminal's still a mess, so we won't use that... hi, Tanda!" The smile that couldn't be seen through Tali's visor suffused her body-language. "Forty-seven, but don't use the ship network for anything you want to keep quiet, un-doing _those_ changes would attract too much attention. We triple-checked." Her wave slowly trailed away. "So... how bad is it?" Her mood grew somber at the look on Tanda's face, and indeed Tanda's general physical condition. It looked like she were going to collapse.

"Captain Yonka defected. Director Isard massacred the families of all his crewmen. It happened after she had Drysso executed by Royal Guardsmen-and why she did, I'm still not sure. But I think that Doctor T'Soni's information plan... Finally blossomed."

"Not just that, by the data-wreckage left in the terminal." Tali sighed, and leaned against the desk in the room. "Commanding _Lusankya_ appears to have gone to his head. I think they left parts of his diary behind because they _wanted_ it to be found. We're... I think her plan blossomed and got just enough reality caught up in it to..." She sighed, and shook her head. "You have a lieutenant as an Exceutive Officer, but still have a Colonel commanding your fighters. It's... well, it's a mess, Tanda. Varrscha has to be _terrified_ to the point of non-functionality."

"I'm sure she is. Well, as long as she follows my orders, her terror has no reason to come true. At any rate, stand by to bring the mercenaries aboard also," she offered dryly. "I need all the warm bodies and warm fighters I can get..." Her eyes widened, and she started to cough, and cough more, holding her hands up... And finally dropping to her knees on the deck, her weakness became total, coughing and wheezing as she did. Blue, cerulean eyes looked up wide at Tali in a moment of aching vulnerability as her lungs seemed determined, to the outside observer, to heave themselves out of her throat.

" _Ancestors_ , Tanda!" Eyes going huge herself, Tali knelt beside her, fishing for a breath mask from her kit, and helping Tanda get it on, omni-tool out, programming the oxygen concentrator, forcing herself to stay calm and reach out with the Force. "... Come on, we've got to get you back into your suit." The tinge of regret in her voice was thick as Tanda's wife held her close and tried to help the coughing fit to pass.

Tanda sucked in her breath through the mask. The fit didn't seem to pass, just slowly fade away as she greedily drank in the oxygen from the mask. "Yes," she finally rasped. "Get it out of its case and start up-checking it. I'll be alright. With the mask. I was suppressing it-through the force. The ambush at Alderaan ran long as it was."

"All right, let me get the portable sterilizer set up, and..." Tali let out a soft sigh. "Well, it's not important and we'll get you safe." _Those bosh'tets in the crew will just have to deal with it!_ Like all Quarians, she was quick and efficient with a suit, laying out the suit, checking seams and systems. _Is it worse to know the feeling of freedom from the blasted suits, and lose it again, or never to know it at all...?_

Tanda slowly pushed herself to a sitting position against the bed, and settled the strap into place on the oxygen mask, watching Tali carefully. "I'm never going to get better, Tali'Zorah my love. But I think the suit looks really good on me..."

"...It does." She sighed, softly, as her hands bustled about, glancing back on a regular basis. "Very good on you, but _we_ will be free of these, together... one day. Some day. The Quarians _shall_ be free of these damned things. _All_ of us." _Don't give up, Tanda, your melancholy's contagious, especially when I think of how much is broken on this ship._

Tanda reached up and undid her braid, start to work her uniform off around the oxygen mask. "I am perfectly happy with you. I've learned this, to never need to question it. Whenever you're ready..."

"Ready..." Omni-tool out to check her work, Tali regretfully got started, layer after layer—sealing Tanda back in, the mask and scarf for last.

"Seals established," Tanda confirmed after a moment. "Self-cleaning routines confirm that the viral load of the atmosphere will be cycled before anything serious comes up. Thank you for the fine work as ever, my wife."

"Hey, come on, you know the very first step for a Quarian in _any_ crisis..." There was a hint of wistful regret in her voice as she tried to lighten the mood a little.

"Check suit integrity!" Tanda laughed, regaining her breath, and laughed harder.

Tali couldn't help but smile. Then she got down to her own bad news. "In other news, the ship's a mess. I think I need another one of these to raid for spare parts, but don't worry, we'll make do, my dear Tanda'Pryl vas Lusankya nar Commenor." Grinning, she shook her head. "At least she's not 'Reaper', _that_ would have been awkward."

"Just a little. I had thought of that, before!" She held out her hand for a chance to rise with Tali's helps.

Reaching out, she clasped Tanda 'round the wrist, and helped her to her feet. "Well, we're here. Now..." Tali took a breath. "Now we've got to do what we came here for, and it doesn't feel like it's going to get any easier."

"What it really comes down to is winning the crew over, Tali. Try your hardest. Please. It's a job for both of us."

"Well, let's hope we'll have the time to. Harder for you than me, you're _commanding_ what's left of this fleet."

" _Corruptor_ will be back in three days. I'll be trying my best. We're running out of time, Tali."

"A week. I want to head for Asation in one week. No longer."

"A week. All right, I'll..." She trailed off and looked down to her omni-tool, which had 'pinged'. "I'm not sure that we're going to have that much time, Tanda."

"Tali?" Tanda turned, playing with her headscarf.

"Arthree says the Thyferrans have announced a new program to fight the Ashern rebels on the local comm-nets." Her voice was hollow and distant as she looked up. "They say they'll be interning a thousand Vratix a day and executing them every month until the 'surplus population' is gone."

Tanda did not betray emotion, but Tali could still feel the hollowness that came out of her from the news. The feeling of resignation that led into the next sentence. "Get me control of the ship's comms. Kriff Isard. I mean it, let her complain."

Tanda turned to one box in their luggage, and started to unlock the sub-cases and clear identity checks. It was a very particular, very special box.

"Cancel leaves and recall the crew, too? You'll have to suborn Ensign Yesti, he's communications." To her wife's credit, she was already working at her omni-tool, sitting at the captain's desk and bringing up the terminal. "When you say 'control', you mean like EDI on the _Normandy_ , right, nothing in or out without your say-so?"

"That is exactly right. This is my ship, and Isard can get in bed with me if she wants me to give her anymore status reports than I'd have fed back to headquarters in Elrood. Not like she'll want to now."

"All right, then! I'll get the scan-shielded case I modded to look like a folded rifle and put mine into it? Just in case. Then I'll have my Eviscerator, my Widow, that pistol Admiral Xen gave me... and a fake rifle with my saber in it. That should be enough to stop _three_ charging Krogan. Or Royal Guards." Tali's confidence suffused her entire frame, as she grinned at her wife through her mask.

"There's one of them that's strong in the force, at least. Be careful, even though I have confidence in you." She stepped over to her desk, fiddling with her red headscarf and going to sit, bringing up a projection of the ship and frowning.

"Among other issues, why is the internal diagram showing a massive area of what should be the storage areas and troop accommodations still marked off as ..." Tanda opened and closed her mouth silently a few times. "Director Isard's prison is still aboard."

" _Ancestors_ , are the _prisoners_?! The prison they couldn't get rid of, but... just how awkward could this get, Tanda?" Tali's hand was twitching towards her shotgun in a sign of nervousness.

"Until we are free of Isard, we do nothing. We let her prison run itself, assuming it still does. I will try to sort out what is happening there."

"Fair enough?"

"No, Tanda. If she's rounding up sentients to kill on the planet, no. I want to know if they're still there, and what _else_ she's hiding. Ancestors, she already released a virus that was supposed to kill all non-humans, the _Collectors_ did that, and I want to make sure there's no horrors in the bow of _our_ ship! _Keelah_ , we're vas Lusankya, and I don't want yet _another_ galaxy to associate horrors with that name like this one does!"

"Well then, get control of the ship's computers and comm channels _first_ , Tali. I'll speak with Ensign Yesti."

"On it. I'll send a message to your omni-tool when I've succeeded, Tanda." A red warning symbol popped up over her omni-tool. "I'm headed down to the main computer core to get root access. This will probably take a few hours. Who knows _how_ many backdoors everybody put in, I found _four_ in _Dolorata_ , and she wasn't buried on the galactic capitol!"

"One thing, Tali. There's a kind of override that you shouldn't try to take out. Sending..." The code combination would go to Tali's omnitool instantly. "If you see this, just set up a ping on it to warn us if it's ever accessed. I have a bad feeling all of a sudden, and it made me think about this combination."

"... What's this one?" She looked up in confusion, and back down to the code. "Let me rephrase that: What is this code combination and how do you know about it? I don't like bad feelings."

"It's the one still in _Thunderflare_. I don't know for certain, but I remember this story, about someone arriving on a ship once - a rumour I shouldn't have even heard about it. She used a particular hard-coded backdoor to reroute the hyperdrive and shutdown onboard systems against the threat of treason, and then disappeared again. A special servant ... Of the Emperor. It's a personal code. And this ship had to be given personal attention by the Emperor. I'm worried that someone might still be around who would notice that change. Someone who the crew would not like us disobeying."

"Understood." Tali wasn't happy at all. It still sniffed of loyalty to the dead, dread Emperor. "I'll... can I quarantine it, so it'll ping our omni-tools for permission to run? I just don't like the thought of overrides in the hands of people I don't trust... or know... or... well. I'll trip-wire it, I just want to be able to quarantine it and decide whether to let it run in the cirumstances."

"See if that's even possible, first. It may have dedicated circuitry. There are things in these ships - well, good luck, Tali."

"If it's got dedicated circuits, that's what logic l-... I shouldn't go too far into detail, other than to say that... well, Xen was already a genius when she was a captain. I'll get started. Good luck with the crew."

"The Force be with you. Win engineering for me, please!"

-

During outbreaks of the Rakghoul plague, Tasiele Shan had honed the necessary Jedi detachment. She had come to recognise that what had once been alive and was now existing in a mockery of life, that a person dying in that transition, was best met with calm mercy. And she had come to learn how to quietly and patiently deal with the miasma of death that floated over a city destroyed.

Dead London was one of those places. Before her in the street there were twelve bodies, and crashed aircars had burned out abandoned buildings. Within them, the stench left no doubt of the greater number of corpses. The husks had moved on, except for the few she had killed.

Captain Anderson's expression at her side was ashen. Despite the want of the force that should have insulated them, the Resistance forces were taking the state of the city much worse than she was. It was clear that no-one survived here, not a single living soul except for themselves. Moving carefully through the wreckage, she found an entrance to a particular great building, an arena of some sort. They were still well to the south of the main core of the city.

Here, though, one of her team shortly found a stockpile of instant food, unused in the mass death all around. The British Army had resisted valiantly enough, and the Reaper offensive delayed enough by the repeated attacks on Earth, that it was said that Birmingham was still holding off the hordes of husks. They had nonetheless not been able to get supplies through to London for almost three months, and the unused food suggested there was nobody to supply, not then, surely not now.

The silence of the dead city was almost overpowering. The sunlight was swathed in the red of the evening, and was being rapidly obscured by clouds promising snow. There was something timeless and old in it, the life of a world, of an island on a world, a great island in the far northern latitudes. There were many worlds like it, but it was still unique. There were many worlds of humans, and this one, too, was still completely unique.

She ate recondensed soup with the rest of her squad, and eyed Anderson. "Your comms say it's supposed to be tonight, don't they?"

"Tonight," he answered gruffly. "Another ten hours, and your Imperial forces should be landing to the south of us—near Woking."

"And our target is in the heart of the city. It won't take the Imperials long, though. They're not mine, but they're certainly quite efficient at what they do."

"Destruction? Conquest?" Anderson laughed grimly, and looked back down to his instant noodle packet. "I'd agree with that. But so are the Reapers." He shook his head. "I don't understand why Shepard has thrown in her lot with an 'Empire'. I never will. She was so loyal, brave, honourable. Committed to the Alliance. You aren't like the other Imperials, though."

"Well, I've never been an Imperial. I am working with them, though, just like Shepard is. And that's really what it comes down. Shepard is a humanitarian, and she doesn't ask questions beyond that."

"And what we were doing wasn't good enough for her?"

"You denied the Reapers until was too late to form a united front, Captain. Admit it now. We may all soon be dead, and there's no point in pride when fighting for your life. Grand Moff Pryl was tireless, by contrast; she stood against her own people and her own beliefs for the sake of life—and she was completely unsupported. Wrong in her beliefs, sometimes evil, an uncertain trumpet and an unsteady hand. But you fight a war with what you have, not what you want. All Shepard had was Tanda Pryl."

Anderson looked morosely to the shattered, dusted ground of the room. "Well," he finally said hoarsely, "you're damned right. What do I do about it?"

"When Shepard arrives with the Imperial troops, we cross the Thames and we get the two of us through the processing beam," Tasiele said the words with trembling distaste. "And we destroy the Reapers."

"Is it going to work, Jedi?"

Tasiele looked up at the sky, now showing that ever-present image of the Citadel in low orbit, bright enough to obscure the stars, sick and evil. Around it were stars, but the wrong kind, fast moving. The stars of orbiting heavy Reapers. Her lips twisted into a grimace until she forced a smile.

"Of course it's going to work. We're going to finish the preparations, the landing will commence, and I'm going with Shepard into the beam." Her voice found its confidence, however insincerely.

"To activate the Crucible," Anderson nodded, his decisiveness asserting itself.

"To win the war," Tasiele answered.

-

The next morning, Tanda awoke to the inevitable message from Isard. She had her own questions for her ready, as she adjusted her headscarf over her helmet and settled into the chair at her desk, waiting for the message to resolve. Over the night, she had confirmed that the prison was still full. She had brought the mercenaries onboard at least, and with a full complement of Interceptors the combination was sufficient to make the bays seem half busy.

"Commodore Pryl." Director Isard was back to her cold distance, and frowning darkly at Tanda through the holo. "Report." Mismatched eyes tried to fix the woman she had chosen to return order to her fleet, and she had gone somewhat native, by the crimson civilian dress she was wearing.

" _Lusankya_ is organised, loyal, undercrewed, sluggish, and with a maintenance backlog I cannot begin to describe, Director. I've kicked them in the gut enough to get the ship shaking down properly in drills, but there are systems which in main battle will fail, turbolaser mounts which will jam, sectors which would lose atmosphere due to damage because the blast doors won't align properly. Without a deepdock it will take me weeks of concerted effort to address most of this."

"You do not have it, Commodore. We will have the location of the Rebel base within a week or two—you _shall_ be leading that attack with _all_ of the fleet, is that understood? You have forty-eight hours - then you must maintain six hours notice to hyper. You will be summoned for a briefing with your captains once the location of the enemy base is known."

"Director, give me the location of the base and I will attack it _now_. I was not making excuses; I was stating facts. _Lusankya_ can and will despatch three dozen starfighters and a bunch of light freighters."

"If I knew where it _was_ , do you think I would not have attacked it already, Tanda?" Annoyance coloured her voice, but she was, despite the suit, still using her first name, slipping into it naturally. The realisation made Tanda more than a little afraid, made her wonder if Isard was really feeling affection for her. Isard continued. "I have spurred the Rebels into acting hastily. That will allow us to find their base, and _then_ you will destroy it. With our _all_ strength, to ensure _Lusankya_ returns safely. I don't trust Yonka having vanished while gallivanting off to visit his mistress. Antilles knows we have your ship. I shall not make the mistake even His Majesty did and under-estimate the Rebels."

"Ysanne, I am not underestimating them, I." She sighed and held a hand to her forehead. "Please. We are resorting to mass executions of the Ashern, and we both know that against fanatical aliens that's of limited effect. I have a suggestion."

"I am listening. It's not as if Antilles would let the month pass anyhow. I would estimate it to take much less time than even that."

"We take all the bacta freighters we can tractor in the bays of the _Lusankya_ with full loads of the highest grade bacta available-that would be close to sixty, Director, a fortune of fortunes by any standard. Then we head straight for the Hapan Star Cluster and ask for asylum."

"What are you... _Asylum?!_ You over-estimate the Rebels' chances, Tanda!" Isard was visibly rattled by the very suggestion, though, and she pursed her lips in contemplation. "You're no coward by your record, is your disease wrecking your mind as well as your body... Or do you..." Her eyes narrowed. "What are you postulating that would render you so ill-confident? You certainly are the first of my advisors to use _we_ when plotting your escape."

"I'm not leaving Thyferra without my lover!" Tanda half-snarled. "Ysanne, what do we do? Did you see how Teradoc treated you? The Hapans would _never_ give you up. They've flaunted the Republic for generations. I'll beat Antilles for you _before_. That still won't solve the Ashern problem, and if we try orbital bombardment, the New Republic will intervene to save the bacta supply. After we beat Antilles, what happens next? An _Executor_ and two star destroyers, two light ships. A single major planet, twenty minor colonies. Surrounded by a rebel government that is living up to its name more and more by the day. I haven't even seen the Krytos Virus being reported as a serious matter in the news for the past week on HNN. No drydock, no supply chain..."

She tried to convey as much earnestness as the suit would let her, and to some extent, it was real. "I am offering you the best advice I can in the circumstances. If I don't know something you have planned that changes this strategic calculus, out of my ignorance, I apologise. But you're hearing the best advice based on what I know."

For the first time in a _very_ long time, a sentient had successfully shocked Ysanne Isard into silence. Her eyes had widened a fraction, and the silence stretched on for quite some time. "I shall give orders to begin loading the freighters." Her voice was soft, quiet, missing its' usual energy. "Well, I cannot call it defeat, so... After Antilles is defeated. Only then. The cover shall be a new method of distribution given the ongoing attacks on the convoys."

Tanda raised her hand in salute. "I'll be ready."

Isard's holo flickered out without acknowledgment or response.

Tanda sank back, and started double-checking through her holo-logs. There was the frantic message from Liara: _Will make a rendezvous at Thyferra within three days. Have major lead on the Katana Fleet, will need to proceed to Asation for the exchange of the first ship -may need Tali's help with getting the rest. Please advise._

She dashed back a simple comms: _Make all haste. Peccavi._

And there was another returned message from Admiral Daro'Xen. Tanda didn't know what was going on with that, and the lack of communication now that they had a secure hyperwave transmitter was making her more and more concerned.

"Tali, what's your status? We've got a few days at least before Isard pulls the trigger, and I've got her, in principle, to agree to leave Thyferra, which gives us an opening. But she still wants us to go after the Rogues."

"Tanda, our tactical situation is a mess, _Lusankya_ , she's a mess, too. They actually threaten us, the Rogues, that's for certain, and... the more time I have, the better. A comprehensible number of proton torpedoes could start collapsing shield sectors, Tanda. We're doing what we can down here, but I need more people, droids, parts, and time. Which, if you're calling me, means I'm getting none of those four things." Her complaint ended on a wry note. "So how would _you_ hurt us, if you were on the other side?"

"Try to coordinate a massed torpedo salvo off the freighters by getting us to shift our fire to something that seems more pressing. I really can't think of a good way to pull it off without a capital ship or a lot of sacrficial starfighters in a second group."

" _Avarice_." There was the noise of a sharp intake of breath and her filters adapting to it.

"Tali... Do you think you could raise _Avarice_ without Isard finding out? On hyperwave comms, I mean."

There was a very short hesitation before her wife replied simply; "Yes. Well. I can get in touch with them. As to whether they _answer_..."

"...Please try. I am standing by."

"Through your omnitool. Stand-by. It'll be a quarter-holo."

It took about ten minutes before Tali came back; "Connection standing by. Go ahead whenever you're ready, Tanda, I'll mute my pickups, but I'll be in the circuit."

"Sair... It's Tanda. Lusankya commanding. Please advise and reply. This channel is secure—this channel is secure..."

Her omni-tool would flicker to life, the projector showing Sair Yonka standing in a black suit of a military cut, without insignia. "Ah, Tanda. You've gotten your hands on _Lusankya_. Is Madame Director still among the living? If so, I console you on your losses."

"Ysanne is still on the planet. She is less convinced these days that she is going to still be Director of the Bactacorps in a week, though," Tanda answered cautiously, and rocked back. "My Quarians swept the ship quite well. I wish you were here."

"Antilles shot my mistress in front of me, then offered me an indescribably large amount of credits." He looked off-pickup. "He also gave me a path out from working for a madwoman. I had been planning to leave when she demanded I do something my conscience would not let me... my only regret, I wish I had been able to get our dependents out of her clutches. The Empire's gone, Tanda. Antilles gave me a path into what's replacing it. We'll lay low in the Outer Rim until Isard's gone. Then I'll follow the family tradition and serve the rightful galactic government. I wish you were here as well. Isard's a bloodthirsty insane monster, and you _know_ it."

"Sair... I wish you had held out a little while longer. I blame myself for letting your crews' families die. You see, I ... I was going to make an offer, too. Don't you remember my redoubt?"

"He had me at gunpoint, Tanda." The man shrugged. "He got there first. I'm sorry. There's nothing to be done for it. Antilles... seems like a good man. You could likely get a similar offer, you know. He'll destroy you, otherwise." Yonka's voice had conviction to it, as he shook his head in sad commentary on the situation.

"I got _Lusankya_ for a reason, Sair. There's another galaxy... The Gree reached it once, tens of thousands of years ago. I was shephering a project researching their technology on the Outer Rim-one of the Emperor's black projects. The Rebels attacked, hard. That's when I disappeared, those years ago. I tried to use the device they were building to reach Oxtroe at Empress Teta, and got sucked to this other galaxy instead."

"The homeworld of humanity is there, Sair. It's under threat... By a powerful alien race. _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ weren't enough for me to defeat them. I left them under Captain Turla- _Conqueror_ 's commander-to keep fighting and keep hope alive. And I came back here to steal an _Executor_." She paused, breathing rhythmically through her mask. "And I just did."

She tapped the table and her eyes glinted through the mask of her suit. "As soon as I can get the crew on my side, I'm leaving for it. I want you to come with me."

"You... _do_ know how completely mad you sound right now, yes?" She was getting a sidelong look by a man visibly no longer certain of his conversational partner's sanity. "Beyond the galaxy, the homeworld of humanity, powerful aliens... and you want me to _come with you?_ "

"Ever seen a Quarian before I showed up with a shipload of them? Or an Asari before Doctor T'Soni arrived with me? Look, I could send you everything. But even if I'm insane, what I am not going to do is prop up Isard's power. Pull Rogue squadron off. Give me _time_. If you won't follow me, at least don't work against me. Please."

"I must either follow you or work against you, Tanda. Whether or not to double-cross..." Yonka let out a soft sigh. "I'm not leaving Aellyn. If I don't work against you, she's in danger, and what I've been offered is void. I fear you will need a better offer, Tanda. If you send me everything, I shall... consider it, but..." He trailed off. "Understand my position."

"Understand mine," Tanda answered softly. "And bear in mind that the disease I suffer from has either started destroying my mind, or I am fighting for the survival of an entire galaxy. If I have to fight the Rogues again, I am going to come in like someone opened a portal to let me go back in time and save Humbarine. I'm not going to hold back. I won't kill for Isard. But I will kill for the motherworld of the human race."

"If it comes to it, Tanda... I _will_ hold back. I can do that much. Unless you can bring Aellyn with us... I won't follow you. I'm sorry."

"The time to arrange that is, I fear, very short. For both of us."

"What is this madness, where the loyal and the good and the countrymen and the comrades fight each other?" Tanda rocked listlessly to the side.

"I will do what I think right. And so will you."

"I need a deniable, _fast_ ship." He looked up to her, and sighed explosively. "Quickly. If you can do that... without Isard knowing... perhaps. If you can do that, send me your information. And I shall consider it."


	81. Chapter 81

Every day that had passed, Tanda had gotten up and made tireless rounds of the ship. She had abandoned the normal operational paperwork. She could force herself to do it later. Instead she checked every space she could reach, screened every division leader, worked to clearly delineate the responsibility of the detachments aboard now making up the hodge-podge reinforcements to the crew, and ran every single drill that she could possibly schedule. _Lusankya_ was essentially a backlog of requirements floating in space, and the need to correct that fast permeated everything. She knew she was going to run out of time, and then she did, three days on, before _Corruptor_ had even finished returning on her backup hyperdrive.

The final shattering of normality was heralded by something deceptively simple. Her commlink went off, early in the ship-cycle morning; "Commodore, Madame Director Isard's office has ordered your presence on the surface - with all of the other captains." The note of real fear in his voice could not be hidden even by the low quality of the transmission through a portable com-link.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," she answered. There would only be the three of them, then, with _Valiant_ being listed as a ship's drone to the _Lusankya_. Which was good, as Tanda did not want Ysanne and Tali'Zorah in the same room. She headed promptly to the shuttlebay. The great ship was so huge it had an entire network of not turbolifts, but transit cars, magnetically held in place but with locking rollers for emergencies and loss of power, an entire maglev subway network that had to be maintained and operated seamlessly to connect the different sectors of the ship, with its own airtight doors. For the moment, it at least still worked, and she was to the shuttle bay in bare minutes.

Lakwii Varrscha had come over in a TIE Shuttle, to allow _Virulence_ 's small craft to concentrate on recovering her leave parties - and to let her meet her commanding officer for the first time since her mentor and patron had... come to a bad end. Taller and more muscled than Isard, she did not radiate the same kind of charisma the Coruscanti woman or even a suited Tanda did, raven-black hair pulled back into a fleet braid and closely guarded, faintly almondine eyes watching the suited Commodore approach.

"Apologies," Tanda offered as she approached. "But the situation is too urgent for me to receive medical treatment, and my lungs started to fail, so my Chief Engineer helped to seal me back into my suit."

"No need for any apologies, Commodore Pryl." She did salute without hesitation, even if she was keeping her face carefully blank, and unsure of what to say beyond the bland reassurance.

"Then let's get going," Tanda replied, stepping into the shuttle at her side. "I've always been very pleased with your efforts. _Virulence_ just seems to operate, unlike the rest of the melodrama in the fleet."

"I know my duties, ma'am, thank you." Her eyes widened fractionally, and she darted a look over, suddenly unsure if that was meant to be an unabashed compliment, and again - what did you say, when you were the _protégé_ of an executed traitor? None of Isard's original captains had survived, now, and the thought wormed the way into her brain that she might be _next_.

"I need you, Captain. You have not been given the opportunity nor motivation to stand out before. Now you'll have your chance, and we have great need of you."

Varrscha searched Tanda's visor for any sign that she was being mocked, before leaning back into the seat with a softly frustrated sound. "If you say so, Commodore. As to what _Virulence_ can do compared to _Lusankya_ , I am unsure."

"I need screening coverage. _Lusankya_ is in poor material condition. You must be prepared to fight _Avarice_ to allow me to concentrate my shields in sectors under attack by snubfighters."

" _Avarice?!_ Her voice dropped an octave, and the other officer's eyes went wide. "You believe that we will be attacked by Captain Yonka? All intelligence has him placed somewhere in the Outer Rim, hiding from..." trailing off, Varrscha blinked, and looked worried. " _Avarice_ is a crack ship, ma'am."

"Just hold him off for a while, then I'll turn _Lusankya_ 's attention to him. Of _course_ he's going to attack us, even if Director Isard has no evidence. He's working for Antilles now. Has to be." Tanda watched the jungle rising up below them, as Varrscha continued to speak, her nervousness getting the better of her.

"Ma'am, _Virulence_ can do that. I know we're expendable compared to _Lusankya_."

Tanda glanced back sharply. "Don't call yourself that, even though. If you fight to keep your ship alive, I'll come through for you."

"Ma'am, there's no need for you to re-assure me, but... thank you. I won't let you down."

"Then we're going to win this little war. And then the Director will sort out what to do." Xucphra city was appearing ahead, threatening with the stench of death. Isard had started to kill people, and Tanda, as the officers disembarked to go to her palace, was very glad for the suit.

Meeting up with Lt. Commander Restevo, who two months ago had been _Dolorata_ 's Chief Engineer and was now her Captain, the three officers made their way in a single speeder car from the spaceport to Isard's palace. The city felt tense, very tense, around them, and Tanda looked impassively at the debris in the streets, the Vratix workers nervously operating under Thyferran Defence Corps supervision. There were cargo lifters there, that they were stacking bodies into, and the signs they had been carrying were being thrown into piles to be burned. The garbage which had once been their most precious possessions as poor aliens dispossessed of their own world, being swept up and thrown into dumpsters.

But just two blocks down, there were groups of humans and vratix past the security cordon milling about in the streets. They clustered until patrols of Thyferrans approached, or the rushing speeder car they were in appeared into view, and then they quietly dispersed back into the required groups of four or less mandated by the declaration of the State of Siege. And Tanda could see, and feel, the anger and contempt in their eyes and hearts. They weren't afraid.

 _She doesn't understand this game at all. She's a spy, not a ruler._ Tanda tapped her fingers into the armrest of her seat. The other two officers looked manifestly uncomfortable. They passed the sight of another protest subject to live-fire dispersal. There, _there_ , humans had fallen alongside the vratix. The collection of the bodies and burning of the slogans, it was all the same. Her breath came in ragged, sharp intakes and she barked a single savage laugh.

"They'll be back."

Varrscha started, her face paler than it should be as she looked out the viewports, mouth set in a firm line. Not having been asked to comment, she did not, as the city rolled past them. The air in the speeder seemed to grow oppressive, the air conditioning struggling valiantly, but doing nothing to shake the growing weight of seeming impending doom that hung over the regime.

The security, in the form of Stormtroopers, was heavy around the palace, though it wouldn't last long when the end came. There just weren't enough troops to go around, a single division of Stormtroopers for the city and scarcely that much more in the rest of the planet, a few scattershot regiments of Imperial Army troops doubtless fortifying their cantonments at the moment. Tanda was no longer even sure how much Ysanne Isard realised of the situation she was in, and it didn't really seem to matter.

Being led up to her office by two of them, and having to pass two of the crimson-clad Royal Guards left the other two captains very quiet, as Isard stood before a holo-tank, dressed in her crimson uniform - with Fliry Vorru standing to the side, leaning against a pillar. "Commodore, Captain, Commander. The Rebels have acted as we expected. We have their base." The holo-tank flickered to life, zooming in on the homeworld of the Givin - Yag'Dhul.

"There it is, then. You will be attacking an _Empress_ -class space station. The armaments and shielding are minimal, though the chance that some upgrades are in place cannot be overlooked. The Yag'Dhul system is twenty-four hours from here. I expect the station to be destroyed and you to return here within sixty hours from now. Are there any questions?"

"Yes, actually; Madame Director, are the Givin expected to offer resistance to the operation?" Tanda asked, folding her hands behind her back.

"They remain officially neutral, though they have given back-channel permission for Antilles' pirates to use Yag-prime as their base. For that reason, you are only to destroy the station, not bombard the planet."

"Understood. Are there any further instructions, Madame Director?"

Isard shifted her attention to Captain Varrscha and she paled as Isard focused on her. "Captain Varrscha, you understand the mission as it has been given to you?"

"Yes, ma'am. The _Virulence_ is to offer all aid and assistance to the _Lusankya_ to complete its mission. I will execute Commodore Pryl's orders instantly."

"Ah, I see." Isard's eyes narrowed. "Following her orders is admirable, but what would you do if you thought she was making a mistake?"

If anything, she got even paler, as Varrscha managed to force out "I don't understand the question, ma'am."

Anger curled its way through Isard's voice. "Are you capable of taking the initiative, Captain? If the _Lusankya_ were suddenly faced with a threat, could you act to head that threat off without an order from Commodore Pryl?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Very good, Captain." Isard strolled over to where the other woman stood, her voice dropping to the level of a growled whisper. "Understand this: The _Lusankya_ is more valuable than you _or_ your ship. Its preservation is vital for our continued success here at Thyferra. You will do whatever you must to see to it that the ship returns here. I consider you a shield between the Lusankya and disaster."

Isard spun away from her and addressed all four of the individuals in the room. "If Antilles knows we are coming, he will have something prepared to oppose us. Even if he has not anticipated us, I do not think he will be helpless. He will be desperate, and desperation can inspire people to great feats of heroism. In desperation there is danger for our forces, so you must be careful. If your victory costs us too much, we could be in jeopardy."

"I will be making all possible preparations to remove the possibility of effective resistance. The destruction of the base must be effected with the utmost alacrity. Thank you, Madame Director. May we speak privately?"

"The rest of you are dismissed." Her eyes narrowed as she looked to Tanda, any hint of uncertainty in her expression firmly suppressed.

"Would you formally log through the Imperial communications channels that remain, my appointment to the rank of High Admiral, the highest which may be given without the authorisation of the Emperor?"

Isard, leaning onto her desk, folded her arms before her, a quizzically skeptical look settling over her face. "High Admiral. You know that none of the fleet acknowledges my authority any longer... why _now_ , Tanda?"

"I wish the blessing of the ruler of the Empire before these last days begin."

"... What does it matter?" Isard sighed bitterly, and unfastened the flap of her uniform jacket, an almost shocking lack of decorum and poise from her. "You have it, Tanda, but what _does_ it matter anymore? None will acknowledge it."

"Because it does not fit the commander of the Imperial Navy to only be a Commodore, Madame Director. Because how could I go on if I was not an officer of the fleet?" She dropped to her knee. "My liege lady to serve with my life."

"I am not the Empress, Tanda. I never claimed to be, others gave me that title. Everyone is preparing to flee..."

"They're already packing their suitcases in the executives' palaces, stuffing them with credits," Tanda agreed, simply, and with a cynical bark to her words. "It's mostly about the death of a dream. Mothma's already issued a decree, you know, that disperses power back to the sectors. The galaxy will be in worse chaos than it was under the Republic within a decade."

"The Rebels had their own dream. Their own ideals. They never saw, never acknowledged... what does it matter? From the moment I became Director, I tried to do what I thought His Majesty would want me to. Always. Always for him. Then for his legacy." Isard looked down at her hands. "I _failed_ him, so utterly."

"There were forces at work greater than either of us understood, then." Tanda rose, slowly, having spoken more honestly with Isard than ever before. "By your leave?"

"I will be coming with you, Tanda." Isard reached up, to re-fasten her jacket, and stood. "There are things that must be done on _Lusankya_ , and time draws short for them. A few things to be denied to the Rebels, still."

"If you do, we'll lose the planet within hours and the concentration of bacta transports will be denied to us, and Captain Girralt and _Corruptor_ cut off on their return, just when we've arranged the parts here for the hyperdrive motivator repair, too," Tanda answered, cautiously. "You should be able to hold out for another few weeks, at least. But as usual, I don't understand the magnitude of what you have planned," she added, with a trace of hesitance. Her hands felt stained with treason.

"There are contingencies you are not aware of, Tanda..." Isard seemed to weigh something, and murmured, barely audible. "... All shall see my return to Thyferra shortly."

"Very well, then. This way, Madame Director." She turned. "The sooner we get going, the less likely the Rogues will be ready for us."

Nodding, Isard moved to follow, looking around the office as if she did not expect it again - as soon as the door cycled, however, her confident, detached mask re-settled on her face.

As Tanda led the Director out of the palace, she stopped by the ornate fountain at the entrance, drawn by a human story of the motherworld. She washed her gloves in the fountain, rubbing her hands together in the cool, clean water that stood in sharp contrast to the heat and growing squalor outside, and then picked up her stride again. The gesture cleared her mind and fixed her course.

Isard was looking at her curiously as the air-car came 'round for them, eyes growing distant and hard as she heard the occasional sounds of blaster-fire from the city. It was the period after the Emperor's death all over again.

"Captains, Madame Director will be accompanying us," Tanda said simply.

The look of terror that Varrscha barely suppressed spoke volumes for _her_ reaction to that news, and the two other officers unconsciously tried to move as far away as they possibly could. Isard, at least, was silent, as she plucked her Admiral's rank boards off her uniform, drawing her hair back into a tight bun. The transformation was stark.

Tanda turned toward her to receive the boards, bowing her head again as she did, on the steps in the brutal heat of Thyferra. Ysanne Isard's hands didn't hesitate, as she clipped her own rank badge onto Tanda, standing there in the unadorned crimson she had worn before Endor. "High Admiral Pryl." She plucked one of Tanda's rank cylinders off as well, and stood back.

"For the Empire!" Tanda snapped off a salute, and then it was time to get into the speeder and make for the spaceport. The haze rising over the city was not entirely smog, these days. Now the jungle stench mingled with the smoke that had been the lives of a people groaning to be free.

The silence was if anything, even more oppressive on the way _back_ to the spaceport. The game was growing even more dangerous. The shuttles recovering personnel were there, and so was the one they had arrived in, a simple fleet hack with no adornment, a typical Lambda. The spaceport at least still made the city seem like it was in a state of military order, and in the hot afternoon's sun, Xucphra was in a momentary lull.

Isard did not even look up, moving to the shuttle, to where she was exposed to observation for the least possible time. The other two captains were, for their part, still both confused and deeply worried—why _was_ Ysanne Isard here, _now_?

Once they were all aboard, Tanda reached over to her omnitool. "Scramble two squadrons of X-wings to cover our ascent. The code is Nexus." She looped her arm into a stanchion behind the cockpit, looking back at the rest, and the two Royal Guards at the very back. They bothered her the most.

Isard, working at a datapad - a space around her none dared penetrate into, and the Royal Guards cast an aura over the entire affair, as Elite and Might squadrons rose, dark-painted THDC X-Wings moving into an escort position. The equipment moving up to the ships, bacta freighters being marshaled... it could still be a convoy, but the level of preparation on the ground make it unlikely the Ashern would mistake it for anything but an offensive strike.

Tanda interfaced with the comms to the _Lusankya_. "Commander Zorah, bring the ship to Condition Two and stand by for departure into hyperspace. Twenty-five hours and we will be in combat."

Then she looked to Isard. "Could Madame Director order all the droids on Thyferra collected? They will be more reliable than Thyferran people at this point."

Tali's calm repeating of the orders echoed over the commlink as she acknowledged them was at least somewhat calming, as Isard looked up. "The order may be made through Vorru... but it will worsen the reliability situation. You believe them necessary?"

"If we can hold for sixty hours... It would be useful to help maintain the _Lusankya_ , Madame Director."

"The longer you wait, the more time Antilles has to prepare for your arrival, Admiral Pryl. There are a great many dead naval officers who made the mistake of under-estimating the Rebels you are to crush."

"Forgive me. I am far more pessimistic than that; I mean if Vorru can hold Thyferra for sixty hours for us to return. We will be leaving in less than one standard hour."

"I shall be able to hold Thyferra until your return, and any Ashern gains will vanish like sand in the rain once you do, Admiral Pryl." She at least _seemed_ confident as she turned back to her datapad.

"Then we could use the droids." She stared at Isard for a moment, wondering at the _I_. "We must depart with the utmost urgency," she added, as the shuttle was lost into the bulk of the _Lusankya_.

"Of course. There shall be a shuttle arriving from the planet, on the fore-most bay. You will have it cleared of all personnel until you are informed otherwise."

"Understood." Tanda commed in the orders. "Transferring prisoners?" She glanced to Isard as they setted in for a landing.

The woman in the crimson uniform gave her a warning look, with a glance to the others in the shuttle, without directly answering.

Tanda smiled under her mask. "Of course." The ramp went down, and then she waited for Isard and her guards. Then she followed them, and the shuttle immediately lifted off to deposit the other two commanders on their ships.

She headed up for the bridge with Director Isard and the Royal Guards, keeping her emotions, her feelings, her power carefully suppressed. Her feelings slipped into a clear conception of her duty as she stepped onto her bridge. "Lieutenant, time to readiness?"

Distracted, Isard tapped at a datapad - not that it stilled the ripple that flitted through the bridge at her arrival. "Ma'am! Engineering estimates fifty minutes to readiness to break orbit."

"Very well. You still have the bridge. For now." She turned back toward her cabin. "Does Madame Director wish to accompany me?" She asked, softly.

"Yes, but there is little time. I must get forward." She shook her head, with a hint of regret on her face as she turned to the Royal Guards. "To the forward shuttlebay. I shall meet you there when my work is done."

"I will be waiting."

And so she was, organising things, fiddling with her headscarf. Checking the messages from Tali, having warned her about the Royal Guards and need to watch for more spy devices being added to the computers.

Most of the remaining time had passed, before her omni-tool chirped with a message from Tali. _Isard's left the ship with her guards._

 _...She told me she'd meet me back at my quarters shortly...!?_ Tanda jerked. _I really now have no idea what's going on. What's our readiness to departure?_

 _Fifteen minutes. Having a few problems, so let's say thirty in case anything else decides to fail._

It was at that point the entrance chime to Tanda's quarters sounded. Tanda walked slowly forward and keyed the door open, a faint tremble to her arms where they met her artificial wrists.

Standing there, with blonde hair tied back into a bun, stormly grey eyes, and a calmly bored expression, was a woman wearing the white jacket and olive trousers of Imperial Intelligence, a blaster holstered at her hip. "Assistant Bureau Chief Katya Nyroska, Admiral. Madame Director has assigned me to be your Intelligence liaison."

"My pleasure, Chief Katya." She gestured into her quarters. "Please, there's a few things we need to go over."

"Of course." Possessed of an incredible self-assurance, light footfalls sounded on the deck as she stepped in, looking about to take the layout in.

Tanda keyed the door closed and stepped over to her desk, bringing up the holoprojection of the Yag'Dhul system. "This is how I'm going to take them..."

-

Tanda took to the bridge as the countdown alarms to reversion from hyperspace chimed. They were coming in fast and hard, with the _Virulence_ anchored on the left and the _Dolorata_ tailing the great Star Dreadnought. Katya was on the bridge with her, otherwise, it was just the bridge crew, Tali firmly at her backup station in engineering. This was the moment that they could not escape from, the moment when she would have to beat Rogue Squadron. Then... _A fleet of transports, bacta, equipment, waiting... A rendezvous with_ Corruptor _and a chance to secure the allegiance of_ Avarice _shall all be our's. If only Daro'Xen would answer!_

The Chief Navigator, Lieutenant Roison, looked up from the pit where he worked. "We're coming in as scheduled, ma'am. The station is in orbit around Yag'Dhul, occupying an orbit outside of that of the largest of Yag'Dhul's three moons, with its position always opposite that moon. We are coming in on the only good entry vector that won't run us afoul of the world, its moons, or the system's sun. The station should be clear for an attack once we close into range. Five minutes to reversion. _Virulence_ and _Dolorata_ report no problems, nav-computers slaved to our own."

"What's our minimum possible interval for reentry versus the position of the station?" Tanda brought up a micro-plot on her omnitool, considering how close she could get in to the station as she investigated the various potential options. None were good.

"Ten minutes at standard sublight, ma'am. Engineering has requested I not task the engines unless necessary."

"I suppose that is necessary. We are rather far from deepdock." She turned away. _Of course, to get to the Milky Way I first need to survive this battle, and my preferred method of surviving it would be to come in much closer..._ She tapped on her omnitool. _Do we actually have any reserve over what Lieutenant Roison is reporting, Tali?_

 _Standby._ There was a pause. _By cutting it close and accepting a bit of strain, maybe a minute or two. You can see the gravity wells yourself, we're sailing into a chokepoint, and that's a big moon it's orbiting._

 _It is all right, Tali. I will play it conservatively. I just wanted to know if I had any reserve._ She turned back and waited as the last chime sounded and Lieutenant Roison, without further prompting, eased back on the hyperdrive levers.

The light tunnel of mottled, maddened whites and purples through which the ship sped began to break down into long shafts of light. They, in turn, resolved themselves into unwavering gemstones set in a black blanket. Directly ahead of the ship's distant prow, the system's sun burned brightly. Yag'Dhul and its moons appeared as colorful spheres hanging in space. Silhouetted against Yag'Dhul's gray face, the space station appeared to be little more than a cross—insignificant and defenseless.

"High Admiral, we're showing signs of snubfighter deployment at the station

"Well, that's to be expected. Proceed ahead at... Recommended thrust." She folded her hands, glanced to Katya, and started to pace.

"Yes ma'am. Colonel Arl requests instructions for the fighter wing. Ten minutes to range. Sensor sphere is clear within standard tactical range." What followed was the usual variety of reports from the crew pits as the woman from Intelligence stepped back to one of the bridge wings to observe.

Then, the expected course of the battle changed. "Ma'am, the snubfighters are going to lightspeed."

Tanda looked up. Despite the report being unexpected, she was still almost insouciantly calm. "Bearing?"

Lieutenant Waroen waited for his astrogator to finish the calculation, before looking up and speaking. "Outbound for Thyferra, ma'am."

A shrug. _Well, that was their second most likely course of action._ "Warn Minister Vorru to prepare his defences and sent an urgent message to Captain Girralt. He will be attacked by at least one ISD, multiple light freighters, two to three squadrons of snubfighters. Are we within bombardment range of the station yet?"

"Five minutes, ma'am." The answer came from Waroen, then the communications officer raised his voice above the constant murmur of a Star Destroyer bridge in combat. "Admiral, we have an incoming message from the station."

"Put it through."

On the holoprojector pad, an image began to resolve itself into that of a tall man with one artificial eye.

Tanda polarised her facemask. "Sir, you are under my guns. Your Rogues have deserted you and they will not be able to win Thyferra in the time it takes me to destroy your station."

"I sent the fighters off to play with something more their size." The tall man's hologram placed its fists on its hips. "I'm Booster Terrik, and this is my station. Your rate of closure puts you five minutes out from your preferred range for this sort of operation. I'll give you those five minutes before I destroy your ship."

 _Tali, give me extra power,_ she tapped on her omnitool, and looked back up. "I'm not Drysso, and _Lusankya_ is not some toothless hulk."

Terrik's image laughed. "That may be, but we've made some modifications to the station." The figure nodded to someone outside the image area, and _Lusankya_ gave an almost imperceptible lurch that was _not_ the engines spinning up.

"Are we ahead full?" She glanced down into the pits.

The communication had gone blank on their end, by the telltales, Roison reporting; "Yes, Admiral, ahead full. Three minutes to range." as Waroen looked up, fire-red hair over a pale face growing paler. "Ma'am! Contacts on long-range scanners near the edge of the system! Appears to be a mixed group of freighters and snubfighters, outbound on the direct vector to Thyferra."

"Fire on a salvo of concussion missiles on ballistic trajectory."

"... Attempting to... they're going to lightspeed, ma'am." Sweat beaded on his face—Drysso would have berated him for failing to notice the contacts _before_ they'd escaped.

"Countermand and shift that salvo to the station. The faster we knock down their shields the better." _Tali, was that bump an engine going out?_

 _Negative... grav-well projector, Tanda._

There was a much _harder_ lurch, then.

"... We're trapped in a tractor lock, ma'am, multiple generators! The station is hailing us!"

Tanda braced herself into the deck, and this time her voice raised from the strain. "Maintain engines full ahead!"

" _Emperor's black bones!_ " was torn from Lieutenant Waroen's throat with a voice of abject horror.

She watched the missiles disappearing into the distance, even if they ran out of fuel a station could not evade them. A single salvo would not damage the station but it would put its shields on the back-hand, and she had twenty-nine more where that came from. "L'tenant, explain yourself."

Waroen was engrossed in a monitor, and managed to get out in a hoarse voice "Ma'am, we have multiple proton torpedo and concussion missile sensors locked onto us."

"Multiple?" Tanda glanced down, and then back over. "Are we still being drawn in, L'tenant Roison, or did they shift to repulsion when we kept our thrust up?"

"Still drawing us in, ma'am!" came from Roison, as Waroen went on, an edge of panic starting to flit around the bridge. "Many, ma'am. Well over three hundred." He finally looked up. "We're dead, ma'am."

She activated an open channel to engineering. "Commander Zorah, remove the safeties on the hyperdrive motivator." And then: "Accept the hail from the station." The ship lurched, hard, as some of the tractors shifted to repulsion, others still pinning her in place.

Terrik flickered back into view. "Admiral. You can try to break free, but if you do, I've got to see a man about a guarantee he gave me. Now, for your terms of surrender?"

Even as he spoke, though, the battle wasn't over. There was yet another lurch, completely unexpected by them both, and the angry red warnings on the plotting board flickered out, as _Virulence_ lanced upward, eclipsing the station and interposing herself against the tide of destruction Yag-prime promised to unleash on _Lusankya_ , visibly lurching as the tractors pinned her like an insect, drawing her closer like some great carnivorous plant.

Tanda's eyes widened as her threat to ram the _Lusankya_ into Yag'Dhul fell unspoken from her lips. "Hard a starboard! Twelve points negative-zed! Fire concussion missiles, all tubes!"

Another salvo lanced out, as _Lusankya_ spun ponderously on her axis, trying to clear her arcs. _Virulence_ , trapped by the tractors, and _Dolorata_ and _Valiant_ covering the Super Star Destroyer's weaker arcs. The Intelligence woman spoke - it was improper, but she seemed quite puzzled as she asked in a tone of naked confusion; "...Why haven't they fired yet?"

"Might have as few as four salvoes on assault launchers depending on the type, Chief," Tanda answered. "They need to use them carefully. Certainly can't waste them destroying _Virulence_." Then: "Lieutenant Roison, hard a port! Time to turbolaser range?"

"Less than a minute, but they're shifting _Virulence_ to try and block us, she doesn't have the engine power to resist!" came from the crew pits, as the voice from behind her went on;

"No, they purchased a _great_ many more projectiles than that..." The woman from intelligence was calm, and distracted almost to the point of obsession with her own little problem while the battle erupted into chaos. Tanda took note of it.

 _Virulence_ opened fire, scrambling her fighters as she sluggishly rolled to shield her launch bays from the tractor emitters. "Launch the starfighters," Tanda finally ordered. "They will avenge us if nothing else. Tractors-repulsion-shear on the station's tractor lines! Break the lock on _Virulence!_." The next orders followed quick and sharp: "Just keep firing those missile salvoes as fast as we can now! We are fire free! But make sure the courses don't give accidental locks to the tractors or _Virulence_ , fire control, I don't want to lose her!" She stared wide-eyed through her mask as the holo continued to update. She had never imagined an absurd battle like this before.

"The station is firing!" came from Lieutenant Waroen, but there was no flurry of angry red contacts on the display - missiles were firing, and the Colonel scrambled his modified Interceptors, the Preybirds following. Through the data-links from Virulence, small contacts began to appear, flying away from the station, using its bulk to shield themselves from the Imperial guns.

"Identify those contacts." She paced the deck, trembling. Turbolasers and cannon, not missiles coming in, or if they were missiles a kind that they couldn't scan, which was surely impossible. For smugglers. They were within range. "All batteries commence fire on the station!"

" _Virulence_ identifies the contacts leaving Yag Prime as escape pods, ma'am!" An angry chirping sounded from down in the crew pits; "Admiral, more contacts exiting hyperspace!"

"Identity?" She spun back to face the tactical.

"Snubfighters, they're blocking our exit vector - attempting to identify... appear to be Rebel A-Wings, ma'am... Rebel military IFFs." Waroen went even paler. If the _New Republic_ was entering this contest...

"The station's hailing us again, ma'am!" came from Ensign Yesti, as Weapons struggled to place shots around _Virulence_ 's bulk.

Tanda watched the New Republic formation, waited for cruisers to arrive. Kept waiting. "Kriff the station, it's fake. They haven't sent a single salvo at us. Keep firing at it until the grav well and tractor beams drop. Order the fighters to face the A-wings."

"If the _station_ doesn't have the torpedoes..." came from behind her as the comm crackled.

"Thyferran ship _Lusankya_ , this is Commander Cracken of the New Republic Defense Force's Ace Squadron, state your intentions. You appear to be attacking a civilian space station." They were spreading out into a defensive formation, but not moving to attack, as more escape pods blasted away from Yag-prime.

Tanda listened to the demand from the half-wing of Rebel fighters as they continued to fire on the station, ignoring its own calls. She understood now that this was something of a psychological struggle, and she strode the deck, trying to project confidence in her suit, and unwilling to leave _Virulence_ behind. Cruisers weren't arriving, and right about now, she was going to wager that they _wouldn't_. The 'Thyferran' reference had made her bite back her impulse to answer 'Death to Traitors!' and be done with it. This wasn't a planned ambush. She'd stake more than her life on it; she'd stake her mission on it.

There was a visible lurch, and with her engines thrusting full astern, _Virulence_ started to back away from the station, still firing on it. With the shields down, it was only a few moments more before the grav-well projector failed as well, fire from the station becoming sporadic - the escape pods becoming a flood, and a few freighters lifting off now as well, as the looming _Imperial_ -class opened the range. "Admiral, Captain Varrscha reports she's free from the tractors!"

"Cease-fire! Bring us about, maximum acceleration out of the system. All vessels conform with our movements immediately."

"Good show men, we've defeated the rebel trap. Now we've got to relieve Thyferra. Hold fire-these Rebel forces in front of us are addressing us as a Thyferran ship. They might just not attack."

A cheer rolled through the command pit, as one of the men, speaking above the din, noted the usual errata of the battle. "Colonel Arl requests permission to recover all fighters, ma'am."

The A-Wings in the distance held their formation, but did not dive in to attack, not against Imperial ships that still had both intact shields and fighter screens.

"We'll be at the hyper-limit in ten minutes, Admiral!"

"Permission granted to Colonel Arl." She turned back to Katya. "Well, Chief. We'll get the Rogues, but this is going to be hard. People don't normally sell the targeting mechanisms without the launchers-and why buy warheads?"

"They made sure to jump with those freighters. There were dozens of them. Is it related, Admiral?" Fleet tactics were not a skill of Intelligence, it had to be said, as Interceptors and Preybirds docked with their motherships again, _Dolorata_ 's Defenders settling into their cradles.

"Yes." She turned away again. "Lieutenant Roison, best possible speed for Thyferra as soon as we are clear."

"Yes, ma'am! We'll be there in twenty-four hours at flank speed."

 _Tali, good job. We escaped with all ships. Restore the hyperdrive safeties._

 _Oh thank the Ancestors! What_ happened _up there?_

 _An attempt to dupe us into surrendering._

 _Okay then. I'm insulted. Twenty-four hours to Thyferra to prepare for combat, the Rogues having had a dozen hours to wreak havoc, right?_

 _No they don't. They're accompanied by a large number of freighters with the real warhead launchers aboard. They won't launch the attack until all the freighters arrive._ Then, to her crew: "Stand down and everyone get rest-that's an order!" Tanda turned away to head to her cabin. There was other business to attend to, business with the most loyal woman she knew, for starters: Once inside, she used the hyperwave comms to hail the _Virulence_.

Varrscha flickered into life, looking visibly relieved and very shaken. " _Thank you_ , ma'am!" The other woman looked near to crying with relief in the quarter-scale hologram. "I thought... that was going to be the last order I ever gave, Admiral."

"In days to come, Captain, I am going to treat you like my right hand." A smile. "A rather large number of days, including the day I die, in fact." She sank back at her desk, staring still and sharply at the hologram.

"I had my orders, ma'am, you were there when Madame Director gave them." She looked down at her feet, then back up at Tanda. "I had my orders. Dying would have saved _Lusankya_. I... everything's still shaking, ma'am. It's... disconcerting to..." Varrscha let out an explosive breath. "... That must have been what my mother felt, when she led her fighter squadron against Grevious' armada along with the rest of the planetary defense fleet. I never thought... I would have to face the same thing."

"I didn't know you were Humbarese, though I should have known, with your redoubtable spirit and willingness to die, and the great virtues of body and mind that you possess, Captain. Take heart, that a duty so sublimely executed transcends duty. You are my right hand-my Sucre, may Dea spare you his fate."

"I'll explain, when we have a chance to rest. But until then-do not deny it, Captain. You are my right hand. And moreover I want to again thank you, personally. That loyalty, I will try to spend the rest of my life rewarding."

"I wasn't raised Humbarese, ma'am, my father was Kaikielii." It was almost random, and she shook her head to clear the segue. "The Rebels still have plenty of chances to kill us, ma'am, but..." She audibly swallowed, and clenched her hands together to stop them from shivering. "... Twenty-four hours to Thyferra. I shall await your orders, ma'am."

"Lakwii the Kaikieliian. An honour. We will be sorely tested, but we will win. Get some rest, Captain."

"Thank you, Admiral. _Virulence_ and I will be at your side at Thyferra, and as long as we can be."

"I know. _Lusankya_ out." She cut the channel and staggered to bed, where Tanda curled herself up almost into a ball, pulled over one of the great quilts she normally shared with Tali. She felt terrible, and she wasn't sure why until an amber blinking alert message homogenized with a fleet code she hadn't seen in months.

Curling a bit to prop her head on her pillows, she took the message where she was. "Admiral Daro'Xen vas Bra'katorja." Facemask regarded facemask. "You and your Quarian compatriots will doubtless be pleased to hear that the lawful Regent of the Empire has confirmed my promotion to High Admiral. Please report."

"High Admiral Tanda'Pryl..." Xen seemed uncertain - and her vocoder flashed with no sound coming out several times. "Green perpendicular... yellow concave... severe damage..." She stopped again. "The foolishness of the Citadel Races..." Another long pause. "The Alliance and Citadel races attempted to activate the Crucible, Tanda'Pryl, against all advice of the Admiralty Board and Imperial command." Glowing eyes looked out of the holo. " _Our_ people are largely safe, for now. The fortress worlds still hold. Those _idiots_ **squandered** the rest of our strength on a great gamble, that ended in the disaster we all predicted." Her cybernetic arms waved in visible agitation.

"My report, High Admiral, is as follows. That idiotic fool, Hackett attempted to shame Captain Turla into participating in his so-called _plan_..."

Tanda felt her strength draining away. _One Star Dreadnought against the entirety of the Reaper race._

She listened to the tale unfold, while around her, _Lusankya_ 's engines thrummed in the deckplates. Right then and there, it was the very sound of hope itself, because the Milky Way didn't have another hope left.


	82. Chapter 82

Miranda Lawson stepped into the briefing room of the SR-2 in her white and tan uniform of Imperial Intelligence. Shepard had never seen her looking quite so professional before, or pleased; serving as her aide was her sister.

"Director."

"Captain Shepard," she grinned, and reached out to hug Atarah, even as her face flashed with concern. "There is some good news, at least. Admiral Daro'Xen arrived last night."

Shepard pulled her own Imperial cap off and rubbed her forhead. "Well that's some good news."

"Very good news," Garrus spoke smoothly. "I don't suppose Grand Moff Pryl with her Star Dreadnought was following?"

"No," A look of fear crossed Miranda's face for a moment. "Admiral Xen says that she was last heading for Thyferra, the planet of the bacta producing cartels."

"You don't think that dictatoria..."

"Ash, can it," Atarah glanced sharply at Williams. "I do not think Tanda would have cut and run for medical treatment... Tali wouldn't _let her_. What's on Thyferra, Miranda?"

"My competition. The real Director of Imperial Intelligence. Ysanne Isard. Presently director of the Xucphra Bacta Corps and thus head of state of Thyferra. Her fleet includes a Star Dreadnought—a big one, _Executor_ class."

"She's trying to pull a double-cross on the Director of Imperial Intelligence?" Shepard blanched. "Well, that explains the delay. I hope Liara and Tali are okay..."

"There's prayer for that, Atarah," Miranda answered softly, and stepped to the front of the briefing room. "And there's prayer for us, too. London, England." She brought up the holoplot. "Very close to the former location of Parliament, here's the processing beam." Her voice cut the last two words like a knife.

Shepard's lips twisted. "Ride it up?"

"You may well need to. If not, Harbinger is directly guarding the beam in London, reconaissance suggests, and he'll still need to be tagged and taken down. The good news is that Tasiele Shan and Captain Anderson are already in place together—that's half the battle, right?" Miranda smiled.

"That woman is exceedingly dangerous," Garrus interjected. "Perhaps we should just let her do this."

"Oh, it's going to need to be a team effort," Shepard stirred. "So. What do we have?"

"Me, you, Garrus, EDI, Williams, Samara, Javik, Vega—and Miss Goto insists she's well enough."

"Of course I do," her disembodied voice echoed in the room.

"Close support?"

"Whomever Anderson and Tasiele Shan have managed to put together—and Wrex with a bunch of Krogans with E-webs," Miranda answered dryly. "It will be very impressive."

"Clan Urdnot... With E-Webs!?"

"Quite." She tapped the map. "Distant cover is that we're landing in Juggernaughts and AT-AT Walkers down here at Woking. Advance up, the hard part will be the assault crossing of the Thames. Once we're over, it's going to be weaving through the rubble to be in position. We'll either be guiding in starfighting strikes led by Commander Sevaras or assaulting the beam. This depends on, well, whether or not the Crucible works automatically."

"We still don't know?"

"No." Miranda grimaced. "We still don't know in the slightest. The Quarian Admirals are furious."

"I need to make sure this works right, then. We all do. So, I've got to get up to the Citadel, get the arms open, make sure the Crucible works, run like hell?"

"There are ships dedicated to recover the team and troops, Captain Shepard."

"Joker will be very upset if he's not one of them." She still made... a grin. That was rare since the war had started. "You know, assuming Tasiele hasn't murdered all the Reapers already."

"Well, she made it to London from the western hemisphere when she bailed out of the Citadel in orbit. Clearly something was working right. Perhaps she'll be the one to save the day, this time."

"Good, means I can skip out and avoid the medal ceremony speeches this time... so, we've got a plan."

"Yes. And very soon we shall be there to execute it. The mission launches in twelve hours."

"... Damn, I'm just going to have to soak up the bullets." Shepard grinned, and stepped to her feet, masking her inner worry. "All right, everyone. You heard the plan, nice and straightforward. The Force be with all of you. As I'll doubtless have the opportunity to demonstrate." And this time, instead of a tiny commando group, it was going to be a real ground assault.

-

It didn't take long. The hyperroutes to Sol were well-plotted by now, and so it was that by the tiny mass shadow of Pluto, looming over the gate... _Thunderflare_ arrived. Then the _Bra'katorja_. Then... Sweeping in, in waves... The star destroyers, the Quarians, the Republican ships, the support, three hundred strong in all. Then the geth fleet, forty dreadnoughts and four thousand lighter vessels, arriving both by the gate and by hyperdrive. Then the Asari, the Turians, with their upgraded fleets. Humans, two fleets, Salarians, one... Though their Stealth Dreadnoughts proceeded independently to provide support. They all blotted out the stars, and yet seemed collectively a desperate hope.

The mass relay flared, and flared again. More ships were arriving: The entire force of the Systems Alliance, unwilling to miss this battle, unupgraded or not. Everything the Alliance had was thrown into this behind them... Another Asari fleet, another Salarian fleet, another Turian fleet, and all of them around the Crucible, which was massive for how fast it had been built, the grandest achievement of this alliance.

Shala'Raan, on the bridge of the _Thunderflare_ , thought it looked like a LiveShip at best and a giant bomb floating in space more accurately. "Launch the starfighters," she ordered with preemptory abruptness. There was no time to wait, and with the Crucible to escort in, no real stealth nor strategem. Ahead of them, a massive armada around Earth—and the Citadel. The number of Reapers was still in the thousands despite all the hurt they had suffered. Close to a thousand were here.

Shala'Raan stood, her hands folded behind her, trying to emulate the style of an Imperial officer for the comfort of the human officers around her who obeyed her and fought under her. The reports from engineering came from a Quarian; the holoplot continuously updated before her, and occasionally she glanced through the viewports of the bridge. Steadily they moved toward Earth. _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ closed up on her, the _Harrower_ s behind as a lower line.

Then a group of Reapers appeared out of FTL, slashing in from the port. "A target worthy of our guns. All batteries commence fire."

The Reapers had ray shields, weak ones, but between their beam weapons and blackstar cannon they had no greater arms than the last time they had engaged. The Imperial ships spun out to face them head on, concentrating their fire and hammering the first of their Reaper targets to rubble. Shala'Raan took the event calmly; her objective was to screen the Crucible, not to reach Earth herself. Letting her squadrons be drawn off was acceptable if the rest of the fleets involved would be able to stay close in to the Crucible.

... _Bra'katorja_ , her grav-shearing weapons reaping of the reapers alongside the Imperial ships, shifted course as they made to close with the fresh Reapers. Daro'Xen's hologram appeared on the bridge of the _Thunderflare_. "Admiral, I will shift my fire to the Reapers in orbit of Terra."

"It is necessary to give Admiral Hackett a chance to break through, yes. You will keep _Bra'katorja_ back?"

"I must! We are a million lightyears from relief, Admiral Raan. You do not sacrifice your reserve when you are a million lightyears from relief."

Shala'Raan paused and stared at her counterpart's holo. "You're sure that the Grand Moff is returning."

"I am contemptuous of humans and suspicious of the sincerity of her relationship with your good-daughter, Shala'Raan. But she is our commander, and she gave us her promise and she started by executing a plan. She will be back."

"We are too busy for regrets," Shala'Raan answered. "Make sure the _Bra'katorja_ escapes and that the mission is executed."

"As you command."

The hologram blinked out, and Shala'Raan turned back to the battle. They were trying to hit the Gree with almost everything, ignoring the native fleets while the smaller ships swung towards the planet. The rest... Were attacking her.

A hundred Reapers crowded the forward viewscreens, looming up quickly as their dark hides protected them from visual identification until close in. The consequence of it was that the impact of green turbolaser bolts two hundred meters long, of ion cannon fire in orange the same, would abruptly illuminate the Reaper it struck, before unseen, with a brilliant flash against the dark of space. The main cannon were firing as rapidly as possible, and soon enough all the others were, too. Wings of starfighters dodged through the swarms of oculi drones to attack specific Reapers, and the chatter of their comms resolved into the brief flaring of proton torpedo drive tails.

Daro'Xen was just as busy, making sure that all of the strange Gree gravitic-shear weapons were firing as rapidly as possible. Each shot, though slow, essentially guaranteed the total destruction of a full sized Reaper. Their hulls had nothing of the strength of the immense durasteel spine of a Star Destroyer which might resist the gravitic force. The Reapers were still completely helpless against them; their new shields didn't work against that kind of power. They were... leveraging the Reaper fleet concentrated before Terra apart, and the massive fleet behind them, the upgraded ships, was quickly able to wade in and make it a mostly even contest while Shala'Raan held off the Reaper flanking group.

Even so, ships screening the Crucible started to explode from long-range fire. Mostly unupgraded ships, they were desperately outgunned by the Reapers even when gifted with no more than the same circumstances by will of fate as found by the upgraded ships that could largely fight them on even terms. There was a cruel and Darwinian sort of selection to the battlefield, and those likely to die were those who were fighting on unmodified ships, the casualties from those fleets immediately grievous as they remained tolerable in the rest. In the main it was as simple as that, even when the strange circumstances of _Kriegsglück_ intervened to sometimes render the result uncertain.

As they broke through into close combat, swinging toward Luna and using her to screen the fleet for the last jump to contact with the enemy, Hackett gave the order and Admirals Lindholm and Shepard brought the first fleet whipping around the dark side. They were escorting the second component of the attack force.

The order worked its way down from Shala'Raan several minutes later as the fleet burst out from a braking operation in Lunar orbit and descended toward Earth, now well behind the main elements under Hackett that had come to close quarters with the Reapers. Lindholm took the directive and translated it into the hoary old English phrase for the open comm so as to remove all doubt.

"Land the Landing Force! Land the Landing Force!"

Hannah Shepard spun _Orizaba_ into a high orbit, firing furiously from a group of ion cannon and medium turbolasers at the group of Reaper Destroyers on picket in the sector, her upgraded ships quite adequate to send them all reeling back. Then the Imperial Landing Barges, Assault Shuttles, Walker barges, the Alliance landing transports, they were all dashing in toward the surface of Terra, cutting low and fast across the Atlantic toward the British Isles.

Drones came up to engage them, and then the QEQ starfighters dived into the mix. Attacking from above the only problem was that they couldn't kill the drones fast enough. A few of the Alliance transports went down into the dark and rolling sea. The interlocking fire-boxes from the laser cannon on the Imperial transports covered the rest.

"Alright, break away from the upper atmosphere and stand by to cover the transports! First, Second, Sixth cruiser taskgroups, reinforce Admiral Hackett!" With the hole opened, Hannah swung out from the close quarters combat and the troop escorts left their charges with the best of wishes, guarding from above as a surging host of three hundred landing ships converged toward the green fields of Britannia. Sending ahead three groups of cruisers to where they were most needed, Lindholm and herself turned toward cleaning up the remaining Reapers over that quadrant of sky, rather than closing with the roiling battle above Europe. Below them, the eastern seaboard of the United States burned with uncontrolled fires from Atlanta to Boston. She didn't wish to imagine the medieval scene the smoke and cinder concealed.

Hannah turned to the rest of the battle, relieved, come what may. For her, the hardest part had been giving that order and escorting that fleet. For the first and hopefully only time, her daughter had been under her personal command, and she had just sent her on a suicide mission.

 _Orizaba_ reared and lurched hard, dodging and reorienting under continuous thruster burns. As she spun away from Earth on a lurching course, the starfield came into view. With it, they saw nothing but a great swarm of Reapers closing up to entrap Hackett.

Hannah checked her status reports and shouted her encouraging message to the fleet. "The Admiral's got the Crucible lined up and heading home! Let 'em all come and Tamandaré!" In an another heartbeat, the forces were both firing.

-

" _Through autumn's golden gown we used to kick our way..._ " Landing in the area of Woking, where ironically H.G. Wells would be quite familiar with the setting, Atarah Shepard felt stunned by the brilliant interposition of lovely English countryside foliage and the burning of suburban homes. It seemed that since the attack, the fires had never really stopped.

There was snow, starting to obscure the piles of leaves. It was coming early, and for good reason. The great masses of soot in the atmosphere from the uncontrollably burning bogs and boreal forests of Russia and Canada—the outcome of a tremendous defensive use of nuclear weapons and heavy Reaper bombardment—had erased the terrible hand of global warming and replaced it with another.

But it wasn't all snow. Intermixed was some of that soot, and not just from the forests and bogs, but from the homes of the people who had once lived.

From the people themselves.

She looked up. _The survivors of Auschwitz breathed the dust of the dead, too._

Just outside the M25 on the southwest, they'd establish their perimeter there and dive for the centre of the city. The AT-AT Walkers were unloading and straightening themselves for the push directly in front of where she stood.

On the ground, all the resistance forces of the world were joining in. Carefully saved gunships and fighters were attacking, troops and guerrillas rising up across the planet to spread chaos... The beams of the grounded AA cannons were stabbing skywards as soon as their sensors cleared, as Reaper Destroyers flew low to engage in them in the urban area... which was wrecked rubble. Heavy turbolasers and portable concussion missile tubes fired skyward, and Destroyers tumbled, burning, into the ground around the LZ.

One of the Stormtrooper officers stepped toward her, helmet comm crackling. "Captain Shepard, we're ready to begin the assault."

"Thank you, Commander. All right, team! Let's go!" She waved, and rallying her troops, ran toward the last kneeling AT-AT Walker.

 _One hell of a thing, going into battle on one of these beasts_. Her eyes were wide under her suit visor at the scale as the Walker steadily rose, and now they were striding into combat at speeds of 60km/h even as she still jogged forward to the 'head'.

From it, she could see the forward groups of Walkers, their cannon clearing a line of hideous Reaper constructs from the M-25 as if they had never existed. Both roadway and monstrosities vanished in the brilliant flame of the energy, tearing great chunks and gouts from the earth itself. What had been a motorway of the first class was completed in its ruination; the conquest had turned it into an abandoned and pock-marked relic of the apocalypse.

The intensity of the Imperial fire obliterated it. Only smoking and churned earth remained, and then the Walkers strode over it and tamped it back down even as it still steamed, turning a few klicks of the motorway into flattened black hellscape, while the timed shaking of their legs rhythmically pounding the ground was so intense that husks were toppled, unable to stand against the harmonic shaking.

Ruins of houses already burned out, buildings still peacefully intact, road surfaces, trees. It all crumbled under the stomping, crushing feet of the AT-AT Walkers, the shaking driving more ruin. Their guns never ceased to fire, the lack of need to conserve ammunition meaning that the preferred Imperial assault tactic was to drive forward across a classic 'bridge of fire'.

Then one of the Walkers hastily raised its head, and the burning flare of its fire at maximum power leapt over the buildings. It was like a traveling nuclear fireball, it held the same power as one, and then the horizon vanished in a flare of white. Shepard instinctively raised her forearm under the polarisation reacted, snapping down the intensity until it was manageable, both on the AT-AT walker and her own helmet. The Stormtroopers seemed unaffected.

"That was a destroyer, Captain," the Commander offered to her, simply.

As he spoke, Atarah could see the shattered black frame of the 160-metre Reaper toppling to the ground, burning and spinning and kicking up dirt. As it did, an entire building was torn by its flailing limbs and pieces flung, tumbling into the sky, all of the sight completely silent, just the hum of systems in the Walker, the comm chatter, the whumpf of the cannon firing at lower power against local targets. Then, from one of the AT-AT's compatriots, another flash. The sound reached her ears, the peculiar if muffled din of the Imperial 'lasers'.

The Destroyer didn't move after that.

Another was moving quickly toward them, and a line of hover tanks salvoed concussion missiles at it to slow it down as one of the Walkers with full capacitor banks turned its head to track against it. Before them, what remained unburnt of the suburbs of Great London was joining the rest of the city on the funeral pyre from the battle meant to save it. Shepard's stomach churned, and she stilled herself for the rest.

What followed was four hours of savage fighting with Walkers rolling forward supported by Hovertanks, culminating in the Imperials combat bridging the Thames under fire by Reapers. That alone was a pretty impressive feat in its own right, even with hovercars with portable shield generators protecting the work.

And then Hackett got the Crucible docked.


	83. Chapter 83

Tasiele Shan had escaped to the Imperial lines to conduct coordination, since the Reapers were jamming the comms. Captain Anderson had not expected to see her return until the Imperials arrived, if they managed to arrive at his position in Fulham, on the north bank of the Thames.

Instead, a little more than four hours after she had left, she returned—on a speeder bike. The howling of cannon and energy weapons, the mass drivers and the blackstar cannon, echoed all around in the relentless drumbeat of war.

For the moment, with their mortars laid in, man-portable proton torpedo launchers ready and a mix of blasters and charge guns laid in a defensive perimeter, they took no action. Anderson knew they were there for something important, and couldn't risk being crushed before reinforcements arrived.

His sentries passed the legendary Jedi through. She stepped into his headquarters, built into an abandoned grocery store set next to a collapsed Tube flyover.

Anderson looked up. "Tasiele! The Imperials have been causing quite the storm. Why did you come back?"

"I suppose they have." She saluted with her deactivated lightsabre casually. "Captain. I struggled to be here because I needed to be. You know about the assault going on now, but, in fact, Commander Shepard will be arriving shortly with a large team. She needs access to the..." She trailed off with a heavy look in her eyes and heaved a breath. "To the processing transport beam going up to the Citadel, so as to be able to properly activate the Catalyst and Crucible."

"So it's come to the battle... The decisive battle for Earth," Anderson straightened. "What have we got for support, Tasiele?"

"The Imperial 476th Stormtrooper Legion is coming up the A-24 right now with sixteen AT-AT walkers, so we'll have heavy support in maybe another ten minutes."

"We got enough of an alert from Hackett to be mobilizing, Tasiele, so we're ready to go. We've got to win this, and they've multiple of the big ones still on the ground, clustered around the beam near Trafalgar Square. No improvement in that situation since you headed out, they haven't been drawn off by the attack."

"Hrrm." She moved to sit down, offering an Imperial ration pack to Anderson, who took it with almost indecent haste; he was a big man, and by now, impossibly hungry. Then she started to think aloud. "On the ground they can't use their new ray shields, so they're still vulnerable. It must be getting unpleasant for them with this many starfighters overhead. When the stormtroopers come, we should all advance together with them, and mark the limit of our advance as the deployment position for Captain Shepard's team—she's coming in on an AT-AT Walker. Since that will be with the Walkers, even if we're inside of the range of the heavy guns on those main capital reapers, they'll still have cover and support, and they can start with us from as close in as possible."

"It's wide open, so... more or less, it'll be dash with Shepard's team exposed to hostile fire every step of the way. Hell of a nightmare, but if anyone can do it, she can. Here, let me show you how I deployed the troops while you were gone..." Infiltrating their way eastward down the left bank of the Thames... and this was going to be a hell of a push.

Tasiele watched him draw as the walls rattled around them. "That will be interesting. They're going to have to get across the river, first, and then it's all just completely flattened rubble hence." Below their feet, the rattling and shaking of the walls became also the rattling and shaking of the ground, and the two exchanged glances and stepped outside. The Walkers were now visible, coming up hard on the opposite bank of the Thames, guns almost constantly firing with their heads pivoting. Casualties in the lighter vehicles were rather stiff by the way several blazed to the ground from Reaper fire in the bare minute they were watching.

"One hell of a thing," Anderson whispered as he watched them on the horizon, the image wavering from the heat rising out of fires into the freezing atmosphere. "One hell of a thing."

"This Empire does have a certain style that the old one lacked," Tasiele looked on, too, her lightsabre back at her belt.

"There was another one?"

"A long time ago. They don't really bear comparison to each other, particularly right now."

"I'll take your word for it."

"Good." She heaved a sigh. "Captain Anderson, you're going to have to learn to live with these people, you know. Unless we're all dead, they're not going to go away."

Anderson shook his head. "Well, if this Empire and what's left of the Alliance are going to work together, it'll be the blood spilled today that makes it happen. Pardon me, Tasiele, I need to brief my people and get them moving if we're going to screen the Imperial crossing of the Thames."

"I'll be going to the front. See you there." She hopped up, having finished the last of her food and water. "May the force be with you, Captain." Then she slipped quietly out forward.

-

High overhead, the fleet battle had not stopped because of the successful docking of the Crucible. Instead it had redoubled in intensity. The main body of Imperial and Republican warships under Admiral Shala'Raan had fallen back toward Terran orbit. _Bra'katorja_ was located in the central position, like a mobile grand battery in land combat, targeting and destroying Reapers more or less at will. The rest of the fleet was clustered around the Crucible, unsure of whether or not it would operate on its own or continue to need to be defended, and unsure also of whether or not the Reapers would turn on the Citadel to save themselves.

One thing was certain; there had not been a battle like it. Pryl had played her cards closely, recalling well the sentiment Daro'Xen had voiced: She was a million lightyears from home, and the galaxy had no recouse except for her ships. She could not afford losses. Hackett saw the contest as a life or death struggle with no point to hold back in the slightest measure.

The battle-cry of the fleet was " _Tamandaré_!" after the Marquis de Tamandaré, patron of the Brasilian Navy, and some of the Republican ships, hearing the story and less disciplined than the Imperials, had painted the Brasilian flag on their ships and fighters in honour of Admiral Hackett.  
The firing of the cannons from every ship was leaving a swathe of Reapers tumbling into lower orbit, where, disabled by ionization, they were vulnerable to concentrated salvoes of native cruisers. A few Reapers broke up outright under concentrated medium turbolaser fire, burned and blasted. Still, the fleet had mostly served to drive the Reapers back rather than inflict heavy losses on them, until Shala'Raan had broken enough of their flanking force that she could bring up her big guns.

The battle's intensity was now redoubled, and countless humans in the fleet thought it was their chance to liberate their homeworld. They'd surely never get another one, and the burning shame in the fleets at having fled and fallen back before the Reaper assault drove them headlong into the battle. Space was less a coherent representation of battle and more a silent cacophony of flashes obscuring the action into a dull sensory overload. Human eyes had not been designed to handle that many megatons, and for the most part the battle was visualised through holograms.

The human ships were coming in closer to the Citadel now, taking losses as they swept away a group of Reaper Destroyers swinging in toward it. As they did, beams from several primary Reapers leapt across space and leapt from ship to ship. Six cruisers in a row exploded under the concentrated fire, dying silent deaths in the dark. They didn't hesitate, though. They thought they had to defend the Citadel for whatever would come and make sure that the Crucible had a chance to work its magic through it, and so they died.

Adorlus Turla understood that motivation. He'd even make Hackett into a hero despite what he thought of him. Posthumously. _Bombard_ covered Shala'Raan on the _Thunderflare_ as the main body of the Imperial forces, including the old Republican Valors but distinct in his mind to the Ovan manned ships with their blue uniforms and blue trim. They were now coming in very close, and the Citadel loomed over them, a cylinder stuffed with a flower-bulb. Their guns were targeted on the two big Reapers that had just eliminated the cruiser squadron, and firing main turbolasers again and again, the twelve big Star Destroyers and Harrowers made short work of them. What three years before would have been a dramatic victory in this galaxy was now old news, even for the natives desperately fighting on their inadequate ships. It was the Reapers who were inadequate in the face of Imperial firepower.

Turla certainly had come to expect as much, though the collection of patches that seemed to make up most of the hull of the _Bombard_ and the endless rolls of the dead from her crew were these days a reminder of the limits to which it could be taken.

He looked from his bridge windows, hoodedly, at the docked Crucible, and then stepped over to a comm bank at the back of the bridge, and activated the holonet transmitter to the _Bra'katorja_. "Admiral Xen."

"Captain Turla," the Quarian's hologram appeared before him. "Do consider being quick about this. Now that Admiral Raan has moved in to screen the Citadel, I am exposed, and the Reapers will sooner or later form up an assault against _Bra'katorja_. We are doomed without her, Captain."

"I'm quite well aware, Admiral Xen, that your command must be preserved at all costs," his voice cut dryly. He had come to professionally respect the Quarian, but also understood quite frankly that she was his like, they both had the interests of their respective species truly at heart. It was dangerous that she had the _Bra'katorja_ , but better than the alternative.

"Good. Should you not begin, then? We have already allowed the unacceptable risk of letting it dock."

"I would have fired immediately if it started to activate," Turla answered automatically. "How were we going to stop it without losing our allies outright, anyway?"

"Your point is correct." Daro'Xen folded her hands. "I will keep one gun charged and claim malfunction if pressed. An event inside the heart of the Crucible should be adequate. I encourage you to keep the _Bombard_ back."

"Understood. Then, yes, it's time for us to begin, and quick, before we just add the boarding team to the list of the dead. I'll give the order to Commander Saveras."

"Thank you, Captain." Daro'Xen's hologram blinked out, and Turla personally brought up Kesalia. The less substantial the record of this act that there was, and the fewer witnesses, the better.

"Commander! Bring your wing in against that group of seven Reapers," he sent the data-code showing the one largest group nestled to the Citadel. "Drive them back from the Citadel, keep your snubfighters between the station and the Reapers. We will be providing ranging support."

"Understood, Captain Turla," the Twi'lek's voice echoed back. Seventy surviving QEQs spun back into the fray and dived toward the station, a racing force of gnats with lethal stings.

Captain Turla stepped forward on _Bombard_ 's bridge, and issued the series of orders that peeled her away from _Thunderflare_ and lined her main guns to fire past the Citadel. _Cut it as close as you can, and then give the damned Rutian the time. She'll come through._

-

The AT-AT Walkers debouched upon the Thames, and at least the construction of modern London proved as resilient as any of the great sieges of history. For the most part, the ruins of the buildings had been transformed into a hellscape. The Reapers on the ground were clearly visible, but those ruins, the natural curvature of the Earth, and their disadvantageous position meant they couldn't use their main cannons to handily destroy the Walkers, and their lighter weapons were busy duelling with an almost unending number of starfighters launching attack runs against them. They were starting to have trouble, all of them, that is, except Harbinger.

Shepard made sure everyone was set, and would step up to Tasiele with a grin when she saw the woman once again waiting for her. "Team Hammer, ready. How suicidal will this one be?"

"Well, the bridge the Imperials are throwing across as we speak will help. It's really bad. Open field we're going to have to cross to get to the beam, and it seems that the really big old machine is directly guarding it. Concussion missile artillery platforms to provide support, though. Anderson will be there. So will I. Greetings to you, and thank you for coming. We are all together, a walking artillery park, and we will need it."

"Oh, Harby?"

Shepard gave Kasumi a sharp look as she flickered into view. "Harby? Adonai, woman, you are insane... okay, so. Rush the beam, use what cover we can... yep, we can do this... I hope."

A husk exploded out of some fallen rubble where it had been trapped and Tasiele briefly ignited her lightsabre to destroy it. "We will." She turned toward the river. "Let's go!"

"All right team! Stay in cover, move fast! Let's go!" She drew her rifle and... off they went, an entire assault squad, and possibly one of the best one in _several_ galaxies. She could dimly see Wrex leading his Krogan, E-webs pulsating with fire, having already gone across ahead of it: That made Shepard's bridging of the Thames an easy affair, at least, though the British resistance soldier who joined the advance ahead of his unit playing bagpipes made Tasiele stop wide in her tracks for the barest instant before resuming her run with a grin on her lips.

And then they were in the heart of Dead London, and the firing was going in every direction as husks worked themselves from the ruins to attack. Overhead, fat and ugly energy bolts exchanged with Blackstar Cannon shots. They dashed fast, all united... Except for Shepard's closest friends, in another galaxy.

They'd manage. Somehow.

Staying in cover didn't apply to Tasiele, right? She certainly didn't think it did... As the woman used her powers to the fullest, now, her feats with the lightsabre dashing ahead to clear the way shaking Shepard from her reverie and encouraging her to press. Behind them, the AT-ATs were starting to wade the Thames to come as close as they dared to Harbinger.

The rest of the squad followed in the wake of the two women who brought death with them everywhere by lightsabre and gun. The biotics held and pinned attackers and Garrus tried—and sometimes even succeeded—in shooting threats before the running Jedi could demolish them. Husks were now everywhere, all having been lurking in the city centre it seemed, and soon enough it was close enough for Shepard to switch to a lightsabre too. This was now hacking battle in the streets of London, and the red beams streaked overhead, heat washing over the streets from them.

Miranda and Samara worked closely together to provide cover as the battle intensified, trying to support Tasiele and Shepard ahead of them going through the husks. As they rolled from piece of rubble to piece of rubble, the power of the biotics in the group held the enemy open for the two force sensitives so that they spun through a field of locked corpses, unmoving and frozen as they were sliced apart. The display left Vega and Williams wondering what the hell they were for as the group made steady progress toward the beam.

As they did, a group of QEQs raced overhead at low altitude, sonic booms thundering down to the ground, raising dusts from the ruins of the buildings and dislodging bricks and chunks of concrete that had sheared but not yet fallen. Cannons going off again and again to strafe, their passage was shortly followed by a string of proton bombs they'd pickled off, opening up a great corridor of fire, cleaning it out of husks for the team to advance through...

"Come on!" Shepard urged them on... blocks worth of effort, dozens, hundreds of Husks... it started to blur together as ahead the white beam shot skywards, omnipresent and representing the horrifying end of so many people.

They made good time until the husks surged back in... These monstrosities created out of the bodies of several people at one, revolting to look at. The Rakghoul plague, and frankly in some ways worse than it, this was. But a Jedi thought of the life to save, and that was the strength to fight. Tasiele met them with a bluring blade and thrusts of telekenisis that sent hundreds flying... The biotics being just as effective as they built on each other, Tasiele offering a calming certainty out through the Force to them all as all together they attacked, converging toward the beam.

Rifles cracking, biotics flaring and lightsabres slashing, they made the final push toward the heart of the city. Stumbling, even the best of them, over the continuous rubble-field that the streets had been turned into, they still pushed on. Only the dim sound of E-webs indicated that Wrex and his troops had managed to keep up, too.

And then they'd done it... The easy part. There was the beam, and there was bloody Harbinger, looming above, firing his red energy weapon that wrecked anyone trying to rush the beam, still on his claws and landed as the other main Reapers around them had toppled from sustained QEQ attacks undermining their legs.

"Stay down...!" Tasiele found them cover hastily, ducking into part of a basement filled with rubble and past a cracked staircase that now went nowhere, screaming over the continuous sound of the weapons fire all around London just so as to be heard. "How do we get past that!? Any ideas!?"

Shepard took a deep breath. "We run really fast?"

Kasumi uncloaked for a moment, panting and patting at her side. The gesture left Shepard guilty. It was clear that Kasumi perhaps wasn't as healed as she had claimed. It was far too late to send her back, though. "Shep, I don't mean to be rude, but that's more suicidal than normal for you."

"Missiles," Miranda offered. "Lots of kriffing missiles."

"Got a lead on those?" Atarah glanced up with a wry grin, having pulled her helmet off and reached for her cantine. "I also didn't know you'd started swearing in Basic."

"It's a nice enough language!" Miranda replied, and grinned, too. "As a matter of fact, I do." With that, she started calling in and vectoring onto target a whole corps-level concussion missile artillery strike. The missiles started slamming down around Harbinger within a minute. The very air around them wavered with a peculiar haze as the smoke and vapor was percolated out of it for a moment by the shockwave and then the missiles slammed into the ground and erupted in detonation below it. The remaining buildings melted like liquid and even the walls of the basement they were in started to crumble, their teeth chattered together by the shaking. Any view of even Harbinger's massive multi-kilometre form was entirely obscured by the rising mushrooms of black smoke, licked and shot-through with flame, whilst massive quantities of debris rained down on them.

Shepard slammed her helmet back on. "A little close, Miranda!?"

Another sound overlaid the continuing explosions. Harbinger was firing defensive lasers at the damned incoming missiles. A solid white flash overhead, a sphere of pure energy, brought Shepard's visor to full polarisation. "Aiee! Come on! We might as well go forward since I can't stand waiting here any longer, either!"

"What if Harbinger leaves if we just wait a bit more!?"

"He isn't leaving," Shepard answered. Unfortunately it was true. The explosions kept happening, the attrition by defensive lasers kept bursting over them. It was insane, explosions and flashes rippling overhead-an Alliance Thanix missile battery joining in now, until its missiles were exhausted—but Harbinger was, however... not leaving. Not as long as the beam was threatened. And under that massive barrage they were being psychologically and physiologically wrecked. It was time to use it before the advantage turned into a disadvantage.

Tasiele saw that, and she understood something else, too. So she took a deep breath. "I am afraid this is a job only for Jedi. Atarah. Trust the force. It will keep you safe. Kasumi, if it is not to be that we make it, get through with the cloak. You can contact Admiral Shala'Raan in orbit and she and Kesalia will help you to open the arms."

She looked to the next silent group, nearly losing her footing as the next salvo crashed down. "Samara, Miranda. Perhaps together you can do something worthy of distracting Harbinger without sacrificing your lives."

Tasiele propped herself up, dusted off her boots. "Everyone else-London does need to be liberated, no matter what. Even if we all fail, that great dreadnought of Pryl's may yet arrive to defeat the Reapers by raw power. Hope springs eternal."

They... glanced about. A lot glanced to Shepard, who shook her head. "She's right. If we charge that thing, it'll cut us down. Nothing we've got will stop it, we've just got to get through without getting hit... ah, fuck it. Ashley, you take one squad, Vega, you another. Stop Anderson from throwing men into this grinder and start clearing the city. Garrus..."

"Shepard, you had better not die again."

"Wasn't planning on it. Okay. Everyone, get ready. Quick break for water, check your gear, then we go."

Tasiele drank water, clipped her lightsabre to her belt, and smiled. "EDI, kindly tell Lieutenant Traynor not to give up hope."

"You can do it yourself, Lady Tasiele."

Miranda gave a small smile at the interplay, popping back glucose spheres and chasing them with a canteen herself.

"I... As you say." Tasiele gritted her teeth. Another barrage slammed home and it seemed like her teeth would crack from it. _Shepard is right. No more waiting._

"Come on, we're all getting back from this." Shepard would say as everyone started to look a little uncomfortable-unslinging all but her pistol. "No point in extra weight." She took another glance at a now somewhat visibly damaged Harbinger. "So... another volley to cover us, Miranda, and then we go just as it's starting?"

"Yes. I need to give up priority on the artillery anyway, they need to shift fire to support the 1016th Army Division that's pushing into the Portsmouth dockyards-they advanced a lot faster in the south. Two stormtrooper legions and an army division into London... Okay, I sent the last orders." She clasped her hands together. "Let's do this."

Tasiele bounced steadily to her feet. "Yes, let's."

"Okay..." Atarah gave a soft, whispered prayer. "Come on!" She shouted... before vaulting the rubble and starting to run.

Tasiele went last, and overtook Atarah quickly. Kasumi proceeded under cloak on her own initiative, far enough away from them to avoid being accidentally hit by the skipping beam, as Tasiele bounced and kicked off rubble. The last salvo was starting to fall, and being out of the basement, it twisted and slapped their skin like physical blows, like hurricane force winds they had to fight through. Harbinger almost doppled, but the desperate moment was a let down as he regained his footing.

The Great Reaper was still somewhat distracted by the missile fire, but he was also firing his beam in great, broad, sweeping arcs. There were husks, too, running at them, which Harbinger would take as collateral damage, making it a case of Shepard sprinting, dodging, firing her pistol and... Oh this was really a downright terrible idea!

"Don't fire, just trust the force and move!" Tasiele lunged spinning across and around through the arcs of the beam.

 _That..._ Shepard made herself stop. She reclipped the pistol, and... moved, turning most of her brain off and just _moving._ A collaborative effort of Samara and Miranda behind them suddenly brought the ground heaving and surging up under one of Harbinger's legs before they fled, the beam jerking far away and into the air before he regained his footing once more. And then they were through, they were through!

-

Once the transports had escaped into hyperspace after delivering the troops, _Thunderflare_ turned back into the Reapers and her batteries went to maximum fire again as she began to now support the defence of the Citadel. This fight was close range, and the Reapers were left struggling desperately to punch through... Within minutes enough Reapers converged in their next big push that Shala'Raan found her flagship surounded by a bubble of them, firing continuously with Blackstar Cannon and their main beams, trying to punch through or disrupt her shields.

The old technique with tractor beams was resorted to as required. Shala'Raan and her staff watched with silent reserve as dozens of their ships and dozens of Reapers died around them. Steady, heavy firing inflicted disproportionate casualties again and again.

"Admiral, the _Bra'katorja_ has come under heavy attack."

"Source?"

"Oculi drones and Reapers – they are trying to subject her to the Rebel 'Trench Run Disease'. They have learned."

"Admiral Daro'Xen, can you hold?"

"We require starfighter support," Daro'Xen answered immediately. "The _Bra'katorja_ does not have light weapons, Admiral Shala'Raan!"

"Detail five wings of starfighters to cover the _Bra'katorja_ ," Shala'Raan ordered immediately.

"Shall we recall starfighters from the atmosphere to make up for the want?"

"Negative. We will manage." Before her visor, she could see hundreds of ships, each one marked by the flash of guns and cannon. There were hundreds of Reapers too, and beams and Blackstar cannon shots flashed through the night and appeared with wavering power at their targets.

Burning rubble, flaming, flickering, guttering with fire until the moment when the last of the atmosphere finished venting, then going dark. So many, so many. The main guns of the _Thunderflare_ scored two more kills in short succession, and a third Reaper was slowly disappearing into the glowing haze of Earth, arcing and crackling with ionization.

"Admiral Raan, First Deep Space is not responding to orders to support – that damned Twi'lek bitch has disobeyed a direct order! The Wing is still pressing an attack on those Reapers that are in close quarters to the Citadel."

Shala'Raan's head snapped around. "Commander Saveras is an excellent officer. This is unusual. Send the Third Wing instead." _I washed my hands of this, but it is clear they did not._

She had felt the entire plan of Hackett's had been disobedience to the directives of her lawful superiour. She had not liked, however, the proposal about what to do. They did not need infighting. Daro'Xen had promised a plan which would preserve the fleet, but in reality it had not yet achieved its purpose.

Her officers stared at her, astonished at the passsive acceptance of insubordination. They did not need to know, and they wouldn't know.

"Captain Scolus, engage those Reapers around First Wing more closely. They must be diverted from dueling with the Wing."

"Admiral!" The Imperial officer, who had so recently been a Lieutenant, looked around his command bridge. Then he fixed his eyes rigidly ahead. "Ahead slow. Bring us four points to starboard so our batteries won't overshoot and hit the Crucible. Resume firing!"

The Reapers' shields failed as the heavy turbolaser bolts started to slam home at point-blank range. Their hides were scared and shot through and one had the limbs holding its blackstar cannon carried clean off with a near miss.

The First Wing pulled back together smartly...

"Maximum jamming!" The order barked from Admiral Raan to the bridge of the _Thunderflare_ , and suddenly comms went dark through the fleet. "Stand by to pull back."

The starfighters were lined up for their coordinated salvo. The sensor picture was lost to the allied fleets. But so were their eyes closer to the ground clutter.

One of the Asari in the pits looked to Scolus with a start. "That big one is burning hard for orbit!"

And then Harbinger was up, but he wasn't attacking the _Thunderflare_. Instead that continuous red beam reached straight out of the atmosphere, and despite the jamming, seemed to unerringly rake across the starfighters of the First Wing.

Shala'Raan was abruptly faced with the decision of supporting them and risking detection or allowing them to die. She was an Admiral of the fleet. She issued no orders.

But in that last heartbeat, Kesalia spun around and attacked Harbinger instead of finishing the run. As she watched it, Shala'Raan's heart grew cold. Certainly she already had taken losses such that her Wing might not have executed the attack well, but the abandonment...

Suddenly, the situation grew worse. A group of Reapers resorted to a desperate FTL short-jump, the survivors of the force she had defeated, and jumped the _Thunderflare_ stone cold. Dozens of beams and blackstar cannon shots converged on shield banks that immediately went screaming red.

Shala'Raan looked out the bridge viewports at the dozens of Reapers surrounding her command, and shook her head, just once. "You had better know what you are doing, Jedi." A line of explosions stroked down the starboard beam, and someone screamed. One of the Harrowers had just exploded.

-

The two Jedi found themselves launched into the middle of a massive pile of corpses being slowly dragged away by Keepers. "That... was almost as insane as taking a Mako interstellar."

"Quite. I wonder what they're doing here..." Tasiele commented grimly, and pushed to her feet.

Shepard searched around with an uncertain feeling of vague suspicion... _Oh, of course._ "Kasumi...?"

"That... was really way too impressive." She flickered into view for a moment. "I had not been expecting to see someone trip a Reaper. That was new, I mean, really sincerely new."

"Good to hear you made it. And yes, that was... Inventive."

"It got us through. Let's not waste it," Tasiele brushed off her hands, and looked at the dead for only a moment.

"Right... it's up in Citadel tower. Right now I think we're in the base of said tower, the arms control... let's get going."

"Right-o." Tasiele took the lead... "We have no idea what the Reapers have been doing onboard... Or the Illusive Man."

"No... but we'll find out." There was a flicker of movement ahead—a glow of red, and then... heavily cyborged Cerberus Phantoms flickered into view. "Them again?!"

"There is danger about. From more than just them." Tasiele activated her lightsabre.

"...I do not like the sound of that..." Shepard's snapped into life, and then it was blade to blade. Three of them against the two Jedi, against the lightsabres by two Shans. Three glowing blades in two ready pairs of arms, spinning and hacking in unison. They were swiftly pushed back, but they were still delaying them for whatever purpose the Reapers intended.

Just as they had finished their opponents, a massive indoctrination pulse swept over them as they started to work their way up. It was so intense that there were black tendrils were playing all around the edge of vision for all three of them. Kasumi gasped and cried out.

Tasiele closed her eyes, straightened and raised her lightsabre just in time to cut through another Phantom with a single perfect blow across the stomach getting inside of its sword, sending the cauterized upper torso clattering in front of Kasumi's feet. Then she rose her head to stand against the power she faced, feeling all of life pushing back. It was harder for Shepard and Kasumi to call on the force over it, but they could. Life itself, springing back against the Reapers.

The three of them were staggering onwards and upwards, through re-adjusted corridors, past unknown machinery... But they were not attacked again until they had reached the top. There was no further opposition, like this last little remnant of Cerberus had been no more than four Phantoms and the Illusive Man rotting in his delusions. But there was no sign of the Illusive Man, until they had reached the top.

It was then that Shepard saw him, and her eyes widened. There was a man standing in the control room, the glowing Wards all spread out around them. Visible Reaper cybernetics... Most assuredly the Illusive Man, but now unambiguously Controlled. And there was a presence, too, slipping in behind them as he came into view.

Tasiele reignited her lightsabre and spun around behind them. "Shepard, go! I've got this!"

Shepard twitched as if to turn back, but then cried out and dashed ahead. "Force be with you, Tasiele!" There was someone else, someone who had gotten through the beam before them and taken it upon himself to try, despite how desperately hopeless it was for him. Anderson. Bound and kneeling before the Illusive Man.

Kai Leng... flickered out of cloak to face Tasiele. A Reaper Creature, now... And absolutely nothing but. "After I kill you, you will be recreated to service us."

In the viewports behind him, the entire sickly beauty of the fleet fighting and dying against the masses of the Reapers was open to behold, the cries of sapients as they died in pain, and met the peace of the force. She took a step forward. "I've faced many more skilled swordsmen than you in my life, Kai Leng. You are not Mandalore the Ultimate—I have already defeated you once and I will do it again."

"We'll see about that." He leapt to the attack, damned fast.

She met the blade with a whippet maneouvre, and again, and again, clashing sword to sword. All the Reaper enhancements in the world wouldn't block nor stop a lightsabre, and this she pressed against his blade, focusing on its ruin before his Reaper enhanced reflexes could hurt her.

For the moment, he managed to hold his own. Just barely. Tasiele tried to remain calm. He was given the Illusive Man time, and she didn't know what that time was for.

"Shepard... you're too late." The Illusive Man was learing over Anderson.

"...What the hell do you mean?"

"Now that the Crucible has docked, I'll be the one activating it, and I will control the Reapers, for the betterment of humanity. To defeat both Empire and Republic and make myself the ruler of both galaxies."

Another massive pulse, as he tried to seize control of Kasumi beside Shepard, aware of her presence under the cloak. They fought it off, but only barely.

"If you won't see reason," the Illusive Man laughed. "Then you will be defeated by one who is better than you at this game than you are."

Shepard gasped.

Behind the Illusive Man, her clone stepped into view, and ignited her lightsabre. The woman snarled and dashed forward, and the duel on Thessia was reprised, the Shepard clone stronger in the force and using it to her advantage as she tried through furious blows to force her attacks against the duel-bladed lightsabre of the legendary Bastila Shan. Shepard was a worthy wielder of it by now, she had already fought this battle.

And now she fought it again. Blades arcing and skittering, crashing together, she drove her doppleganger back to the rails, thrusting with the central hilt from one side and then the other, up, then swinging down to bat away her enemy's energy blade. "Come on, sister! Mother's out there fighting. There's no need for this! I can feel it. You aren't a husk yet. You aren't given up to the Dark. _Stand with me!_ "

"We need to _control_ the Reapers, you bint!" her clone shouted at her, spinning the blade again. "We'll never have a chance against the Empire if we don't! The Illusive Man is right!"

"The Illusive Man is _dead!_ " Shepard staggered back even as she spoke, her clone bringing forth a furious attack that rocked her back again.

"A dead man can't talk to me! Look, he's right there, and he's going to save us—and you're standing in our way! In my way! In the way of LIFE!"

Shepard managed to block another blow, but then she pulled back and brought her lightsabre into a guard position. She felt it in herself. "Sorry. I'm not going to become a sister-killer. You'll have to face up to mother for that one, not me."

Her clone stared with wide, half-mad eyes, and advanced. "You idiot... Fight!"

"No. That's not the Jedi way. But you're going to have to save Earth when I'm gone. And you're going to have to tell mother that you killed me."

Shepard's clone coughed and hesitated. The Illusive Man snarled. "I can control the Reapers! Humanity will be invincible. Do your job!"

"Before you finish me off and take my place with our mother," Atarah said very levelly. "Reach out and let the force guide you. Let it show you what the Illusive Man is. Why trust him?"

Behind them, Kai Leng lunged toward Tasiele with a scream of fury. He knocked the lightsabre from her hand with an electrical surge out of his body, and the arcing lightning sent her spinning back to the ground.

The Illusive Man cackled. "The great Tasiele is defeated, my Shepard. Now strike down that revenant that stands before you and take her place as the champion of humanity!"

Shepard's clone stood silently.

Shepard turned her lightsabre off. "Go ahead. Make your choice."

"What are you waiting for!?"

And then Tasiele's hand, laying out to the side and trembling, shaking, reached through the force to a massive potted tree, and sent it flying into the side of Kai Leng's head as he advanced to finish her off. The huge concrete planter smashed his skull and pulped his brain, sparking with Reaper electronics, and he toppled, lifeless.

"I was going to let you take Anderson back to Earth to show the people that you were their saviour, but he can just _die_ now! Your hesitation has gotten Kai Leng killed!" The pocket pistol in the Illusive Man's hand cracked, and the unconscious and bound Anderson started, and slumped with a hole in his head.

Shepard screamed, ignited her lightsabre, and rushed forward.

Her clone met her with her lightsabre, and again they spun in a dance of combat, blade to blade across the catwalks.

Tasiele sent her lightsabre flying back into her hand and leapt to her feet. "No, Shepard! Don't give in to the dark!"

Shepard glanced to her, to her clone, and once again stepped back from the battle.

Her clone raised up her lightsabre to strike Atarah down.

And then Kasumi appeared behind the Illusive Man as he sparked and contorted and screamed, just having dumped tens of thousands of volts into the back of his head.

Shepard's clone spun back to help him, and strike down the defenceless Kasumi.

That was motivation enough. Shepard spun her lightsabre out and caught the blow before it could follow through against Kasumi. "Enough! Before you save that bastard's life at the cost of a living soul, find out whether or not he's alive. Please! If he is, then I'm wrong, I'm mad, and _you can have it all!_ "

"Don't listen to those witches..." The Illusive Man coughed blood and staggered back toward his feet, alive after a charge had been delivered to him no mortal should have survived.

But the expression on clone-Shepard's face was falling away.

The Illusive Man saw it, and suddenly lunged toward Shepard, firing his pistol again and again. It caught her by surprise, and she fell, her lightsabre clattering away as bullets tore into her again, again, and again.

And then the wavery, yellow blade snapped around and away from Shepard, and removed the Illusive Man's head.

Tasiele had come running, panting, sweating, looking at the dead Illusive Man, arriving just too late to impact the end which could have only been worse. "And all you've done ends in blood," she murmured softly, before dropping down to give first-aid to Shepard.

"So how are we going to activate the Crucible?" Kasumi looked up.  
There was a wet sounding cough from Shepard. "I... can see it above us. Looks... like we need to..." She broke off for a moment. "... Looks like... help me up, Tasiele, we're not done yet... looks like there's some sort of... conduits up there."

"Right, up _I_ go," Tasiele started. "You _get better_."

She was confronted with a ghostly image of her daughter, Satele Shan.

"You must choose the path." The voice sounded so odd.

Tasiele sucked in her breath. "And what path is there to follow? The future is many faceted and varying—we all only journey through it."

"The Crucible must now be used."

"And what is its function, simulcra?" She shook her head, wondering, unsure of the legends of the daughter she had birthed, now long dead. This was most assuredly a simulcra. She could feel it in the force, and it heartened her.

"You face three choices, mother. It's energy can be released as a destructive force. Organics will prevail at our expense. All synthetic life will succumb. As will much of the technology your kind rely on. Including the relays this galaxy has depended upon for a million years. Or you may harness the Crucible's energy. Use it to take control of the ones you call the Reapers. And, of course, you may combine the synthetic and the organic."

"Combine the synthetic and the organic?"

"Add your energy, your essence, with that of Crucible. The resulting chain reaction will transform both of our kind. We synthetics will become more like you, and organic life will become like us."

"The essence of life is already in everything. It surrounds and imbues us. Aren't synthetic life and organic life already combined in society? Is that not a form of combination in and of itself? What do you desire from this?"

"You must nonetheless choose. The Crucible was engineered beautifully to give the user _power_ over the Reapers. Reaper technology has no power over it; that is why the Illusive Man was still there. He could not use it himself. But we need you—the opportunity to combine synthetic and organic life, to not just end these cycles, but create a force that will empower all life through all the galaxies... It is your chance, Tasiele Shan."

As she walked, she slowly became aware of a second figure.

Also her daughter. Also Satele Shan.

"Mom, it's ... By entering this chamber it's surrounded you with its power... You are not yourself anymore."

Tasiele stayed silent, and listened to the Catalyst speak. The Catalyst that seemed completely unaware of the second ghostly image.

Then she spoke up, addressing the Catalyst. "Why do the Reapers attack, in these mad cycles?"

"To prevent organics from creating an AI so powerful that it would overtake them and destroy them."

"So you destroy to save. Sure. How does the Crucible work, then? What will it do to life?"

"A new code of life will be created, a new DNA. The energy of the crucible, released in this way will alter the matrix of all organic life in the galaxy. Organics seek perfection through technology, synthetics seek perfection through understanding. Organics will be perfected by integrating fully with synthetic technology. Synthetics in turn will finally have understanding of organics. It is the ideal solution. Now that we know it is possible, it is inevitable we will reach synthesis."

"Organics seek perfection through the force, Mother." The voice of the other Satele murmured.

 _I'd say perfection itself is a non-ideal state, my silly girl_ , Tasiele answered back in her mind, a faint wisp of a smile touching her lips.

 _You would!_

"Why will the relays be destroyed if I destroy the Reapers?" She then asked.

"The effects of the blast will not be constrained to the Reapers. Technology you rely on will be affected. But those who survive should have little difficulty in repairing the damage... There will still be losses but no more that what has already been lost... but the peace won't last. Soon your children will create synthetics and then the chaos will come back."

"How do I know you're telling the truth to me, since it seems so strange to imagine this force overtaking the whole galaxy?"

"The created will always rebel against their creators," the Catalyst answered simply. "Without us to stop it, synthetics would destroy all organics. We've created the cycle so that never happens. That's the solution."

"You speak in non-answers, you won't tell me how the catalyst works. If I choose to synthesize the life of synthetics and organics, what will happen across the galaxy...?"

"Your energy is added to the crucible. The chain reaction will combine all synthetic and organic life into a new framework. A new DNA."

"You speak in riddles, Catalyst. Do you want me to make a choice truly?"

"You must choose. I no longer control the Reapers."

The other Satele spoke, "it's not right, but trust the force."

Tasiele closed her eyes, and smiled brightly. "Thank you, daughter."

The Catalyst stared at her in confusion.

Tasiele turned around. "I appreciate the fascinating conversation, but I have an appointment with an Army that's about to have a very difficult month."

"But you must choose!"

"I just did."

And then suddenly an utterly, absolutely overwhelming wave of red drove her to her knees.

Outside, Hackett started to realise that the Crucible _wasn't_ going to activate. They had failed.


	84. Chapter 84

Truth be told, Tanda had never thought that she could feel so utterly dissolute, so utterly sick. Hopeless, and given over to hopelessness completely. The details of the last stages of the battle fell barren unto a depressed and resigned mind. Confined in her suit, too late, too conflicted between Empire and Milky Way. Wanting to do things right, to lead by example, to follow the rules, not to betray anyone.

Still she felt that way. She had to live up to her obligations as an officer of the Empire. Daro'Xen finished her sad, hopeless tale. There was no relief. Thyferra was ahead, the Milky Way behind. She had run out of time, and there was still so much to do.

Thrumming in the deckplates, though, wasn't the reactor _Thunderflare_. It was the reactor of _Lusankya_. A little flame flickered in her heart, and she straightened. The details of the rest of the fight were not very important. "Admiral, are you saying that all offensive capability of the forces remaining in the Milky Way has been lost in this defeat?"

"It is so, High Admiral, that we find ourselves..." Daro'Xen trailed off, and the frantic activity of her arms slowly stilled, once so animated as she told the story, and now passive. "The Systems Alliance is broken. Alliance First under Admiral Lindholm appears to be the most intact formation. She has taken command of what remains of their forces with Admiral Shepard. Our own strength is... broken—most of our vessels are intact, but no longer combat effective, with no available means of repair. We do not have the spares, time, or heavy repair works to return them to functionality, I fear. The fortress words are still free from siege—for now."

Tanda had listened to the story with a yawing ache in her heart. It didn't get better, especially not with the additional pertinent facts looming deep in the back of her mind. "On top of everything else, though I grant you there is no confirmation, we must also assume Director Lawson, Captain Shepard, and all the others also were perished, slain or worse," she added softly, thinking of her wife. "Yes, it is finished. But, Daro'Xen, I have _Lusankya_... I have _Lusankya_!"

"What _good_ does that thing do unless you return at once!? We do not have the strength to stop these... reaping old machines from doing what they will to us, not anymore, even if we did! You must return, at once, and we must pray to the Ancestors this was not an errand for fools and children!" Her voice was sharp, strident, and her eyes flashed through the faceplate, her body seeming to quiver through her suit.

"Repair to Gree space at once, Admiral. I'll be back to Asation in a week. Can you have the hyperspace tractor ready by then?"

"You should have _learned_ by now not to question my abilities, Tanda'Pryl!" There was a hint of an emotion aside from pique under her exterior, gone almost as soon as it appeared. "You _must_ hurry."

"What you're saying, to quote the ancient Terran general, is that our left is rent, our right is in disorder, and our centre yields. Well, fine. I'll take the field standing, prepare for the counterattack to begin the moment I arrive. Keep the fleet intact—Shala'Raan _must_ keep the fleet intact! Now, if you will forgive me, I need to prepare to commit high Treason!"

The comment brought calm, resignation, shock. Perhaps some understanding. Daro'Xen looked at her for a long while, and then said something softly which she had not extended as a courtesy to Tanda before. " _Keelah se'lai._ " The connection blinked out, abruptly.

Tanda idly turned to the other reports. Tali had had crews out working on improvements on _Lusankya_ even as repairs were completed, and some spare hull plating had been used to make a movable bridge glacis. She was very proud of that—and Tanda wanted to compliment her wife for her ingenuity.

Then she remembered that if she started talking to Tali, she'd have to tell her about what had happened to Terra, and to Shepard. She couldn't find the strength to do that, and feeling very old and impossibly tired, quietly turned from the screen.

Stuffing herself into her bed with a sheet for old-time's sake over her suit, she gave in and used the internal drugs to force herself to sleep. Once she had prided herself on an old soldier's ability to nap wherever and whenever the opportunity was given, but on the verge of what she was about to do, the strength of will could no longer be mustered. The drugs gave her sleep for now, and in a few weeks it wouldn't matter.

-

The soft trill of the internal comms system was the next thing she heard, piercing into the groggy haze of the drugs. "Bridge to High Admiral Pryl—thirty minutes to Thyferra."

She activated the cancelling drugs through the cheek interface, the sense of complete tiredness slowly fading, and stretched slowly. Her first thought was Tali'Zorah, and then the rest of the ship's complement, loyalty unknown. Tanda had been so tired that she had not broken the news to her wife before collapsing into her useless, blasted slumber, and the knowledge of that came back to her only slowly as the drugs disappeared, re-remembering the brutal, gut clenching feelings of the night before. She reached out through the force to steady herself... And to confess. _Tali... Love... How is the crew?_

 _Confident. Yag'Dhul has left them quite pleased, I think. It was a trap they repaid with interest. They're whispering about how you're different than Drysso._

 _Good. We are going to have to make our appeals to them very soon... And I am not quite sure how to do it, but I have a feeling that in the engagement, it will be made clear. I am going to take aboard Isard's flotilla of Bacta Tankers no matter what, also._

 _Let's hope... well, I'm sure this will somehow go wrong. Just... don't channel Shepard, we can't afford the property damage._

 _Yeah._ Tanda's heart... Collapsed. And then she felt even worse, because she knew that Tali could feel that.

 _What's happened, Tanda...?_

 _Admiral Hackett gave up waiting and convinced everyone to use the Crucible. It failed. Shepard led the attempt. There's been no contact with her or any part of her team since then, Tali. The Combined Fleet is wrecked. Daro'Xen and Shala'Raan led the retreat._

 _Shepard's alive. She'd never let the Old Machines kill her._ Her confidence was a fragile thing through the link they shared, though. The Collectors had killed her once, after all. But she couldn't even begin to approach it with her wife's despair.

 _I will have faith in Dea, that our spirits matter more than the terrible logic of the existence of the Old Machines. Please make our ship into the hope for our home that she is, Tali. I want to sweat on Rannoch with you. And I want you on the bridge for this battle. Something could well be wrong-I want you with your lightsabre, by the way. Hidden but ready._

 _Got a bad feeling about this, huh? I do too. That's... not a good sign, Tanda._

 _I know_. Tanda pulled herself up, silent in the cocoon of her suit, and wrapped a scarf over her head, and reached for a ration bulb. They would run out of time, soon enough. You always ran out of time.

The bridge crew grinned when she stepped onto the command walk for the transition to realspace—having beaten the Rogues, morale was high. They'd come back with the strength they'd left with... things were rather looking _up_ , or so they felt, anyhow, compared to the slow burn of the diasters which had dominated under Drysso. The klaxons calling the crew to stations as the reversion timer ticked down were familiar, and expected. That the system was _quiet_ and empty of Rebel ships... for most of them, at least, was profoundly _not_.

Tanda clapped a fist into a palm and strode above the pits. "We stole the march, as they say," she said for the benefit of her crew, though privately she wondered what it was that had delayed the Rogues, as nothing good made sense. "Bring us into orbit and signal Minister Vorru, I want a confirmation if the Bacta Tankers are ready to be brought into the ship's docking bays." For now, the crew wouldn't and shouldn't know that the intent was flight.

"Ma'am, I have Director Isard on realspace comms." Echoed from down in the crew pit, as they burned towards orbit, the report notching the nervousness of the men back up. "Minister Vorru reports he has the tankers assembled in an equitorial parking orbit, ma'am!"

"Start bringing the tankers aboard... Put the Director on the aft comm, by the holoprojector." She nodded to Tali as her wife arrived, turning and stepping to face the image with the reserve her suit gave her.

Tali nodded back, slipping into one of the bridge wings and activating a station there, out of line of sight of the channel with Isard.

"High Admiral Pryl. Report." Isard's holo stood stiff, wearing her uniform with a predatory look of anticipation on her face.

Before Tanda could get past "Madame Di-" There was a shout from the crew pit. "High Admiral, I have a Star Destroyer entering system at the grav-limit!"

The reply Tanda had planned died on her lips, and instead she folded her hands behind her back and held her ground, giving a wholly different sort of answer. "Battle is joined, Director, and the day shall be our's," she offered with her head inclined. "By your leave?"

"Of... of course." She was herself distracted by what-ever was going on. "...Are you sure... Well, fight well." Her holo blinked away as the sensor operators worked.

"IFF is reporting _Imperial-II_ type as the... _Freedom_?"

"Send that to Director Isard, tell her to leave at once as a New Republic Star Destroyer has indeed arrived," Tanda answered smoothly.

"Second hyper transition, many smaller signatures this time, High Admiral!" The bridge crew waited for instructions, but orders to actually engage were not forthcoming.

"Commence docking the tankers," was instead the command, and then, as the enemy formed up and began to close, they simply waited. Tanda gave a sharp glance to the Ubiqtorate officer arriving on the bridge, a very sharp glance. But nothing more. Then she turned, mentally calculating what she thought the time left until _Corruptor_ should arrive. "Let them come on. Keep bringing in the transports, maintain active tactical posture."

It was a very blase approach to the battle, and it only seemed worse when behind her the comms squawked, with reports of a major attack commencing on one of the spaceports near Xucphra City. Nyroska started, but as the report continued, it was no rebel snubfighters. Instead, they had infiltrated local resistance forces heavy guns and arms.

Tanda just smiled from within the privacy of her suit, and watched each of the tankers progressively disappearing under tractor guidance. _The angry crowd retreats, but they'll be back again._ As she had expected, it was a bit of prophecy, not borne of the force, but just of grim human experience. Rebel commandos might provide the spark, but the tinder was always something indigenous.

"The planetary surface is lost without suppressive bombardment from orbit. Too many stormtroopers below are nothing of the type, and that can not be hidden against this level of assault." Nyroska spoke from where she'd just come onto the bridge, having heard the reports, her eyes and expression cold as vacuum.

"The Rebels are taking their time making their deployments. They were not expecting to see us here," Tanda answered, still calm. "We are continuing the recovery of the Bacta Tankers that Minister Vorru prepared. It is surely the most critical action at this phase to protect them within _Lusankya_ 's shields."

"If they continue to delay... what _are_ they waiting for?" She seemed curious, watching the sensor blips shift—one gaggle staying far back, a group of snubfighters pouring from Star Destroyer. " _Avarice!_ " Nyroska's face lit with understanding, immediately followed by fury. "That traitor!"

"Rogues, Twi'leks, Gands. Nothing unexpected," Tanda answered as she stepped around to the holoplot. She hadn't even called the ship to stations yet. "They have nothing now except for revenge."

The blonde Intelligence officer threw up her hands in incredulous frustration at the High Admiral's attitude as Tanda's comm officer offered uncertainly; "High Admiral, we're receiving a transmission from the enemy Star Destroyer—broad spectrum on Imperial channels."

"Continue recovering and docking the bacta tankers as rapidly as possible. I'll take the message."

" _All_ the ships will receive such a broad transmission." Nyroska stepped up. "I shall observe this traitor's words."

Flickering to life on the holo-pad was a somewhat familiar visage, in ebon civilian clothes of a military cut, with a look of mild regret on his face. "We thought you might react better to I than Antilles, Tanda."

Tanda breathed hard. _I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this. But he has to fight after what Isard did. His men demand it. How, which hell holds the soul which wouldn't fight her after what she did? Not mine._ "Well, you're right, Sair. What do you want, exactly? I have a clever banner with red and a black cross and a skull on it that says 'Death to Traitors' in a foreign language, I'd have just sent a still image of it back to Antilles. What do you want, Sair? What can I possibly get you, now?"

"Hand over Iceheart and withdraw from Thyferra and Antilles will let all of you go, with your ships. Join me, and he'll find you a place with the Republic, again, with your ships. Better not to spill blood when it doesn't have to be." He paused, hands spread to the side in a gesture of supplication. "Did you ever manage to find that gift you had been intending for me before I... left?"

"I have a team working on it," Tanda's suit flared with light. _I'm sure that will make you feel real good, Sair. Real good. Know that your love could end up an Imperial prisoner no matter what happens today!_ "There's just one problem. I won't hand over Director Isard."

"You see, I'm not going to let a single Imperial rot, put on an uninhabited planet with a loincloth and nothing else, like the Rebels have always done before with Imperial prisoners. I'm not going to let a single Imperial be sent to a disintegrator booth for obeying the lawful orders of the lawfully constituted galactic government." Tali stiffened at her station. Nyroska stared, almost in awe of the intensity of the speech, the whimsical but fanatically edged sentiment it held. This was a speech from principle, and few Imperials made those.

"I've known defeat and retreat, Sair, and I'll be the first to think the planet is falling. But I'll die long before I sell out my comrades. And Director Isard wore the uniform. It's the principle of the thing, and you've known I was principled for a while now. Here's the outcome: I'll ride my principles to my own death, come to it."

"You... _won't_?" He stared, barely able to believe what he was hearing. "She's the very opposite of principled! She's no honor, and you'll fight for _her_? It's _Iceheart_ , Tanda! She'd turn on you in a heartbeat—you know she probably will for this very conversation! You don't have to do this for that revolting woman. Leave with your honor intact. Don't let her deeds stain that, Tanda. You can leave with everything you can carry, but the Republic wants Isard for the billions she killed."

"Sair, turning her over would, firstly, stain my loyalty to the uniform. I may execute a man for his crimes in my service, but I will _never_ yield someone to the enemy. And quite honestly, Sair, it would also legitimize the Rebel Alliance, and this I am not prepared to do. Are you ready to fight _Lusankya_ under my command? She is a wounded giant, but you know my record, and surely it is to curl your stomach to think of bringing _Avarice_ alongside her." A slight cough, and she tried to be as haughty as she could in her suit. "If she wants to kill me for my perfect honesty, I will worry about that when it comes to it. She knows where I stand. I am about to prove my convictions. Being moral isn't about choosing the _easy_ course."

"It is not." He shook his head at someone off the pickup. "If that's to be your decision, I fear we've nothing more to discuss, Tanda. I won't be able to intercede for you again with Antilles. I'd hoped you would be reasonable. If only you understood..."

"See you on the other side." Tanda sliced a hand across her throat in signal to her comms bank to cut the signal off. She turned back, then, and looked sharply at Nyroska.

The woman's face was a pained mask pale with rage, hands clenched tightly together behind her back. "I heard no treason from _this_ side of that conversation, High Admiral Pryl." She offered upon Tanda turning to face her. "No treason. But a _lot_ to explain!"

Tanda turned about. "I confess I may slightly exceeded my authority my arranging for some of my associations to try and kidnap Sair Yonka's lover—And telling him as much in a private conversation before now. I had been trying to engineer the recovery of _Avarice_ , intact, to our cause. I had thought he was hiding on the rim, not ... actively supporting Antilles. Sometimes it is better to ask forgiveness than permission. He will at least fight with a sliver of fear for his lover in his heart, now, so I would contend it to not be a complete failure."

"You did very much exceed the bounds of your authority, but I do not believe it matters overmuch anymore. How much of a threat do we face _with_ him against us?"

"None." She let it hang for a second. "Unless they have a surprise. They surely have a surprise. But I'm going to do nothing, until I find out what it is. You see, it's worse to have your plan interrupted, in my opinion, so I have the luxury of simply carrying on my business, which is the recovery of the tankers, until they show me what they intend to do. Then I'll counter it. Still, they are getting rather close..."

She glanced to Tali, and then turned back to the pits. "Stations," she called to the bridge crew. "From now until their attack, we stand ready."

"Ma'am, the Rebel snubfighters are coming in from the fore port quarter, covered by the Uglies, look to be setting up for a torpedo run. Captain Varrscha is requesting instructions."

"She is to position herself to cover the exposed hangar bays while we continue tractoring the tankers into their docking positions. Use the heavy turbolasers to try and shake the formation of the starfighters, we should have the range now. Commander Zorah, bring the shields up to full power but leave the docking bay exposed."

"Captain. The trick they used at the Graveyard. The missing launchers..." Tali trailed off ominiously as she bent to work, the Intelligence liaison's face going a little pale. "What's she talking about?"

"The first swarm of contacts, Commander Zorah?" Tanda's head snapped back, and for the moment, she ignored the Ubiqtorate officer. _That_ was serious.

"The smuggling freighters fled too." She was looking down as three-fingered hands flew over the controls. "They're staying distant, and it's hard to get a lock on them... Targeting telemetry detected, recommend shifting turbolaser fire immediately!"

"Target the freighters, all batteries that can bear. I don't believe they can vector the missiles to the bays, can they, Commander?" She glanced to Tali, then turned back to the Ubiqtorate Bureau Chief, murmuring softly, "Booster Terrik's four hundred warhead launchers do exist... On those freighters."

"By the Emperor." She whispered in a hollow tone as their fire started to shift towards the freighters.

Tali replied, worriedly; "No, not the docking bay— _Virulence_ is covering it well! Instead, Admiral, they're setting up to hit the bow shields, those are still the weakest, even after repairs... enemy Star Destroyer getting underway, vectoring to our ventral arc!"

Tanda used her omnitool to raise _Virulence_ directly. "You have your orders, Captain Varrscha. Keep our ventral surface clear, at your initiative."

"Understood, ma'am, conforming to your movements." crackled back over the comms as from the crew pit came the alarm, with a constant swinging sense of distraction between the almost overwhelming sources of information: "X-Wings reaching launch positions... firing!"

It was still easier than commanding a fleet, and Tanda planted her feet apart to steady herself against the incoming salvo and issued the directives to the gunners. "Light weapons are to ignore the fighters and concentrate on destroying incoming projectiles-off-axis targeting will reduce their maneouvring effectiveness." A glance back to Nyroska to explain to her: "There is a reason people do not do this in normal engagements." She furiously tapped out the calculation and forwarded it to her Fire Control officer.

The reason was, namely, that the computational power involved in a maneouvre was substantially increased by the additional variables of uncertainty when they scaled from sensor platform and target to sensor platform, firing platform, and target.

Suddenly there was a great roar and crash of impact. _Lusankya_ 's great number of lighter laser batteries, compared to a standard ship of her class, proved intensely useful in such a circumstance, as a somewhat ragged volley flew from the enemy freighters, heavily attritted by the time it smashed into her bow shields. That roaring and rocking dissipated quickly, and flashing yellow on forward shield sectors still belied that nothing had gotten through, though there were some worrisome alarms from down below as power surges populated through poorly maintained distribution networks.

"Lock those down! Keep up shield power and light fire forward." _Why don't you just hand her over and run?_ She mulled it, knowing her loyals had to be thinking it, Tali had to be thinking it; knowing that... it was a valid question when she needed the ship in the Milky Way so badly. Why was she fighting, solely for Isard? She knew that she couldn't trust the woman, couldn't ever trust her—as much as a part of her said she might, in fact, be able to trust the rebels. Her only answer was that she had to make sure her crews and commanders followed her for good reasons, and she thought that was why she did it. But there was doubt, gnawing quietly in her heart as she watched the dispositions develop. At the same time, the notion of handing the Director of Imperial Intelligence over to the _rebellion_ , after all this, after all she had seen and done...

It was still laughable. Still impossible. Like there was a leaden weight deadening her response, she couldn't bring herself to stop.

 _Freedom_ had rolled and was flying along so her hull was perpendicular to that of the _Lusankya,_ to allow her port gunners to be shooting down the top of the Super Star Destroyer. From the planet, the THDC squadrons were scrambling, strung out in line ahead as they flew to join the battle—with the freighters under fire, further volleys were much more ragged, and weaker. Without her fighters in space, they were able to hold their distance and set up for attack runs.

One of the ensigns stepped up from the comm pit to salute. "Ma'am, I have a priority message from Director Isard. This time, she is ordering us to respond and to promptly close with the planet to recover a shuttle, as soon as practical."

"Send a message to all Stormtrooper and Army commands on the planet informing them to repair to their transports, to commandeer any civilian vessels required, and to make their way to _Lusankya_ with all haste. Inform them that the planet is being evacuated and that they will surely die at the hands of the Thyferrans if they stay," Tanda ordered crisply—and didn't address the command from Isard. Then she keyed in a message to _Virulence_. "Captain Varrscha, you've driven _Avarice_ to attack from our dorsal surface and protected the ventral hull with the open shields so that the docking of the bacta transports can continue. I am proud! Hold your position, maintain operations accordingly, and know you are executing your part of the plan correctly and well."

And still, she was silent on the question from Isard, hands folded behind her back. _Dea, but all the crewmen think it's her, though. When have I finally been pushed far enough to win them over against the legitimate authority? Dea, but I don't know..._

The background chatter of the comm officers filled the silence as they communicated with the planet; it was the Central Battery Director that brought her good news, next. After the first volley had been disrupted, the rebels had yet to coordinate another battle enough that it shook the bones of such a massive ship as this, and sometimes it seemed like the battle wasn't actually being fought.

"High Admiral, _Avarice_ 's shields are collapsing!" It sounded triumphant, even as another distant set of impacts slammed into the 's acknowledgement seemed distant, as a shuttle, escorted by a dozen THDC X-Wings, appeared on their scanners.

Nyroska's lips were pressed together into a thin line. "They cannot generate enough firepower to overcome _Lusankya_ , can they?"

"They could have, but once we disrupted the salvoes and kept our fire discipline on the freighters, the chance evaporated," Tanda answered. "I don't know what they're going to try to do. I've been holding the light ships out of the action for a reason - Lieutenant," she keyed in fire control. "Shift to ion cannon only against _Avarice_. All other weapons are to keep firing on the freighters."

And the smugglers' alliance was suffering horribly for its loyalty to Antilles. Some of the freighters had started to flee. Most were able to evade most of the fire, most of the time, but the turbolaser bolts were so heavy from _Lusankya_ 's main batteries that even a single one could cripple a freighter, and the second one usually destroyed it. It was a savage shooting gallery, with the freighters having to maintain contact for their salvoes as directed by Rogue Squadron, and it was clear that the limits to which Antilles could count on them were now being reached. His game plan simply wasn't working.

"To a certain extent," she elaborated to Captain Nyroska after giving the orders, "The threat is psychological. If you allow yourself to be shaken by the opening salvoes and don't respond properly, you begin to see threats where there are none... And in doing so open yourself to the threat which _does_ exist." Battle on a ship as great as this could be clinical, Tanda was discovering. There was barely even a shudder as the next salvo came in, and again more of the freighters vanished in flares of white.

Above them, _Avarice_ shuddered, more than a hundred ion cannon causing blue lightning to dance across her hull, lights flickering and dying as fire from her sputtered away, her engines going dark. Tali spoke up, a bit hesitantly; "We should have the Thyferrans dock, Admiral. They'll just give the pirates confidence when they get shot down if they try to engage them."

The blonde woman frowned at that, and what Tanda had said beforehand, besides, and added something ominous. "Madame Director will have her Royal Guards with her when she arrives." Her hand was hovering near her blaster holster as she said it in a very soft voice.

"Bureau Chief... What was the real plan?" Tanda turned to Nyroska abruptly.

"I don't understand quite what you mean, High Admiral." The Intelligence woman's face looked sincerely puzzled by the question.

"Commander Zorah," Tanda hesitated significantly, looking at Nyroska for a moment. "...Order the Thyferrans aboard, and give me an ETA to the completion of the tanker docking operation."

"Understood, Admiral... ETA to the last tanker, fifteen minutes." Tali replied crisply as the blonde woman before Tanda rocked on her feet and then stepped to Tanda's side, half-opened her mouth, and whispered: " _Something_ had to satisfy the Rebels' bloodlust."

"Vector the Director into the VIP bay," Tanda said loudly, as she felt her will slowly dissolve. Something was going to have to give, but she could not possibly figure out what. Then it hit her.

"She's very confident about coming aboard," Tanda observed with a whisper. She had had all the pieces together, and just confirmed that she was right. "That may be a problem. Is there any risk...?"

"You think Intelligence did not have our own measures to use against barratry, Admiral?" Nyroska's mask had re-settled into place almost reflexively, and her voice had a nervous edge to it.

Tanda's vitals went so bad for a moment they triggered an alert through her suit to Tali's omnitool, making the Quarian whip her head around in fear and concern.

Tanda forced herself to calm. "If she activates those in the middle of a battle, Bureau Chief, we'll lose shields and weapons and become a sitting duck... Commander Zorah, cancel the order to recall those fighters _and launch our own!_ Give me continuous ion-cannon fire into _Avarice_ and overcharge the guns against the freighters; undock _Valiant_ and summon _Dolorata_ into engagement range!" Her blood had gone as cold as ice in her veins, that much wasn't changing. She had sleepwalked into a nightmare.

What had been a calm, clinical bridge degenerated into a series of shouts and frentic activity as crewers started to talk over each other, and the abrupt reversion from clinical confidence in an battle in which they had an enormous upper hand transformed into panic at the mere sound of the orders from their superiours. The alarms sounded down in the launch bays as fighters spun up to launch, held in readiness for this moment and now being accelerated away from the great ship, one hundred and forty-four each Interceptors and Fighters, and sixty bombers. Tali was now going to be incredibly busy setting up the remotes for _Valiant_ , which left Tanda under far more pressure as her utterly dimunative Carrack moved up to support her and she sent a hyperwave message to _Corruptor_ at the utmost urgency.

And then they ran out of time. "Wasn't even a point in trying to flee. It would just make her trip the switch earlier," Tanda said softly, as a new and rather different alarm started to howl on the bridge, and further preparations became impossible. Main reactor shut-down. The command overrides had been used, and they were steadily losing power as the capacitors bled down and the reactor did a managed drawdown of reaction mass. Small mercies: They didn't lose all power instantaneously with systems this vast and complex. She raised her omnitool. Local communications still worked. "Captain Varrscha, we are having a problem. Organise with _Dolorata_ and _Valiant_ and hold them off. Help is coming in the form of _Corruptor_ and you have plenty of fighter support."

 _Avarice_ , hull crackling with ion fire as _Lusankya_ 's fire died away, would at least by a non-factor for a while.

"Ma'am!" Varrascha's command moved out of her position below the Super Star Destroyer, moving to interpose herself between the freighters and her Admiral—her own Quarian-modified Interceptors scrambling. She didn't have the firepower, however, to stop the freighters from starting to re-organize, as the fighter combat exploded, the Rogues and their allies _heavily_ outnumbered.

"Commander Zorah, can Arthree handle the _Valiant_? I think..." Tanda looked at the hangar bay displays, and also at the positions of the fighters, cold and sick at the situation she had found herself in. "I think you should activate your bridge screens and then get ready for a different sort of fight."

"Ancestors, this is not the best time for that!" Her hands flew over her console, inputting final commands, and then she stepped towards the bridge corridor, drawing her shotgun from behind her back, to the visible consternation of Nyroska and the bridge guards.

Behind them, the view of the battle through the bridge viewports disappeared as hull plates in magnetic bearings and welded lips slid across them. "No trench run disease until we can deal with this... Bureau Chief, is there any way... You can override the codes?"

"The Director's suite aboard, and we must hurry." Her face was a mask of calm as she unsnapped the safety catch on her holster.

"By all means." She dashed off, catching up to Tali as she did. "Come on, we'll shortly have need of the shotgun-and then some." The hull shook under them. They were unshielded, after all, and... The only thing that Tanda had going for her would be the fact she had been quietly waiting to end the battle on the imminent arrival of a ship Antilles thought would be destroyed; _Corruptor_ and _Virulence_ together might just keep a massed warhead salvo from causing crippling damage to _Lusankya_ until they could override the overrides and restore power.

 _If we just survive long enough for her to arrive..._

Somewhat blessed by _Virulence_ taking the bulk of the fire as the remaining fully functional heavy unit, _Lusankya_ shivered from impacts that got through anyhow, with the liaison breaking into a run, drawing her blaster as she did. _Now_ the hull was shaking, though Nyroska held her footing. She was fast, and her steps, spurred by a _mortal_ urgency. Down several decks in the command tower, and they'd be there.

Tanda jogged along, keeping up, but only by leaning into the force and letting the suit provide assistance with pharmacology as she breathed pure oxygen and fought to maintain her pace. Tali was surely having an easier time of it. _I'm going to assume the worst about what the clone can do from that chamber._

 _Great, just great, bosh't... clone? Wait,_ _ **clone?!**_ _What about a clone!?_ Before Tanda could answer, there was a flare of danger—and malevolence—through the Force.

"Too late, Tali! Roll hot!"

Nyroska half-turned, confused, but instinct was already moving her towards cover as the ear-shattering blast of Tali's Claymore erupted and punched straight through the bulkhead—the two of them skidding 'round the corner whcih then brought a quartet of red-robed guards into view, staggering back from the blast where it had reached them, paneling and partitions dished out into the corridor.

Tanda spun in behind the blast, and skittered to a stop to face the four guards in support of Tali. Her hand fell down to her hip ... And the lightsabre leapt out of her boot and straight into her hand. There was no going back after that. She thumbed the power switch, wavering yellow arcing into existence and the tip snapping angrily into the deck with a hiss and burn of metal.

For their credit, these were _Royal Guards_ , and that was exactly the kind of threat to the Emperor they had trained to face. Force pikes came up to meet her, as her wife threw down her overheated and steaming shotgun, her own lightsaber falling into her hand from the fake assault rifle she'd concealed it in. By the time she had it ignited, the guards were on them, and the bark of blaster fire came from behind as Nyroska frantically fired.

Tanda held her ground, flicking the lightsabre up and guiding the first guard to trip on the steaming patch of molten, cratered deck metal she had just created, functional as well as a boast. Sending him flying down with a wound across his side, she spun her blade to catch another force pike. This one locked, lightsabre skittering, and held against its power, as she felt the force inside of her opponent and a chilling whisper of fear from the old days shot down her spine. She knew what the force powers meant, and what the slight variation in the uniform meant, too. This was no _mere_ Royal Guard she was facing.

"A Sovereign Protector. Watch out, Tali!" As she took her blade against his pike, spinning him around with the first flurry of blows that showed her own strength and talent hadn't truly diminished since she had been possessed by the Rakatan, Tanda for a moment put her foe on the back foot, parrying with his force pike and unable to attack. She took the opportunity—desperately—to try and find out where the blaster fire was coming from—and against whom.

The answer to the second came quickly enough, when a trio of shots slammed into the downed Royal Guard that Tanda had dispatched first, Nyroska's face set in a blank mask of concentration. Tali came in to aid her wife as the Sovereign Protector mounted a renewed and vigorous attack and put her on the back foot in turn, but was almost instantly drawn off by the other two Crimson Guards—Tanda's opponent quickly reversed his pike once he had her on the defensive, and with terrifying speed and power slammed the end into her hip and followed up with a series of powerful, quick swings of his force pike to her upper torso.

It was an overwhelming power. She wheezed and collapsed as her suit was ripped open by the raw power of the man's deep, force driven blows as she fell back. Tanda felt a voice flaring up in her mind as time seemed to slow down to nothing, and then stop, hanging in the air. Hanging in the air, with an offer redolent in the universe hanging around her. _Crush that impudent bastard!_ the voice screamed to her, and offered her a way to do it.

Her life seemed to fade away with the loss of her air. She let it fade. The only thing worse than dying on her, would be letting Tali down. And now she understood that as clearly as she could.

Time sped back up, and her breath exploded outwards as she slammed into the deckplates.

A pair of shots slammed into the Guard's energy shield—his attention was immediately drawn away from Tanda—his finishing blow cut off as he leaped over the apparently dying woman—Nyroska's face had a momentary flicker on it as she ducked the first swing, and the second, having risked her life for Tanda in an act that startled the woman. But it was no use against the power of that demon of a man they fought.

She screamed in unmitigated agony as the third swing smashed into her hand, blaster dropping from suddenly nerveless fingers. The Guard muttered _"Traitor,"_ nothing more, and it could but barely be heard as the screams cut off into a pained gurgle, the reverse of the pike swing slamming into the woman's ribs and sending her crashing into the bulkhead, half-senseless, as a pained, desperate crimson eye met Tanda's through the blood pouring from the Intelligence officer's scalp after she'd rebounded off the bulkhead.

Tanda watched that desperate look of a helpless woman, and a lesson of Tasiele Shan, of Tasiele Shan's age, floated back to her. _The force does not act in defence of the Good. It acts in defence of the_ _ **helpless**_ _._

The power surged and exploded forth in her heart and body, in every part of her, reinvigorating her, and she felt herself alive again. It worked through her cells to drive air into her own lungs despite the crippling damage to the suit, and with a steady gasp of air, Tanda leapt to her feet in one soaring motion, blade in her right hand as she pounded her bleeding side with her left, trying to stimulate the auto-healing mechanisms of the suit that had been disrupted by the force pike. "Face your own kind, Sovereign."

Again, he turned, viciously kicking down with his boot at Nyroska, something audibly cracking as he stepped up to face Tanda once more. "Traitors to the Emperor shall perish!"

"Along with incompetents, innocents, the brave, the truthful, the petty..." Tanda mocked with a mordant viciousness, and met him, and blocked the reversal of the pike this time, that move he liked so much. Her lightsabre howled as it melted at the metal of the pike before he swung it back in a brief retreat. Spinning the blade onto the attack, now, he was back to parrying again as she forced him away from Nyroska.

"Pretty soon, treason starts to look like quite the fine good deal when you've played the game of rewarding incompetence and vice for long enough! And where it prospers, none will call it so. Such as it has always been, Sovereign—when you play this game you end up on top or dead." Force pike and lightsabre, they locked themselves together, and somehow, towered over by the vast red-robed figure, she dug back into the deck, and held her ground.

She smiled, closed her eyes, and a whirlwind of power met him, the light side crackling in and embracing his dark side potential, and send him flying back. Lunging forward, she leapt out with her lightsabre to strike and strike again.

And instead he was back on his feet, catching her blade with the energized end of the pike that would hold it. _Again_. Her moment feeling of triumph faded, but the need to save a brutally wounded woman laying on the deck remained the same. She squeezed at her side, and this time, felt the nanoweave in the suit finally start to work... Just in time for a flurry of blows from the Sovereign Protector while she was distracted send her lurching back.

Tali had one of her opponents down, purple blade flashing as she dueled the other, looking on frantically as she tried to finish him. She was the stronger of them now, and Tanda saw it, and knew it. She might well win against the Soveriegn Protector, but in her arrogance, Tanda had assumed that she would be the one who was needed to hold the line. And now it was too late.

Tanda was being pushed steadily back by the figure, and now, the effort redoubled as he channeled dark power through his force pike. "For you, _death_!" His fury seemed unstoppable, but all Tanda could do, and she knew it, was hold on long enough for Tali to face him.

She felt the power connecting and shocking her through her lightsabre each time it struck. Then they locked—and energy lanced into her hands, and Tanda screamed, pushing back as she did. She could hold her own, the light could hold its own. _...Surely it must!?_

The Sovereign Protector fell back. And then, putting the dark side into his force pike, he struck again, and again, each blow barely blocked, one getting through and slamming into Tanda's left shoulder, her side already weakened. Beyond piercing the suit the energy left half her body numb, and right hand alone she was now fending him off, once more on the defensive.

He swung viciously at her—again and again, driving her back, occasionally scoring glancing blows and steadily growing more confident as his opponent weakened, using his size and strength against her - smashing the butt of his force-pike into her face-mask hard enough to crack it, as he laughed. "You truly thought you could defeat _me_? You were right to fear us as I felt you had from the first audience, for you are as weak and doomed as the Jedi!" His voice spoke of a dark amusement as he feinted, and then as she moved to block, swung his fully-charged force pike... right into the hilt of her lightsaber with a cruel sound of amusement, accompanying it with a force-push.

Tanda felt it was another body that she was watching, not her own, as the force pike... Struck, connected below the blade of her lightsabre, and removed two fingers from her cybernetic hand, ripped the bottom of the entire hand off, crushed her yellow lightsabre. The beam disappeared as the force pike kept going, and she staggered back into a bulkhead with the incredible pain and numbness that had barely faded from her left side now in her right, and a vicious, dark-side energy burned scar having ripped her arm open from wrist to elbow, exposing tendon and bone and burned muscle. The flood of drugs from the suit still trying to work to keep her alive and the sheer level of the shock were the things that kept her from screaming.

She heaved out one more breath, and saw the beautiful image of Tali beyond, driving her last opponent back once more, and looking absolutely splendid, and feeling completely at peace with herself, knowing only a gnawing sense of urgency to save Tanda's life. Tanda felt she was beyond saving, but... Found her own peace. She had done her job. Then her eyes shifted to the Sovereign Protector before her. "I deserve to die. May I at least take the name of the man who killed me to my grave?"

"Know you faced Carnor Jax, and you have failed as so many others have!" He drew back to finish her, as in the background Tali stepped back, kicked her leg back—and there was a flash of silver detaching from her boot, and then a sudden voice in the mind of the stricken woman. _Tanda, catch!_ She could feel the worry through their bond, as the Quarian woman struggled against the impulse to dash to Tanda and leave herself open in the process, and managed it with an aplomb that astonished even in the last stable moments of Tanda's mind.

Carnor saw the silver object flying, and turned to lift his hand toward it.

But Tali was most assuredly stronger in the force. And so was Tanda. Its course bent toward Carnor Jax... Tanda could _feel_ his sense of triumph. But hope surged eternal, and she reached out, just a little—and then the blade, her old lightsabre, swung back into Tanda's left hand, igniting smoothly with a clear, brilliant red blade as it did.

As she did, even the great _Lusankya_ lurched under them from an incredible blow delivered in the midst of the battle, and Tanda took advantage of it with a move that flowed from her body like water, lunging forward in a blur of motion. Carnor Jax still caught the tip of the lightsabre with his force-pike... But she was turning right, let momentum spin the _base_ of the blade into his right side as she carried past him, and he fought to keep his footing as the ship lurched below.

His armour fell under the power of that steady blade, and the lightsabre cut deep.

He grunted, staggering back, managing to fall to a knee as he stumbled away from her - staggering away as Tali'Zorah twisted sharply, contorting around a strike and coming up under the guard of her last opponent, her blade emerging from his back. In the same moment it was done.

Tanda looked at Carnor Jax, and felt only sadness. "We are all born to the wheel, with our lives merely parts to play, circling 'round and 'round..." Tanda staggered and the rest of her words faded away into nothingness.

Almost instantly, Tali was at Tanda's side, crying her name in alarm. "Are you all right?! Ancestors, Tanda, your arm!" Reflexively, she poured more medigel into her arm out of her omnitool, eyes wide with concern.

"...Nyroska, help Nyroska," Tanda gasped, her lungs again fading. "We need her. The clone's doing something to the ship, need to get inside the ..." She tugged away from Tali and toward the doors to the private suite, her grip on her lightsabre resumed. "I guess there's another way. Get her, anyway, get her! She knows the overrides, Tali! We need shields!" Taking a deep breath, and able to use only one hand, she plunged her lightsabre into the blast doors, and started to cut.

"Be careful!" Tali ran to the side of the blood-soaked Intel liaison, using most of her supply of medigel just to get her stable and conscious, before slinging her over-shoulder and staggering after Tanda, who was met with blaster-fire from a barricaded Isard as soon as she'd managed to finish carving a hole.

Tanda turned the shots, bearing down on the woman. The quote from the liberator flashed back into her adled mind, and she mumbled in an unsteady drawl as she approached Isard. "You have taken license for liberty, treachery for patriotism, and vengeance for justice." She swung her lightsabre.

"Tanda! Bosh'tet!"" Tali shouted.

The blade cut the blaster pistol in two, and she quietly turned back to Tali. The Quarian woman laughed hysterically.

As she did, the woman lunged to her feet and blew past them, as a punch-drunk, blood covered Nyroska worked the console in a daze.

"Tali..." Tanda slumped to the floor, her lightsabre deactivating, collapsing to her knees, and then falling back to sit against the wall of the ornate and half-wrecked suite. "Tali... Will you ever... Oh Dea, so many things to do!" She coughed, gagged, tried to remember her duty. "Tell Lieutenant Waroen to recall the fighters as soon as we have shields and for the squadron to retreat in good order."

"Ancestors, Tanda! I... all right, I'm calling for a medical team, and..." She tapped up her omnitool, repeating Tanda's orders as Nyroska half-collapsed onto the desk and then fell to the deck below it. As she did, though, a peaceful peace echoed through the massive dreadnought. The shuddering of distant impacts on the armor had stopped. "Stay with me, Tanda, you did wonderful... just stay with me, your suit's working fine... now let me get some patches on those holes."

"There is no going back, now... We are committed. So, so irrevocably. Dea, but it is done." Her world disolved into dark, but it was a warm dark, in the arms of her wife.


	85. Chapter 85

Burning from heavy damage with her shields down, but with her engines and main power intact, protected by _Virulent_ and _Corruptor_ , the _Lusankya_ slowly lurched into action, accelerating past the planet with a huge nest of bacta tankers nestled up against her hull. Sloughing off her lethargy, shields up, guns firing again, the freighters which had renewed their commitment to the fight when she lost power were now at close range. They were easy targets, and the crewmen at guns which once again had power opened fire and destroyed a dozen within the space of a minute, guns salvoing again and again as the freighters scrambled to escape, caught too far into the death zone.

Their course for the escape had already been laid in, and the bridge crew executed it without further question. The Imperial officers had never been attached to Thyferra. With no interdiction fields to hold them back, they fought their way past the enemy force and lurched into hyperspace, leaving the once-again operational _Avarice_ behind with the remnants of Antilles' attack force. The mottled colours of hyperspace asserted themselves and slowly the crew could take stock of the damage and the chaos.

They had laid in this course to Commenor, and with Bureau Chief Nyroska and High Admiral Pryl in bacta tanks, Tali'Zorah worked furiously through the night, acting commander of the great dreadnought and a desperately overworked Chief Engineer. All the damage was repairable, but considering the job ahead of _Lusankya_ and the lack of easy resupply, it was not exactly good news.

That, and the fact that Tanda had promised Daro'Xen that _Lusankya_ would be to Asation in a week when it would take twelve days directly from Thyferra, a planet nestled in the galactic south and coreward, to reach the extreme north-spinward well off the hyperlanes at Asation... Was frustrating in the extreme. It was clear at the time Tanda herself had not been thinking coherently—particularly since the jump she had laid in was taking them to Commenor instead. Commenor, the home of Tanda's family. It was almost too much, even as she felt like her relationship with Tanda had never been stronger. She had resisted the Dark Side so well in that battle that Tali felt almost a little ashamed at having doubted her.

Though Varrscha was technically her superior officer, she accepted commands from _Lusankya_ implicitly and slowly the details of the fleet operation came together. Their arrival at Commenor, officially neutral and aligned now neither to the Empire nor the Republic, was an occasion of terror for the local government which Tali found almost funny, but on second take was a sobering example of just how powerful _Lusankya_ was, even by local standards. She managed to impress upon them the fact that they merely wanted a chance to peacefully refit their ships before carrying on their way, and after consultations a period of five standard Coruscanti days was agreed to by the Commenorean government.

Their fleet consisted of twelve Mistryl Shadow Guard teams, each one based out of an Action VI transport modified into an Interceptor Frigate—six light turbolasers, two medium turbolasers, three proton torpedo launchers, one concussion missile launcher—and upgraded shields and armour, ships reliably capable of defeating CR90s despite their jury-rigged nature. With them, too, the mercenary Nebulon-B frigate _Stacked Deck_ , and the Alderaanian _Valiant_ under slave circuitry, the _Dolorata_ , _Corruptor_ , and _Virulent_. While Tanda and the other old line Imperials would find it a hideous remnant, an excuse for a fleet, Tali as a Quarian and denizen of the Milky Way was quite satisfied. They at least had a chance now—the only question was how fast they could get back.

Tali hadn't slept in fifty hours by the time the situation was stabilised over Commenor, but there was an element of satisfaction in all the effort she had put in. Her wife was recovering, and so was Nyroska. The fleet had escaped and was obeying orders. Even as she received notice that the two women were being decanted from their Bacta tanks, she put the finishing touch on her own little effort to help bolster their efforts, modulating a carrier wave through the holonet that she was fairly certain would summon _Valiant_ 's two sisters to Commenor.

Sending another message that confirmed to Liara their new location and asked her to hurry in the rendezvous, she guiltily took another stim, and rose. With any luck she'd be able to quickly settle her wife into bed, or at least get her comfortable for them both resting. Then, maybe the next day, they'd see her family as the fleet sorted itself out for its final effort to reach Asation, and rejoin the war that truly mattered.

For all that she might complain about Tanda's muddled effort, the nightmare she had had to navigate around Isard, the nightmare of her own loyalties, meant that Tali couldn't find fault with her. She could certainly identify the countless points where Tanda could have done better, where she would have tried to just leave earlier with the _Lusankya_. But she had not been born in Palpatine's Republic and raised and spent twenty years serving the Empire, she was not the one who had faced death from Isard at every conversation.

They had gotten what they had come for, and sometimes, that was all that mattered. She was just very glad that Isard was gone, even if she had not gotten the chance to punish the monster. That was probably for the best, even, it was surely in the dark side, and... _I really wish I knew what Tanda had meant by a clone._

Around her, the overworked staff of the _Lusankya_ greeted her with a newfound respect borne of her efforts both in battle and its aftermath. They saluted as she walked, bearing the squares and cylinders of a Commander. And that respect was tinged with at least a little fear. Rumours had spread fast and far of the lightsabre fight.

Unfortunately, only the lack of confirmation of those rumours was likely what was holding them back from being _all_ fear, which made Tali rather sad. The heroism, loyalty, and honour of force users was a dead memory here. To an Imperial crewer or officer, there was just the horrifying, black shadow of Darth Vader and the Inquisitors.

Tali greeted people and tried to be as cheerful as a superiour officer could. When they finally saw her with her lightsabre where it would be more than just a rumour, she wanted them not to be afraid, or at least as little afraid as possible.

It might be a tall order, even an impossible order, but you had to start somewhere. _Just like with droid rights_ , she thought, recalling how hard it had been for her to work with Legion at first. How easy, in the end, when she had extended what she thought of Arthree to the Geth. Hoping for a similar effect, she stayed positive and tried not to fear the future. They had big enough fears back in the Milky Way, after all. Adding more wasn't going to get anything done.

"Probably the fastest thing to do would be to just cut my arm back to the shoulder and put a new one on," a very familiar voice could be heard saying to the medical droid as Tali arrived.

"Tanda!" Tali's voice had a combination of joy and warning in it as she came into the private wing of sickbay, grinning through her mask. "You're out of the tank, and _already_ trying to have the droids cut more parts of you off!"

"Clearly I'll end up your pet cyborg by the time this is done." Tanda reached out with her left hand, the right, enfolded in her suit, clipped to her side to keep her from injuring it more. She wouldn't be using it for a while. "Well, we're both alive, my love."

"Please, I've still got more robot parts than you do." Smiling more gently, Tali took Tanda's hands in hers. "We are. I'd got us five days here to make repairs, and my teams are working. Updated Liara and put a last few other things into motion. We're close to as ready as we can be, but I really want to see _you_ resting."

"...I do need a lot of rest. But there is a lot that needs to be done here, too." She leaned into her wife, suit to suit, stretching against Tali and revelling in the woman's strength. "We should go see the Bureau Chief."

"What good is _she_ going to do us anyhow?" Shifting to hold Tanda up, Tali sighed behind her mask. "The sooner I get you resting, the better. You're not going to get any once we head back, and we both know it. Give me a list and I'll do it myself while you rest and heal." _Sleep's over-rated until you start hallucinating, anyhow._

Tanda started. "I... I can't. This has to do with my family and their wealth. This has to do with... The resources that the Bureau Chief can provide for us." She started off, but still held her wife, folded against her left side as they walked.

"I'll take your word for it. Ancestors, Tanda, we've... we've got _Lusankya_. I can barely believe it." They didn't have far to walk, to another room in the same wing. "Before I forget... what do you want me to do with the prisoners? They came within a frame of a hull breach, but they're _still here_." Almost reflexively, her voice had dropped as she asked.

"That's... Complicated." Her head shot up, in a way that really left no doubt that the complication was fundamentally interlinked with Bureau Chief Nyroska.

"Well, I talked with their apparent leader, to get them moved away so my crews could start working. He seemed rather shocked to see me, and how polite I was! Rather polite himself, an older human man, by the name of... Dodonna, I think his name was?"

"Dodonna." Tali could clearly feel the shock from her wife, before they walked together into the next ward. But beyond the shock and the repeating of his name, Tanda didn't elaborate.

Tali glanced over, wondering, before shrugging and then abruptly stopping short as her attention came to the other person in the room.

Black hair with a pair of white shocks running through it. Mismatched eyes. _Tanda, you bosh'tet!_

"Thank you for saving my life, Bureau Chief," Tanda said softly to the woman before them.

"Is _that_ to be it, then?" Her eyes were cold and flinty, but softened a fraction as she started to pull her hair back into a bun. "You... are welcome, High Admiral."

"No, that isn't it, Bureau Chief-though I thank you. My wife, Commander Tali'Zorah vas Lusankya nar Rayya."

Her eyes flickered, and the hint of softness in them vanished instantly. "I _see_." She gave a single glance to Tali. "Commander." There was a fading of hope and a tensing from the woman, as if she realised now the depth and intensity of a betrayal against her.

"...Ysanne, I'd." Tanda took a breath. The words failed her so swiftly.

"I'd like to be your friend. I don't think you've had one in a very long time, and Coruscant is no place to have friends. There are some details of why I returned to the settled parts of the galaxy which badly need explaining right now, as we are in fact only beginning the most desperate mission I have ever known or conceived of. Would you come with me to talk?"

There was a deep-seated rage burning in her eyes as she stood. "Why not? No doubt you have an _excellent_ reason for all that you've done." Sarcasm burned in the woman's voice, covering the slight tremor in her hands.

"I discovered the motherworld of humanity." Tanda walked along, her voice rising to sarcasm as she continued from the words that deserved so much incredulity. "Alien-marrying race traitor I may be, but now that it's occupied by a race of machines bent on turning humans into the biological components of their cybernetic terror-constructs, I was prepared to do anything I had to so that I could obtain the resources required for the liberation of Terra."

In the haughtiness of her upper-class accent, Tanda could hold her own against Ysanne Isard, as the three walked together from sickbay, and so she did, as she continued. "Until the very last, I acted in your best interests, sometimes to the exclusion of an objective for which most other Imperial officers would gladly take the excuse to stab you in the back. Now, there's no point in hiding it anymore."

Her hands clenched into fists, the Coruscanti woman walked slowly along beside, before offering in an over-controlled tone: "I _question_ what you expect from me, Pryl. Nothing but defeat and ash remains now."

"You know what I was doing when I disappeared. You _must_ have looked that up. And you surely also have access to great fiscal wealth through hidden shell corporations of the Ubiqtorate."

Her eyes flickered. "I read the report of your disappearance, and yes, _but_... I would be a hunted thing, a reviled monster, unable to make use of such things not lost with the fall of Imperial Centre."

"Well, let me tell you what happened in the intervening time," Tanda answered. "That Gree research resulted in the creation of a device which took us to another galaxy. That is where the homeworld of humanity lies. Another galaxy. Ysanne..." She slipped into her suite with Tali and the former head of Imperial Intelligence. "My wife may not be very pleased with me, but I cannot kill someone I shared a bed with. It is simply against my nature."

Tali gave her a glare, as Ysanne Isard softly laughed, a bit tinged with a hint of mania. "Being a prisoner is not _better_!" The laughter died, as she snapped back with a flare of anger. "I have _nothing_! You have taken from me everything!"

"I didn't say anything about making you a prisoner, Bureau Chief Nyroska," Tanda snapped. "I am offering you the chance to share in the danger and the glory of my undertaking of uniting the Milky Way and liberating the homeworld of humanity."

"So, that's the choice, is it? I _serve_ you in some useless capacity, or I lose everything I have left?" Scorn bubbled up from some deep-seated well of hurt and anger as Tali moved a half-step closer to her wife.

Tanda sank back in her chair, glancing hoodedly from her wife to Isard and back, and uncorked a bottle of Corellian brandy. "Please? I thought you'd relish the chance to start over. No fetters, once these Reapers are destroyed. There will be no going back here, of course; but no fetters. I will give you a place in civil government if you have earned it."

She poured a glass, but Isard ignored it, so Tanda pushed it aside and continued. "I am not the Emperor. I never can be. I'm not your mistress. I'm not your gaoler. I need allies. And right now I need you."

"And what if I tell you 'no'? What if I spit in your face? What do you offer me but servitude?" Her anger was suppressed, but roiling beneath the surface. "You are not offering me any control over my own life, only the _promise_ of a job as a _bureaucrat_ , is that it?! What in the galaxy do you need _me_ for?!"

"Why do you reduce it to needs? You gave me everything I need to be victorious! You are the architect of victory; you are an Imperial officer, who like me was used by the Emperor-by the Sith Lord. And you saved my life. I earnestly desire to give you a new life, since it is the highest gift I can offer you. And right now, I most assuredly need your cooperation, your alliance. I am sixty thousand lightyears from Asation, and every warlord and the New Republic will try to stop me from getting there."

She drew her breath raggedly, pure oxygen in her suit giving her the strength to live. "I need every account you have access to. I was raised in a business family, I know business and how accounting and contracting works. We can initiate lead orders for ships and get ready ships delivered now while the remaining ships are laid down and under construction; we'll be gone before the next payment goes through. The same for equipment, for services. I need recruits, troops. And I need them with an urgency that seems ridiculous. Weeks, not months."

"Needs are leverage, don't tell me about ephemeral gratitude! You _used_ me, and I shall not easily forgive that!" Ysanne's cheeks flushed, and she clenched her hands on the armrests of the chair she sat within. "You are asking me to kill all I was, and then I must _trust_ you to provide something on this other side you went to! Your record does give one confidence on the matter, I hope you have the self-awareness to grasp!"

"It doesn't? Since when did I use you? _Since when!?_ " She had perked up so sense of anger in Tanda, and the woman started and snarled softly before she calmed. "Command me, Director," she said stiffly. "I have _Lusankya_ , _Virulent_ , _Corruptor_ , _Dolorata_ , fourteen lesser ships. _What is your target? What is your plan? What system shall I assault? Your High Admiral awaits your orders_."

After watching Isard's furious but quiet silence, Tanda continued. "As of right now I have not used you one damned bit, I have executed a plan we agreed to from the first, Director. I took fifty-eight bacta tankers and thirty-four bacta transports up to _Lusankya_ as well as seven freighters which had arrived carrying knocked down TIEs and X-wings off of Thyferra, and I took them through hyperspace with our loyalists and mercenaries to Commenor to regroup. We had discussed Hapes, but you had not confirmed that intention. Shall we go there, Director? Is that your order?"

"What _GOOD_ will any of that do?! What good does any of that do?" There was a hint of despair in Isard's mismatched eyes as she shot to her feet. "We're all _doomed_ for having failed _Him_."

"Director..." Tanda shot a look to Tali.

Tali looked slowly back, and then at Isard.

" _Him_ ," the Director of Imperial Intelligence said again, jerkily.

"... _Bosh'tet_. Tanda... She isn't mad, is she?"

Tanda shot a look into the bulkhead abruptly, quite well oriented toward the Galactic Centre, toward what she had felt. "Dea, Dea, Dea. Director, Ysanne, Dea, he's alive, isn't he?!"

"I _don't know_." She laughed, a thing of dark amusement. "I don't know, but that cloning cylinder forwards came from a hidden lab in the Palace. I destroyed the others, but why else would He have had his own private collection...? I hadn't put the pieces together until recently, but... it's all that fits all the pieces, doesn't it? What was the point in planning for the future when _nothing_ could make up for all I had done and failed to do...? You know how He punished failures..."

Tali's eyes widened, as they shot between mirrored looks of sickened shock and despair and she quietly thanked the Ancestors for her visor. "Tanda...? That thing you felt..."

But Tanda was focused on Isard. "Another galaxy, Ysanne! You want to turn that down when the Emperor is alive? When he's survived? When _he_ is that dark and malevolent presence I can feel in the heart of the galaxy?"

Paling at that, Isard sagged back down into her chair, her fear, her suspicion, at once confirmed. "You... _feel_ him... don't you understand? Don't you understand, there was _love_ there, and I failed him! There's no going back if I do this!"

"Love? With a kriffing Sith Lord?" Tanda... Started laughing. Laughing, and laughing, and cackling uncontrollably, and falling forward onto the table, not able to hold herself up with one hand, and laughing more. "And you have the _gall_ to say _I_ was using you? Come here, Ysanne, I'll make you my second wife if that's what's important, I can certainly fake it better than he can!"

The look on Ysanne Isard's face seemed to shift wildly, through fury, despair, rage, hurt, and finally settled into a strangely distant and numb expression, mouth half-open as she'd started to retort in fury, and let it die, as Tali's hand fell away from where it had wandered towards her lightsabre."You... are making fun of me." Isard finally replied, sounding somewhat... confused, as if the blatant amusement, but without the insults of others who had indulged in it, caught her off guard.

"I've never believed you were crazy, but the Emperor has certainly taught you how to be blind to your own abuse. How many women do you think he did that to...?"

"I don't... understand. I don't understand at all. What are you...?" Her eyes had a hollow numbness in them as her gaze fell to the deckplates. "If it wasn't..." Isard took a breath, as she asked the question that had started to torment her. "What... was the _point_ of it all?"

"Does it matter...? I don't know myself, and I touched that ancient power. I came too close to it, Ysanne! It's why I'm in this suit. It is the power of evil, and it has always led to things that will never make sense. Tali, please, tell her... Oh, I... Ysanne, I _need your help_. You are capable, and possess many resources. I need them, now, to safe an entire galaxy. We will travel far away from the reach of the Emperor. My people are the only ones who know how to operate the hyperspace tractor."

Tali stirred, and finally started to speak. "The point-whatever it was you had with the Emperor-doesn't matter now. That's between you and the Ancestors. Superseded by events. Stay here and eventually have something horrible happen, or..." She let out a breath, vocoder flashing, trying to think about how to be encouraging and positive toward the woman who had assaulted her wife. It was surely a great test as a Jedi. "Look, if you help save our galaxy, nobody there will _care_ what you did or didn't do here. You'll be a heroine. I'm not sure you deserve that chance, but my wife says we need you, and who deserves what doesn't matter in the face of what we're fighting. Stay here, and that bosh'tet will get you killed. Come with us, and..." Her eyes flicked to Tanda. "... what other people say about you, what you've done, won't be what defines you. What you do now will be."

Mismatched eyes stared at the deckplates for long moments of silence, before she looked up, and visibly steeled herself. "Then... let us move with despatch."

Tanda let her good hand fall to her side. "Absolutely. What resources do we have on hand?" Vocoder flashing, too, her right arm tucked into her side, her voice spoke with growing confidence. "Nobody is going to take _this_ glory away from you. I will defer to your judgement, but I need repair ships, supply ships, and maybe any warships I can get, vectored to Asation. And I need a way to convince Commenoreans to fight for me."

Isard shook her head in negation. "Intelligence was not the service of direct action and starships. The Navy was most jealous of such things. It must be indirect, a few squadrons of starfighters in forgotten bases here and there are all the direct assets I have. As to the last, _you_ are the Commenorean. I am the infamous blood-soaked monster."

"Even Commenor had a major ISB presence, eager to serve the Empire. I know they were the rivals of the Ubiqtorate, but surely the government would like them gone to mitigate the risks of a coup."

" _Rivals_ under-states the issue." Still rather dull and listless, Isard closed her eyes. "I can give them no orders, and I have lost both Imperial Center and Thyferra. You have seen what level of support I have within the wider Empire by what was willing to join me at Thyferra."

"And the money? We've got shipyards that will still sell to us... Tagge, Loronar, Sienar... The coup at Kuat is unfortunate."

"Money has never been a concern, only manpower. Vorru is either dead, or telling the Rebels all he knows, those accounts are easy enough to drain if I am... not doing the same." Isard sighed softly. "After your speech, I do not believe I could justify rendering Intelligence incapable of functioning in my absence, but even that leaves more than I could even hope to use."

"Then let's ask the Directors how many ships they can send to Asation in the next three weeks. Let the cash be honourably spent... I will give you land on Earth to make up for it."

"You have not learned much if you believe land is... no, if it is as desperate as you say, there is no time for infighting. Time is short enough."

"On Terra, the homeworld of our people? Coruscanti would still find that beyond price, surely." Tanda wanted to spit in frustration, but instead she held her tongue-and her tone. "Come on, make yourself presentable, we have a holonet connection right here. We'll raise Lady Sienar first and see what she can sell."

"Wealth is a _tool_ leveraged into power, Tanda. So it always has been. Now, let us begin said leveraging..."

-

Six hours later, Isard was reading off the list—a dozen combat ships, only a single ISD-II in their number, and twenty large freighters and tankers, but critically, a mobile deepdock—and sighed gently. "I have gotten this for you at three times the price the Navy would have paid in the old days, Pryl."

Tanda made a show of going through the bonuses on the list, first. "The Scimitar Assault Bomber line Lady Sienar offered.. You said you could hire the freighters to move one of Defenders' small lines also from a base you have access to? Very useful. But we don't have crews, still... We paid what we had to."

Isard's mismatched eyes looked up from her own dataslate. "I never had a shortage of funds at Thyferra, but you saw very well what I was reduced to. The crews simply are not there."

"So I need to recruit from Commenor. _I_ need to do that."

"Yes." Tossing her dataslate onto the desk, Isard leaned back to stare at the overhead. "Who _else_ can? Not I."

"I understand, though the two of you..." She glanced from Tali to Ysanne... "Can find me a hedge, surely. A back-up optio-A droid manufactury."

Tali laughed softly. "There was a time when I would have said that was a terrible idea. Now it's _still_ a terrible idea... because either we'll need to find one that's scrap, forgotten, or building something that I'll have to modify in a way that will make Admiral Koris have a fit."

Notably, Isard had not reacted with horror to the idea of a droid crewed ship, just sighed and reached for her datapad.

"Looks like you're going to meet my parents quite soon." Tanda rose to her feet, feeling that Isard, having done her part for now, wanted the conversation over with. "Come on, Tali. We're going to the surface. Bureau Chief Nyroska can finish the work here." She glanced to the woman... And let that hang for a moment. "I'll give you your accolades under your birth name if you wish... Surely, negotiate with the other warlords for our safe passage under it... But for now, the disguise, the ignomninity... I think it is the best course of action. If you choose to disagree, I will accept it, but then, the rank I took in pretence in the Milky Way, _Grand Moff_ , I shall feel some need to use. Fair enough?"

"It is the best course of action until we are safely away to the 'Milky Way'. Let us not speak of it further, High Admiral." She didn't look up from her work, or flinch. "There is no time to fight over such things."

"I am glad we agree. If I die traveling the mountain road like Sucre... Dea, I shall be so pleased." She heaved a sigh. "Do you have any recommendations for the recruiting... Ysanne?"

"I ensured a stock of the highest grade bacta was loaded on some of the transports. Given the _background_ of the various groups you will be intending to recruit... well. You had enough trouble amongst your _own_ service, did you not?" Isard's voice held a deceptive lightness to it. She was amused by it, and with some justice.

Tanda lightly struck a bulkhead with a curled fist, and cast a shamed look to Tali. "Right, I shall delay my descent to the surface until treatment is completed. Thank you for your thoroughness." She rocked back. "It might be fool's work to even try, the more I think about it. I'll have to, but who else could we go after? Humbarese refugees, perhaps. They are strongly pro-Imperial and unlike the Rebels have no equivalent to New Alderaan. I could give them a garden world... But we'd only get thousands in such a short frame of time."

"Even thousands will prove useful. Many others who might have given us aid are fearful of retribution, such as the Umbarans. Still... the appeals to any group we can think of should go out at once. Time is short, and the Rebels will soon be moving again. All my efforts only _slowed_ their unraveling of the galaxy."

"If He is alive, and I am sure he must be, now; they unraveled for a reason, Ysanne. Is there anything else we can do? Before any word of treason spreads from Carnor Jax; do you think if we showed up over Cardia or Anaxes...?"

"Anaxes puts you into contact with Admiral Kiez and _Whelm_. Cardia, conversely, has armies with no real ability to move them."

"We could plot a course through Carida to see. We were able to get a regiment out of them before, after all; perhaps we can... If we care nothing for our future in this galaxy, and I think it's safe to say that's necessary, we could bluff them and say we have been ordered to transport stormtroopers to the Deep Core Security Zone."

"That information is quite compartmentalized, I doubt they will attach any special significance to it. I saw no signs any orders, even covert ones, had begun to flow again... but perhaps it is worth trying. For what-ever good ships full of stormtroopers will do in such a conflict as you describe."'

"They can man the guns and provide warm bodies for damage control. The techs for maintaining vehicles can be thrown at the ship systems. In combination with droids, it's... Better than nothing. Landing barge personnel can perhaps be trained as proper starfarers."

"As you say. You _are_ the admiral here." Isard's eyes were distant as she scrolled through endless databases, highlighting cells every once in a while.

"Of the warlords, are there any weak or desperate, or vulnerable enough for us to either seize their forces or work with them?"

Pondering the issue, the other woman frowned. Of warlords, she still knew far more than Tanda. "One's a Commenorean, Captain Gendarr of the _Reliance_ and his partner-in-barratry General Lott. The other I can think of is a one-time lieutenant who took an Immobilizer, the _Detainer_ and has been gleefully playing pirate."

The plan of leaving with her wife abandoned, and Tali frustrated, Tanda started to pace, but continued to strategise. "You still have connections with Teradoc's forces, don't you? He pretended to stay loyal long enough you must still have intelligence agents there."

"Which _one_? You recall that _Aggregator_ was Treuten's, and he broke off contact after Antilles put out word that he would _acquire_ the next ship he lent me. Yes, I have agents, but I did not and do not have the sort that cause warships to appear."

Tanda moved back to her seat, and poured some of the untouched brandy into a filter bulb and cocked her head to the side as Tali would. The woman sighed softly and came up behind her to rub her shoulders. "Are you sure none of them are in a position to bribe some absolutely venal Star Destroyer commander into defecting? We are trying to set the Ubiqtorate's cash reserves on fire in a hole, after all. Might as well be grandiose." A smile touched her lips. "I mean, keeping their loyalty when they arrive won't be a problem. We'll just have Tali pay the ship a visit wearing a black cape and holding her lightsabre."

Tali spluttered. "I am not going to be turned into a Sith Lord to make the reputation of Quarians even worse! Tanda, don't be a bosh'tet!"

But Ysanne and Tanda laughed anyway, in the sole moment of levity in that long, exhausting day. "I can give orders. We will see what of them are followed, and which are successful. There is another with at least some access to these same resources, despite my efforts."

Tanda closed her eyes and nodded. "I understand. I cannot ask you to do more. I believe that concludes almost all of our business, too. I will make arrangements to have the prisoners transferred to the surface of the planet, and though our time is short, we can at least convert the old prison into a crude sort of troop barracks."

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Her eyes had narrowed, and the woman across from her had tensed into readiness.

"I was going to have the prisoners released to Commenor to free up space on the ship. I am sure the ones guilty of actual crimes will be held the Commenorean authorities, and the others will doubtless be repatriated to Rebel territory," Tanda answered evenly. "Surely this is a straightforward measure."

Isard coiled and paled. "Releasing the prisoners is _completely_ out of the question! They're mine, and I shall not be giving them up only to go back to the Rebels."

Tanda reached for the bottle again, but stopped herself. "What does it matter now, Ysanne? They're just dead weight and occupying a prison that is taking up most of our troop quarters. We, objectively, would be better off letting them go."

"I am not going to let my last legacy in this galaxy be an utter capitulation to Rebels and traitors, Tanda!"

Tali tried to choke down her anger at Isard as she interjected. "It's not capitulating! They're utterly useless to us, and we already had to move them into the crew quarters up forwards to repair some of the damage we... took..." Tali trailed off as Isard turned a death-glare on her.

"The secret of your prison is done for, and we may as well just let them go at that point, shouldn't we?" Tanda smacked the table with her intact left hand. "Please, Ysanne, be reasonable about this. I just want them off the _Lusankya_."

"I am _not_ letting the Rebels have them, even if we must drag them all with us. It's too late to scatter or hide them. That is _final_."

"And what will you do if I disagree?"

"Tell you to find your _own_ reinforcements." Her ice blue eye glinted as she stared down the woman across the desk from her.

"Tali, you will keep the prisoners under confinement."

"Tanda, it's a little late for that! I can keep them on the ship, but it's far, far too late to put this spirit back in the crystal!"

Tanda swiveled back to the Director. "Well, Ysanne. You have your prisoners!" She pushed herself up to her feet in frustration. "I don't care where you keep them, Commander Zorah, but they are to be under guard regardless. Please come with me. I need to get ready for the surface."

"I... understood." Giving a wary look to the woman from Intelligence, Tali rose to follow. _Commenor._

Going into medbay, Tanda was trembling. "It's wrong to hold them, but it would be more wrong to risk our defeat on the other side. For the moment, Isard is still both powerful and useful to us, Tali. If this, of all things, is the way she wants to burn her capital, let her do it. Make sure that they're given the same rations as the crew."

"What capital? She has what-ever you'll give her, and they'll be on the ship. I'm not going to fail to use any of them with skills I need, she can shove it. Besides, she'll _have_ to stay Nyroska unless she wants to be murdered in the corridors!"

"The, I... I'm sorry, Tali. Do what you think is best. I'm just sincerely afraid she will stop cooperating if I free them."

"As soon as we hit that tractor, what's she going to be able do about it? Ysanne Isard is an unrepentant bosh'tet, but even she's better than the Old Machines."

"Nothing, it's true. The only guilt on our hands will be marooning them. It still unsettles me..." She turned to Tali as the medical droid advanced. "Tomorrow... I was going to have you meet my family later today. Now I feel sick to my stomach."

"The other option is that we just don't tell her and throw anyone who doesn't volunteer to come with us into a junk transport with a distress beacon. Isard can leap suitless into a plague ward for all I care."

"In the end, it's my decision, and my soul. Either way. Forgive me for not feeling very good about it. I can't further compromise our chance of victory, Tali. I'll let you know when... When I've decided what's going to help the people of the Milky Way the most."

"She better be content taking up, I don't know, something _really_ time consuming and innocent. Like painting. Or art collecting."

"If only politics were that easy, Tali. I'm going to have to make her a Senator." She rose, and extended her left arm to her wife. "While we have the chance, let me show you what it means to be Nar Commenor."

Tali's eyes swiveled toward her wife. "I know politics is dirty, but remember that small things lead to the Dark Side, too. That woman is evil, and even if your Imperial old line and recruits demand it, letting her off will have consequences."

"Great stands for morality can have very consequences too. We walk a hard road. I will find the way. Please, Tali.." She turned away. "I wanted you to meet my parents tomorrow, Tali."

Tali started pacing nervously. "I... Oh Ancestors, this really is our chance, isn't it? We can't fight before this! I need to put on nicer belts if I'm to meet your parents! I... oh _Ancestors_ , this is going to be awkward, isn't it...?"

"You're my alien wife. I'm your alien wife. Remember how hard of a time your father had?"

" _Oooooh_ that's not helping...!"

"I imagine not."

" _Taaaaaaandaaaaaa!_ "

But the serious matters were not resolved. They could not be.

-

When they reached the planet the next day, with fears, worries, and disputes papered over under a facade of excitement, a very calm set of humans were waiting for them on the tarmac of the spaceport, one male, one female, and a younger female too. The older woman was wearing a hat, and they had various servants and droids standing around...

Tali had spent most of the shuttle trip down frantically reading something on her helmet's HUD, and paused to take a deep breath at the top of the ramp, before following Tanda's lead down. _Okay, it's not like... okay, Father wanted to kill Tanda, so really, it can't possibly be worse... can it? He was an Admiral! ... They have enough money to buy the Rayya. Not a good comparison!_

The older woman took a deep breath. "Tanda... Of all the things that could come of your insisting on joining the service, I never dreamed of an Alien wife."

Tali stiffened and took a step forward, bowing. "Greetings. I am Tali'Zorah vas Lusankya nar Rayya, Commander of the Imperial Navy... and wife of your daughter." Her impulsiveness sputtered out, and she edged closer to Tanda.

"My name is Dirella," she said as she reached out to help Tali up from bowing. "This is no joke, is it? In her years missing..."

"Ancestors, no! In her years missing, she's given hope to my people, and given so much of herself in a fight against an unspeakably horrible threat that we could never repay her..."

Dirella Pryl turned to her husband and sighed... And then looked back to Tali. "...I dislike sounding selfish, but could we have a daughter from the two of you?"

"Aaaaaai, working on it!" Tali flushed darkly inside the suit, and her reply came out almost as a squeak. "It's complicated!"

The older Pryl started laughing. "I never dreamed of giving birth to the leader of a galaxy. Can you really keep her honest? Speak frankly to me, Tali'Zorah of Lusankya, born of Rayya. Tell me just how strong you can be. Since the age of the Deanist crusades, it has been discouraged for a woman to marry another woman. This was commonly done by the priests of Dea in the Pius Dea era, who preached equality. But my daughter... Could see no future for herself except to recall that era. And yet she found an alien instead of a human. Anathema, to the Pius Dea. But my family's faith is long beyond that era, when I think we were punished for... Our sins."

Tali's eyes swung to Tanda, then back to her mother. "So... she told you a lot, I suppose. Well, I've been running her fleet for most of the last week, I have a crazy krogan uncle, I've fought husks, zombies, killer droids, spiders, and multi-kilometer genocidal robot cuttlefish... but nothing's made me prouder than seeing Tanda truly grow into peace with herself."

Dirella turned to walk with her daughter and her daughter in law, sparing again a glance for Tanda's right arm, encased in a bacta treatment sleeve. Her father walked slightly behind, her younger sister crowded in close. "The years have not been kind to you, Tanda," she said softly.

 _She got me, and you should have seen the other guys! It's been hard, but..._ Tali's thoughts buzzed through her head, not wanting to jump in again if she wasn't being addressed.

"High Admiral, Mother?"

Dirella laughed and shook her head. "To my civilian, merchant's heart, the pieces you're missing are a rather stiff price for a few more rank boards. I always feared..."

"Well, most of all, Tanda, I feared you'd never be happy. I knew, you know, I _knew_. And there was no happiness for a woman of your sort in the Imperial navy, and no place for a Deanist, and your piety is real, if quiet."

Tanda flushed. "Mother, I had to fight. I had to soldier. After what I grew up with, after my uncle's fate..."

"Died in the Stark Hyperspace War," Dirella said simply to Tali, with a glance. "I never wanted her to leave after that, but it made her more motivated, not less." She had a car waiting, a liveried attendant opening the doors of the hover-limo.

"She's a heroine, brave as any I know! The Fleet... she helped us see _home_ again. It's not done yet, but... she's everything to me."

"What is the ken of your family, good-daughter?"

"I am of the Clan Zorah. My ship is the _Lusankya_. My father is Admiral Rael'Zorah of the Admiralty Board." Tali's hackles rose, and her hands flexed inside her gloves.

"So you've married the daughter of an alien commandery's Board of the Star Lords, Tanda?"

"That's about correct," she answered, and reached out to squeeze Tali's hand. "I'd also say that's a very respectable family among the Quarians, whose tale of survival blazes across the stars."

"The poetry of your childhood is still with you, Tanda," Dirella shook her head. "You're wanted by the New Republic now."

Tali trembled enough that Tanda imagined she must look apopletic. " _What?!_ She didn't even do anything against _them_!"

"Collaboration with and assisting in the escape of a wanted felon for crimes against sentients," Dirella answered dryly. "Also a dangerous rogue Imperial warlord with a Star Dreadnought."

"On the Wanted by Cracken List, no less," her sister chimed in. "You are regarded as one of the best surviving Imperial officers, for what it is worth, Tanda."

"But she went the other way in a shuttle!" Tali grumbled from under her mask. "That's not _our_ fault, and she's... _oooh_ , those... those... pirates!"

"The Motherless Name for the rulers of Coruscant?" Dirella smiled thinly.

"The... what? It's... oh. Right. I guess so. Just... I don't think we want to cause you any trouble."

"I'm not going to see either of you again. Unless you plan on launching a coup against the government and making yourself the Directrix, Tanda... It's just a matter of time until Commenor joins the New Republic. We'll have to."

Tanda paled and blanched, looking out the window. "I agree that I will never see home again, mother, nor you, nor father, nor Latrila," she nodded to her younger sister. "So this will be sadder than it should be. But I will have daughters with Tali... And I will be making something very great of myself." They had pulled up to a mansion-to Tanda's childhood home.

"Tell them about our home galaxy, Tali. _Our_ home galaxy. This is going to be melancholy, and we both know it. But we cannot come back."

"Keelah, this is going to be a long conversation. Well, Quarians are good at stories! Humans - on their homeworld - almost all call it the Milky Way. My... friend told me that. It's both older and younger than it should be. Not as busy, or as bustling as this one. It was only a few years ago that we found out _why_..."

While Tali told the story, the only great night of storytelling with her family by marriage, that her wife felt she would have, Tali promised herself to find a way to bring Tanda back. She would not let her wife become an exile, as her people had been for so long, when Tanda had let them back to Rannoch. Motherworlds were important.

Tanda was thinking of the speech she would give the next day. She was so far out of time that she was burning down bone, but the great scars on the armour of _Lusankya_ were a reminder of how sorely they would soon be tested.


	86. Chapter 86

"Countrywomen and Countrymen, the Commenorean race, dear to my heart as my own mother, thank you for listening to me today, be it in person or by broadcast." She was dressed in her full dress uniform, cap included, High Admiral of the Galactic Empire, right arm encased in bacta healing cylinder, with the sleeve cut long and buttoned across like she'd seen in Earther pictures of Generals actually missing hands from days when they were too primitive to have prosthetics. She did not bother with service medals.

"Most of you here grew up with the Empire. You grew up with its grandeur, its order, and for those of on the Mid-Rim, its peace. All of you were attracted to the service despite that peace. You knew that the hard edge of the blade which keeps people safe was elsewhere, that the galaxy had become too great, too lawless, to calm in a single _lifetime_ , let alone three decades. I remember that too. But, older than you, I also remember why the Empire was needed. I remember the great fleets of the Clone Wars, the ones that this latest civil strife pales before. My family lost relatives in the Stark Hyperspace War.

"To those of us alive today, it seems like a trivial conflict, a petty one. But it was real. I remember growing up the holes it made. And I remember the Clone Wars, and how we held out so many hopes for the Clone Army. But even then, real people were fighting and dying... And so the crews of many ships were not clones, and so an increasing number of Army regiments were not as well. And in the end we became the Empire and we became the people who held back the tides of chaos."

She coughed. "One of those worlds that suffered so hard, I would also like to welcome. Humbarine. Mother of Commenor! Magnificent Humbarine, with her hundred billion citizens, the twin eldest daughter of Alsakan, standing with Kuat as a shining example of our culture and heritage for twenty-five thousand years. Greetings, sisters, though your ranks are few and your hearths are silent and cold."

"The day Humbarine burned, looking at the empty spots at table of those who had perished in the Stark Hyperspace War, I knew what I must do. I must serve, and I must serve the innocent, the people whose worlds... Will be burned out by war. Dusty memories of grandeur linger only in blasted ruins, in an atmosphere sulphorous and barely breathable. We cannot stop it—that is what I learned, fighting in the Outer Rim Patrols. We will never stop war and disorder. Only the continuous burn of our drive-tails will ever hold it back. That was a very bitter lesson! But it let me do my duty where other idealists faltered, when _Executor_ tumbled and drove her bow, a spire into the second Death Star, and a million of my comrades died, before a hundred million more, before the end of the fever dream that it could ever _end_.

"It won't end. I did my duty afterwards, held the line in Elrood. You all watched the slow disintegration of COMPNOR and the youth organisations. The chaos of the reign of Sate Pestage. I fought, in far distant corners, and there I discovered new threats to sentient and sapient life—surely something that in these dark and chaotic times you needed to hear from me! These threats never end, my comrades. But we have held the line against them. There are many worlds in Unknown Regions, green and grand and beautiful, untamed and untapped by sapient hands.

"Join me on them. I need crews for ships to fight, and I need civilians to settle. I want a new Humbarine, and a new Commenor. I want books and scholars, and I want warriors, young people willing to hold back the night. It is a great, grand epic, and it is one you will have to make your choice about very quickly. With this ship above us, with _Lusankya_ , I go to fight my enemies in the dark. I cannot tarry; I need volunteers quickly, you must make up your minds fast.

"So let's talk about what that would mean. You were raised to serve the Empire, and that's what you would be doing. Not some Empire of squabbling elites in Coruscant, of Dark Sorcerers allowed to run around with magic tricks beguiling and intimidating people. That was the dirty side of governance, the one that the Rebels used so effectively to rally people to their cause. This will be a humble Empire: An Empire of our hearts, of order and unity and Purpose. We will be doing what people here have not done in a very long time—striking out for the unknown, setting down roots on uncharted planets. We will be creating a Dominion over the Heavens and the Earths, an Empire where we live our ideals and build our future in hard work.

"Hard work? Oh most assuredly! You won't have droids to serve you, at least not very much; you won't have Holonet from Coruscant. You won't have worlds with an infrastructure tens of thousands of years old to support you. You'll be fighting tireless enemies on the decks of our starships, and going home to farms where you grow your own food. But not the hard-scrabble farms of the Outer Rim! These ones will have proper houses, built of cut wood and dressed stone. We will lay out straight fields in good land, with open ground and hearth-smoke boiling over. We will see crops blossom, instead of scrying moisture from the air."

"That's how our ancestresses built our worlds, lived in concert with our mothers through birth and growth and health and life—until in the end Humbarine died and Commenor remains. Let us not falter! Please, let's not make this a slowly dying story. There is plenty of strength in our blood, and there is plenty of hope for the future. The galaxy here, will, in due time, be forced to see that these ideals we hold in our hearts were stronger! They were capable of living, and surviving, and going the distance! These are _surely_ times that shall try our souls. We thought the Empire could last forever—and it will. But it will not as a political organisation. Instead it will as a belief. A profound belief, that through order and harmony, we can overcome the chaos of the galaxy.

"In the days of the Republic before Ruusan, it was like this, that the Republic was not at all democratic. Ruusan gave us a senesecence, an age of chaos where democracy eroded these virtues, and the provision of material wealth inured us to hardship. You were part of the first generation to break free of that—and I want to insure that you don't lose hope, don't lose heart, and can build a future with the values in your heart. A future where we are proud to hold the line, because what we are fighting for is worth keeping."

She paused for a moment, leaning into the podium and bracing against her left hand. "My condition may disturb you. I have certainly given much for the Empire in the past years. I am frail, pale, scarred, and missing more than a few organic parts. All that's very true. You may end up the same, but you will have comrades to support you. Shoulders to lean against and aye, yes, an embrace to cry into. It is hard. But I have seen the little children, threatened and killed by our enemies, and the fates worse than death that innocent civilians can face when subjected to the evils that exist in the dark.

"That's a terrible risk to decide to take in five days, comrades. Some of you will be terrified when you face it for the first time. Some of you won't reach my small promise of open land to settle down on. But you were raised to serve the vision of the Empire. You cannot just let how you were raised die, sink into this mire of chaos.

"Help my vision of the future. Join my Navy and Army that hold onto Order—or come with us to settle. I'll accept both. We will create... We will drive through... Plant, grow, settle, fight, defend. We'll plot orderly towns on new worlds, far from the control of Coruscant. Let the Rebels have the dreary reality of a people who have lost their sense of greatness and care only about petty squabbles!

"Let them have it! I offer you danger—I offer you the thrill of adventure. I offer you a land where you can do everything that you thought was grand and great about the Empire. We will make order, make peace, we will build prosperity. We will start from scratch and that will make it a rough start, with a great war to be won as the first step. But steeped in the military glory you sought by joining COMPNOR, you will be Imperials together, you will be Imperials opening up worlds.

"Not in your lifetimes, or those of your daughters and sons, will you see the result. But the result will come. Your descendants, flush with work and healthy with pride in their own efforts, will be a strong, tall race, healthy of spirit and committed to their Dominion across the Stars. Military glories will have been won to achieve it, evils driven back across the Stars, and children will go forward to join the frontier patrols. The ones who fall will be buried, with all the honours sweet and glorious have died in the service of their cause. The victors will return to the towns where they live, growing each day toward cities. Old names will live in new places, and we will expand through a thousand worlds at the pleasing of our hearts.

"This is the spiritual revitalisation that the Empire could not manage in the settled galaxy! It is the revitalisation of the heart. The change from a settled, staid society that has reached stasis with the galaxy to one that has infinite potential. It is a Pioneer's dream, and we will be Imperial Pioneers. When the old galaxy comes back to us for help, there we will be: Rough, tested and ready to give it, confident in our place in the universe and in ourselves.

"We need to reignite the spirits of a people! And that is what we will do by setting out on this great voyage. I see people blazing the hyperspace trails, bringing goods from planet to planet, laying down the infrastructure of commerce and the lifebood of our new Dominion. I see people flocking to our vision, redeemed in work and with horizons that never set. This is the dream of a new land, a younger land. This heartland of the Republic is burnt out to our message, and we must acknowledge that. Come with me to where the future is limitless.

"If you stay and you fight for these warlords, you will just contribute to the chaos! There is no way anyone at all could remake the Empire out of this death! You would be supporting dogs gnawing on the bones of dreams! Fighting amongst ourselves, the very sickening anathema of Empire. Fighting when we do not hold the capital—the very anathema of the Empire. Our legitimacy is in our hearts, comrades!

"Take it with me. Fight with me. Settle with me. _Dream with me_! This is the future that we hold: It is the future in our hearts. It is the future that could never be built from here first, it is the future that must come from without. You will all be the Ladies of your hearths, the Lords of the Land. Out there, the currency of a loyal Imperial will be each secure in their land, building together a society of greatness. Here, we will merely be contributing to every ill and evil we once swore to extirpate! Join me – and _create_."

She sank away into her father's embrace, behind the podium, and her mother helped her to the speeder-limo. Tali was waiting inside for her, and Tanda settled against her wife for the ride home, and then quietly asked for privacy from her parents.

"I don't know if it will do anything," Tanda confessed, in privacy, and in some bitterness. "But it was the best I could manage."

"It was _magnificent_ , Tanda, don't worry about that. I don't know if it will fire hearts, but it well should! It's a dream that anybody who still has a wandering, or a pioneering spirit will respond to, anyone who feels ennui at the loss of so much in this bloody grinding war, who felt a vague unease at the heart of what they served." Tali replied reassuringly, reaching up a hand. "Anyone who isn't content with how things are may respond. We have no way of knowing how many until they start to arrive."

"I am glad someone is an optimist about it, Tali. I still can't believe I'm leaving, and I think it will be very hard for some others to swallow it, as well... There is a lot of history bound up here, a lot of battles and beliefs. It's hard to leave what birthed you. Even I, who have so much to go to."

 _I'll find a way to let you come back._

"You're becoming an exile for us, Tanda. I - we - will not forget that, I swear it to you! It has to be done, but Ancestors, it is painful to watch. If not for what is happening at home... you truly have adopted our words, and become one of us, my wife."

"Vas Lusankya. She's in my sinews and my bones, now. I've bet my future on her, and an entire galaxy too."

"A bet that _we_ shall win, Tanda."

"I shall have to pray. We are about to throw ourselves to chance. We've done what we can do."

"All of us have."

 _And some of us have paid with their lives for it._

"I know. I am thinking somewhat selfishly at the moment," she admitted quietly. "It is sometimes hard to avoid that temptation."

"You recognize the fault, Tanda. There was a time when I might have doubted you, but _no longer_. I have faith in you." Her three-fingered hand reached out for Tanda's good arm. "We will win this."

She held her wife's hand. The suit held no distance between them. It never could and it never would. "The material of heroism isn't perfection. As long as we keep that in mind..."

"Nobody can stand against us." Tali smiled at Tanda through her mask. "Come on, let's make the most we can of the time we have here."

Tanda let herself be pulled by her wife's strength. There was a time for strength, and she had still had mustered it to fight Carnor Jax, and there was a time for weakness, and that was in the arms of a woman whose environmental suit did not in the slightest make her weak, and whose heart shone in strength to keep them against the night.

 _And if we leave before the Emperor rouses from whatever torpor his dark heart is presently within, we might just really do it._

-

After five days passed them by, Tanda returned to her bridge, to 'Nyroska', to her fleet. It was a little stronger now. The local Moff, on retreating from Commenor, had left behind the Sector's pilot training ship, an old _Venator_ from the Clone Wars, on account of her high fuel consumption. The commander had declared for Tanda, and _Lusankya_ had plenty of reserves for underway replenishment now that they had all fueled at Commenor and fleet tankers had been purchased from Kuat and sent with hypermatter to Asation from the Xa Fel dockyards.

The rest of the response had been rather more tepid than she had hoped. Sixty-eight thousand military volunteers and forty-one thousand civil volunteers of the Humbarese refugee association, and seventy-three thousand military volunteers and eighty thousand civil volunteers from Commenor, as well as eleven thousand others. From a population of more than fifty billions, it was not the great hijra she had hoped for. The quantities of skilled personnel were very limited, too, and even arranging transport had proved enormously difficult; an old _Lucrehulk_ mothballed to a local storage yard and two _Evakmar_ corps transports abandoned for want of troops to fill them by retreating Imperial forces had been augmented with some requisitioned liners, leaving Tanda feeling half pirate and half junkyard manager.

 _This is how we end... This is how we begin._ She had only allowed COMPNOR personnel on _Lusankya_ , though their attitudes made her want to wretch; with Isard's insistence on keeping the prisoners and Tali's reports on how badly they had been treated, she did not want people who were inclined to change their mind about the voyage to witness their presence.

It dampened the enthusiasm at finally departing. They had some stocks of spare parts, now, a bit more of a real squadron. Of course, if there had been any real enthusiasm, it would have been lost at Liara T'Soni's return. The high-end bacta treatment slowly wearing off, Tanda sloshed around a glass of Corellian whisky and wondered how to handle this one, and then polished it off and gave up on any subtlety. She'd take it head on, and be honest with the woman who had done so much. Liara would find out anyhow, anyway, and no matter how brutal the news, she had to know it.

It was especially cruel as she had returned successfully, with Captain Sair Yonka's mistress in hand, but too late to intervene in the Thyferran affair—though Tanda wondered if she could now still convince Sair to turn his cloak again. This news from Liara brought home just how much the woman had done in the past that had fallen just a little short of happiness, and a little short of victory. And now Tanda was going to have to explain to Liara what had happened on Terra. And that was enough to put irons in any soul.

"Thank you for your success with the last operation, Doctor T'Soni—I understand you have positive news about the military situation, and for that I am thankful, and should like to thank Miss Guri as well," she glanced to the HRD for a moment. "But first, I feel that as the fleet makes ready to depart for Carida that we should... No, that we must discuss another matter."

"Of course, High Admiral - what situation would that be? Do you have some dis-satisfaction with my efforts thus far?" Stress and exhaustion had worn her somewhat raw, and the parts of her that had been tempered by her experience as an information broker ran closer to the surface than usual by the sharp tone to her voice.

"No, you have performed to a superior level in every respect." She led Liara back to her office, trembling as she did. "That is not, in fact, the problem at all. The problem is rather the news that I must tell you of."

"Shepard is missing, and something has gone very wrong, then? You... would not be reacting as such in any other instance I can conceive of."

The asari maiden's voice stayed calm - distant, with only a momentary hesitation in the midst of her reply betraying any inner nervousness.

"Missing is not the half of it. Admiral Hackett convinced the fleets to launch an attack on Terra, to follow up on the successful recapture of Thessia. The force was defeated. He was attempting to activate the Citadel. It didn't activate. Shepard was in the boarding party. Nothing has been heard of her or Jedi Tasiele yet... Admirals Shala'Raan and Daro'Xen executed a fighting retreat, Lindholm and Hannah Shepard also came out alive."

Liara's eyes closed, with a soft puff of breath. " _Missing._ That is all I need to know. It... is a setback, yes, but all is not yet lost, is it? The situation shall be remedied when we return."

"I have confidence we now have the strength of arms to deal with the Reapers by conventional means. I don't know why the Crucible failed. We are leaving... Within the hour. We are making a rendezvous with some warlords over Carida to try and force their support as well as reinforcements from the Imperial Academy, and then we are proceeding directly to Asation - and I understand that you had arranged your own plans to terminate there."

"That is correct, though it remains to be seen how well they have worked. I... High Admiral, if you do not need me for anything else, I shall be returning to my ship to do what I can in the time we have left." Liara blinked, shaking her head slightly. "Please, High Admiral."

"Liara, be careful. When we leave, I am going to have to make sure nobody can follow us, because I have learned some very distressing news."

"I am not sure that I should tell you, but be very wary... Of the powers of the Sith. They did _not_ die at Endor."

Her eyes flickered, and the asari nodded. "I understand, High Admiral. Something to worry of if it becomes necessary, but... we do not have the resources or time to do so now. Allowing us to control passage between the galaxies is a prudent measure I very much support."

"I will see you at Asation, then? Twelve days."

"I will be there, High Admiral Pryl, or I shall be left behind, I understand very well." She clenched a hand into a fist, hard enough for it to shake slightly.

 _Shepard... dead? That can't be, not_ ** _again_** _!_

"Oh, it will surely be a few days after that, and my last people can travel through the portal. Just... Well, I will do anything that I can, Liara."

"I would not cut us off from this place _completely_ , High Admiral Pryl, but you are the com-" Liara cut off and winced. "Let us not sever the thread forever, merely leave us in control of it?"

"I concur. I will merely remove with me any who know how to operate the tractor. I do not think it can be repeated by another, with the way the Gree are. And if Daro'Xen was especially wise... There is only her."

"The Frankenstein-mad genius of the Quarians, Shepard called her. It should do. Pardon me, High Admiral, but time is short, as well you know, and there is much to do." Her anxiety to leave was palpable, had been ever since Tanda had told her of the disaster over Earth.

"I will shut up and let you go." She smiled wryly. "Do whatever you must."

Liara gave her a single nod, and turned to go, shoulders shaking a bit as she made it out into the corridor.

Tanda watched her go, and quietly poured herself another glass of whisky, cut with table water. _What if it was Tali in Shepard's place? At Shepard's side? Would that I were so calm as that. Would that I..._

-

Carida turned out to be a damned nightmare. Teradoc had managed to get conned into giving a Star Destroyer to teenaged girl with no prior command experience, and had deservedly paid for it with some of Isard's Ubiqtorate agents bribing her to join their cause. Varrscha's incredulity at the snip of a girl with mad eyes being introduced as a Captain was something that would drive Tanda to drink simply from memory.

Captain Gendarr, conversely, had quite willingly defected from General Lott's service when Tali with a lightsabre had arrived to intimidate the army troops aboard into submission. Ubiqtorate plants in the crew of the _Detainer_ had dealt with Lon Donell, and his small fleet had arrived under Isard's order; the woman certainly looked more competent after the successes, and more to the point, confident.

The problems had come from Carida itself. They had sat for two days, screaming back and forth between the Governor and Tanda and Isard, trying to sort out the disposition of troops. In the end, the Caridans had agreed only to send up two legions of stormtroopers from below the protection of their planetary shields. It was a pathetic addition to their troops that left Tanda incensed, and Isard enraged. Isard, though, still had plenty of contacts here, so she had done something about it—without consulting Tanda.

The _Venator_ in the system, another of the training ships, had declared for Tanda after the legions were aboard the _Lusankya_ , courtesy of Ubiqtorate pressure. The stormtroopers freshly taken aboard, did actually obey Tanda even when hearing about this (the first few minutes had been tense), but Carida had fired an ion-cannon shot at the _Venator_ when she turned with the rest of the fleet, so Tanda had ordered the dreadnought which served as a personal yacht to the Governor seized. A wing of starfighters went up to dispute the point. Isard had to intervene via 'holonet' from her 'secure headquarters' to diffuse what would have otherwise been an engagement disastrous to morale.

The delay had let them get scanned by a rebel patrol in the outer system. It soon became rather acutely aware to Tanda that she was being shadowed. There was no blaming the Rebels in it; in her place, she'd have certainly shadowed herself, too. The prodiguous expansion of her power that she had just undertaken must be exciting great concern in the hierarchy of the Alliance, and the fact that her course had brought her into the Core, brought her toward Coruscant, must also be very concerning.

And in the middle of it, the lies and the obfuscations were getting hard to keep up with. She was trying to keep woven a web which would make each person happy. In the midst of it, she was acutely aware that while deceit was not against the Light, it could certainly lead to situations which very much _were_.

There was Liara's unknown intentions on disappearing, and there were the arguments with Daro'Xen over the further delays that had resulted. Pacifying Isard by keeping prisoners, tortured and many outright blameless, on a journey that had an end in a hellish war. Convincing people to fight for a dream she scarcely belived in herself, belittling her enemy to make them think victory would be straightforward.

The children of Terra and the children of Palaven were her contrargument. To save them from fates worse than death, from the exclusion of even their bodies from the very cycle of life... In sight of a clear-cut goal of goodness, taking actions that would not harm others, lies were acceptable.

 _That would not harm others_. That was the rub, and there was the greatest facet of it all ahead of her. While her little fleet swirled through hyperspace, she paced, and swallowed, and slept through the fitting of a prosthetic right hand and forearm to replace what had been destroyed by Carnor Jax. There was still no relief. She uncomfortably twitched through Tali helping her back into her suit again, too; the two agreeing to save the best bacta for casualties who might need it, and for the liberation of Earth and other times they could enjoy.

And then she acted, and raised Commenor on the holonet transceiver from _Lusankya_. Was given hearing by the government, after assuring them that she was not returning, and took advantage of it. Summoned Tali to her side.

Stood with lightsabres ignited to show their seriousness, and put the problem simply. Commenor joining the New Republic would put the world in mortal danger—because Palpatine wasn't really dead. Were laughed at.

Pressed again.

A few looks grew more uncomfortable, as the idea was seriously concerned. Tanda brought Isard in, to tell the story of the Emperor's cloning tanks. The slow terror on the faces of the smarter ones might have been bleakly hilarious, if it hadn't all been so real. They promised to give it their fullest consideration.

The lightening of the burden lasted for all of a few minutes when the _Lusankya_ and her little fleet were violently wrenched out of hyperspace while approaching the Hydian Way. It was the Rebels. 


	87. Chapter 87

Lieutenant Waroen's voice came, stuttering, from the bridge. "High Admiral, we need you here immediately." The General Quarters klaxon started sounding.

Tanda looked up, holding her fresh right hand lightly, and glanced to Isard. "I suggest, Bureau Chief, that we have been paid for our good deed of trying to convince Commenor to remain neutral."

The evident terror on Isard's face flickered into life. "What chance do we..."

"I'll be finding out." Tanda rose with Tali's help, and they hastened out to the bridge with 'Nyroska' following behind. The tactical holoplot was already showing the vast arc of space defined by the enemy's interdiction fields.

Sixty-five. _Sixty-five_. Sixty-five Mon Cal cruisers and captured Imperial Star Destroyers. And the two biggest, Tanda had seen before. _Home One_ and _Rebel Dawn_ , the only Basic named ships in the Mon Cal fleet, the 3.8km heavy cruiser flagships of Endor.

"There is a message coming in from the Rebel flagship, High Admiral."

"Put it on, Lieutenant Waroen." Tanda turned and watched as the hologram resolved itself.

Gial Ackbar formed before her, in one-quarter scale. "High Admiral Pryl," he offered in his rough, gravelly voice. "My apologies for the continued condition of your illness. The presence of your fleet in the core is, however, unacceptable."

"Because you've just uncovered Coruscant for an attack by _Whelm_ to concentrate this force against me?" Tanda answered sarcastically. "Really, don't worry, Wermet won't let Kiez do what he is capable of."

"The internal operations of New Republic defense command are not your concern, what is your concern is how they affect you. If you had chosen to defect already, perhaps you would be standing at my side. But there comes a time when the situation is grows too late for your actions to be forgiven, and you have reached it. Based on our intelligence from Commenor and your own actions as an Imperial officer... I am allowed to extend to your and your wife the offer of indefinite house arrest on a skyhook over Coruscant, together, if you surrender now. Your crews will be processed for any specifically wanted for war crimes unrelated to your service and released as civilians without records within six months. The volunteers from Commenor will be returned immediately to Commenor to present the picture of the fools they are.

"High Admiral, before you make it up in your mind to engage in some kind of hopeless resistance, think of the considerable casualties you will suffer, and for nothing. Our starfighters are moving into position now, and you have no means of escape. We will keep the interdiction field on _Lusankya_ and we will finish you. You are an intelligent woman and you know you cannot defeat us in a sustained battle."

Tanda raised her hand and chopped it across her neck. Ackbar disappeared, Tanda thinking in the last minute that he might have been genuinely surprised by her refusal to take the terms. "Open me a channel to the entire squadron. Open channel. Let the rebels hear my reply!"

"Open, High Admiral!"

Tanda cleared her throat, and linked her suit in. She remembered one of the poems that Shepard liked, and stole a few bars from it. "Friends, Comrades, Countrywomen; let us go bang these rebel dogs, the children of the devil, for I have not turned my back on Dea nor devil yet!"

She spun back to the holoplot, ordering the message cut. "Order the rest of the squadron to come about ninety degrees to port and burn until they are at the edge of the interdiction field. They are then to come about to here.." Tanda magnified a portion of the starmap a lightyear away. "To support us on the other side if required, and to escape to Asation if that is not possible... Make sure Captain Varrscha understands these orders clearly, _she must bring the rest of the squadron to Asation at all costs._ The Rebels can't block them and us at the same time, _is that understood!?_ "

"Understood!" The comms officer stuttered and spun around.

Tanda focused on the map. "We've got one chance, Tali, there's only one interdictor in the force, look," she pointed it out. "You're going to take her. We'll get up to maximum speed, continuous acceleration toward the Rebel force, and when we get in range, I want you to catch her with tractors on the run—lock on despite the speed differential, _is that understood_? You are to hold her and reel her in. We've got the space since we transferred the bacta freighters around."

Oh dear goddess.

"Ancestors, this is insane - you know this is insane, right? Keelah, I was right, you _are_ too similar to Shepard... on it! _I can do this!_ "

 _Or at least I_ _ **really**_ _hope I can do this!_

Muttering to herself as her hands started to move over her console, Tali went on to herself; "Pirates, rebels, whatever, most people have intelligence enough to let the doomstar _leave_ when it's clearly not intending to come back..."

"Nobody takes us seriously. They think I am playing for power here."

She stepped forward on the bridge. "Helm, lock on to the interdiction field, and give me maximum acceleration all the way in."

"Y-yes, ma'am!" The bank of crimson engines flared to full power, driving _Lusankya_ 's massive bulk ahead at a steadily increasing velocity, straight into the mass of of the hostile fleet before her.

"When we have the range, open fire on the enemy flagship. Not the interdictor, they will block us. On the enemy flagship. All main batteries." She folded her head down, thinking. "We will come under massed attack by enemy snubfighters, first. Until we have the range, maintain power to the shields at maximum."

"Understood, ma'am!" Acknowledgments echoed back, as officers, pale and nervous at the scale of what lay before them, struggling to process the magnitude of the task that they faced.

"One hundred and fifty enemy fighters at three million klicks, port four, Z positive fifty thousand and descending. X-wings."

"Track them. Hold course." Tanda traced the edge of her scarf and through hooded eyes watched the convergence of the formations. Ackbar might have been surprised that she had decided to fight, but he had not laid his formation out incompetently as a result of the expectation of surrender. The Interdictor was densely covered. They would be advancing directly into a massive box of fire.

"Launch all starfighters—except Dlarit's X-wings. Hold them back. The rest are to muster for an attack through the enemy fleet at the concentration around the Interdictor and then carry on to be recovered by Captain Varrscha's ships," Tanda finally ordered. "I want them to ignore that Rebel force off on the port quarter." _There is some kind of trap associated with it—it's necessary for the starfighters only to spring it_.

"The Rebel snubfighters are accelerating their closing rate."

"Very good." She watched her own starfighters swing out. For the moment, neither side had fired even a single weapon... It was all maneouvring. Tanda tried to imagine herself in Ackbar's position. Went through the litany of Rebel operational maneouvres.

"Would be kind of a big scale, but they could still do it..." Tanda murmured, her vocoder barely flaring.

Tali caught it anyway. "Tanda?"

"Stand by to launch a salvo of concussion missiles behind our starfighters, hidden in their drive tails."

"Speed on the concussion missiles will have to be dialed down to keep them from overrunning the starfighters..."

"That's fine. Now, L'tenant Waroen, get Dlarit's people out, but holding inside the outer bay. They are to stand by to engage on my command."

"...Aye, Admiral."

"The starfighters are in formation and moving away, Admiral," one of the ensigns turned up to report.

Tanda stepped forward between the pits. "Tali, how much time do we have left?"

"Ten seconds, the rebels are almost in range..."

"Fire concussion missile salvo." Tanda gave the order, and a few moments later a rippling of two hundred and fifty concussion missiles spread out and slewed into place behind the starfighters _Lusankya_ had launched.

With very little hesitation, the X-wings broke toward her, leaving an abrupt burst of A-wings that had been pacing them, equal in numbers, to roar after the concussion missiles from behind. The heavy anti-ship missiles could actually be engaged by the lighter anti-starfighter ones on the A-wings and their lasers, and then they could burn hard to catch her own starfighters from behind. The X-wings swept toward her.

"Second salvo, command detonate as the port wing crosses..."

"Why not just the port launchers.."

"All of them, must surprise them, do it!" Tanda answered, clipping her words to the bare minimum as the X-wings lined up and fired their own proton torpedoes. "Fire!"

A second salvo of assault concussion missiles rippled from the _Lusankya_. As they crossed through the proton torpedoes on the port, they detonated. "Helm hard a starboard!"

"Hard a starboard, aye!"

As she turned to starboard, she both used the brief whitewash across the sensors of the snubfighters to reorient relative to the next salvo and to bare her hangar bay. "Order Dlarit's squadrons to the fore!"

Her own X-wings rocketed out of the hangar and straight at the X-wings which had just cross-fired their remaining proton torpedo salvoes at the anticipated position of the _Lusankya_. Leading ahead, they swept across the bow shields, the great dreadnought's light cannon firing continuously at them with flanking arcs as they closed, and the proton torpedoes exploded in ragged waves across the strike. Even the weakened bow shields held against the rippling of explosions that followed.

"Hail, _Lusankya_! Good job!" Tanda shook her fist and spun back to the holoplot. Outside, X-wings swirled in a confused mass. There were too many of them for the Thyferrans and the Rebels to tell each other apart, and the friendly fire that resulted was exactly what she had desired.

She turned back forward, watching the distant stars of the enemy cruisers. "Helm, resume direct least-time heading toward the Interdiction field source."

"Admiral, one hundred B-wings approaching from starboard."

"They were trying to catch us in a hammer and anvil, but the concussion missiles forced them to break their formation too soon," Tanda offered to Tali. "L'tenant Waroen, give those B-wings everything and concentrate the shields on the expected arc!"

The proton torpedoes tore against them, but the main batteries joined the light guns in filling those arcs with a raw wave after wave of fire. The shields, concentrated instead of dispersed, held. A huge wave of fire struck across the side of the _Lusankya_ , but boiling in clouds of yellow hot gas she shrugged it off, shaking the explosions from her side as a dog shakes water from its coat when it leaps back from water to the land. Levelling off, _Lusankya_ resumed closing with the Rebel fleet.

And then range was reached, action was joined, and by the standing original orders, the main batteries re-oriented toward _Home One_ and opened fire in a ripple of green turbolaser bolts and fat red ion cannon sparks from stem to stern, converging across the depths of space.

Racing closer, now, they were gathering velocity and not deaccelerating, not turning the gravitic vanes to direct thrust ahead. Ackbar understood what was happening. She was trying to blow straight through the fleet and, in the process, gather up enough Vee to fight her way clear. Despite the fact it would reduce the intensity of the fire against the _Lusankya_ , it was still worth it to spin around and start accelerating in earnest to lengthen the time until she could reach the grav well limit.

He understood, too, that Tanda Pryl was trying to take out the interdictor, and clustered Mon Cal cruisers around it with their excellent shields that could take a pounding, while the Star Destroyers stood off to provide concentrated converging fire. Even with unfavourable arcs, the waves of main battery fire swept down onto the _Lusankya_ like a torrent.

And his flagship's shields were a continuous roil of fire. Unlike other Admirals who might give into the temptation to sweep aside some of the countless smaller ships, Tanda kept up a very disciplined ranged fire on the _Home One_ right until the pack swept her up. She was rewarded as the torrent of red and green flares between the two sides converged into a sudden eruption of flame from the side of the great cruiser. Ion cannon shots followed, arcing across unprotected hull, and with drives lighting off and on, sputtering, the cruiser heeled sharply to starboard.

"Do we keep firing so that we've at least gotten Admiral Ackbar...?" Nyroska asked as she looked from her position at the back of the bridge, almost in a daze, at the _rest_ of the fleet before them that they had not even touched, and the ship shuddered under them as now the close-in snubfighters of the Rebel fleet began their attacks.

"No. I've distracted him. There's no need for target fixation." She swung forward, still projecting confidence. "We are going to win. Shift fire to the cruisers defending the Interdictor!" The batteries spun around to concentrate on the bow arc, and once again massed fire rippled into the distance targets.

A massive wave of torpedo and concussion missile hits rolled in from both sides. Ackbar had managed to get his close-in fighters lined up with no good counters. Tali watched as the shields turned red, even as she found herself reaching out with the force to stand upright, and Tanda dropped to her knee as the ship rolled violently beneath them, shaking like a bell. The concussive effect inside the hull damped the return fire for a moment and the starfighters largely escaped unharmed, doubtless swinging back again.

Still she had full engine power. But the shock damage was progressive. "Admiral," Tali shouted urgently. "We've got cascading failures to half the shield banks! The salvo was coordinated with the starship fire and peaked most of the generators."

"Give me bow shields. Positive screen."

"Bow shields, Tanda? But we'll leave..." Tali cut herself off and flipped on the positive screen button, sending the armoured shields silently lowering across the front of the bridge and bringing up and concentrating energy forward.

On each beam now the massed fire ripped at the 20-metre thick armoured dorsal and ventral belts of the great dreadnought. The superalloys were flashed and seared again and again, but under them, the hull held. The cityscape was not so fortunate, but largely evacuated in combat, it started to explode as rippling sensor failures and lost light gun turrets flashed a cacophony of alarms around them.

But the fire from the cruisers right ahead split and skittered away from the forward shields, and charging like a lance into the heart of the enemy, _Lusankya_ closed with the dull regularity of an express train. The drive-tails of the ships ahead of her trying to work up to speed—this kind of combat at high vee almost never happened—grew larger and larger. The box of Mon Cals around the interdictor stayed tight despite the fact her guns were tearing into them.

Then one of the unlucky MC-80s exploded. Parts of the ship flaring out in every direction, her blasted off bow tumbling, Tanda felt a flash of regret. This was the war she no longer wanted to fight. Four years ago, she would have been so proud of such a kill, a Captain, with _Thunderflare_ , triumphant over the Rebel enemy. Now it was a case of honourable soldiers of a nation that had freed itself from the tyranny of the Sith dying, and she was struck with the apparent futility of it.

 _Why didn't you go to them from the first?_ **Because I wouldn't have been trusted.** _Why didn't you hand over Isard?_ **Not because she deserved it, but because it would have taught my crews I was faithless.** The answers tasted like salt on the tongue. The stab of the intensity of that failure drove home in the second instance as another of the cruisers was destroyed in short succession as the batteries concentrated on the first, following Tanda's firing order plan, shifted to the second.

She saw the tactical, saw the opening they had blasted as their flanks shed fire. "Take us in, helm! We've got a clear path... Tali, slave the tractors to your console!"

Her drive tail blazing like a star, _Lusankya_ flung herself at c-fractional velocities into the Rebel formation. Ackbar pulled his wings together, aiming at her engines from the stern quarters where they were vulnerable to fire.

"One of the Mon Cals is swinging between us and that 418, Admiral!" Waroen shouted at the last. "We need the tractors to shove it clear!"

"I need time to coordinate the lock, Tanda!" Tali shouted in return. "We'll overload the tractors to take an MC-80 at this speed, can't do it!"

"Evasive?"

"No time, Admiral!" Waroen looked with fear in his eyes.

" _Steady as she bears_!"

"ADMIRAL?" Waroen's hand twitched for his blaster, and he remembered the lightsabres at the last moment and paled in fear as the rest of the bridge crew felt locked into place.

"Stand firm, Waroen, it's been done before! Brace yourselves!" She tripped the shipwide collision alarm.

 _Lusankya_ 's bow shields interposed with the Mon Cal, and the ship disappeared into a white flash of fire. The reactor erupted, and the hypermatter load scattered in a devastating flare of power. The shields shorted out down to their mountings and multiple power converters were ripped straight from their frames as some of the shield projectors and generators were shorn from their mounts or outright exploded from the backwash of energy when already overtaxed. The entire shield power routing system failed.

The white flash faded, and with the COMPNOR youth volunteers stiffening the Stormtroopers at the batteries, they took over under local control with the internal power failures and opened up rippling salvoes _en passant_ against the arrayed box of cruisers in a defiant calvacade of untargeted but vigorous fire.

And ahead of them, directly ahead, the single 418 kept her grav wells up, blazingly evident on the holoplot even as the world around them was now the darkness of the armoured slats. "Tali, tractors!?"

"Up and... Shut up, Tanda you bosh'tet!"

And then the ship lurched... And the 418 tumbled through space violently as the deck seemed to crack and groan from the absurd strain. The little Interdictor spun around and brought her drives up to full power. They did nothing, though the whine of the tractors grew more intense under the deck.

"Hold course and speed and reel her in!"

"Tanda... They're not going quietly into the night... I know, I know, it's our only chance." Tali manipulated the tractors as the engines of the 418 burned harder... And the drive tail stared to play across the hangar bay of the _Lusankya_.

A dozen sectors started to glow red as the chaos and damage started to spread from the all-out high ion burn straight into the hangar bay assembly with no shields to protect them. Tanda had been counting on a few banks, but there were none. Whomever the captain of the Interdictor was, they had their engines at full power, burning into _Lusankya_ , and their grav wells still up. Locked in a deathrace, the two ships raced on together on the journey Tanda had ordered, the distance to the rebel fleet hammering her engines and driving systems failures with ion cannon fire still slowly increasing.

"Tanda, they could trigger their self-destruct if they don't have any hope, and if we let them go, it's all for nothing..." Tali looked up from her console.

Tanda sized the position of the ship relative to the hangars and nodded tightly, then glanced to Nyroska. "Come on, Bureau Chief. Let's go earn our pay."

"Admiral?!"

"Bay fourteen forward," she ordered as she stepped into the turbolift, and Isard, to her credit, followed. "We're going to board."

She had discussed the plan with her stormtrooper commanders and spacetrooper commanders a few times for tactical operations during a main battle and how they might be configured. Their usual stations were deployed to take advantage of the great bays of a dreadnought, and they had gone to them when quarters were sounded. She had never imagined, though, that it would really come to it. It was just a kind of busy work... Except that now it wasn't.

The Spacetroopers were ready. The Stormtroopers were in spacesuits, and stunned by what they were being asked to do. But within the gravity controls of the _Lusankya_ , they struck out straight across the open bay, straight across open space. The backwash of plasma from the drives of the 418 flared and flurried, and the flurries reached out to touch boarders passing between the ships on their rocket packs, and they simply disappeared in an instantaneous death of unlucky misfortune.

What was really about sixty seconds of ferocious burns on the rocket packs seemed to last an eternity as they swept across a few hundred meters of the outer hangar. Aiming to get under the degraded and half-gone shields of the 418, which, nestled into the bay, they could not blow out of the stars from the usual vulnerable spots of an _Executor_ , the blind arcs. That had been the downside of using the boarding tractors to reel her in for their escape.

The upside was that they were the boarding tractors, and now they were boarding. And board... Board they did.

Passing the engines of the cruiser as the cannon which could bear ripped into her bow and blew it off—Tanda cursed for the want of coordination—they nonetheless reached the hull, and plasma cutting torches took her, weak and never meant for a combat never meant to happen, or to even be imagined. In a moment, the rebels inside were fighting them hand to hand in the corridors, and Tanda, stumbling forward, ignited her lightsabre. Looking back across the reports of the situation, she saw there were no more following her.

That was good enough. She tapped open her suit comm in indecent haste. " _Get this cruiser away from the Lusankya, Tali!_ "

The Quarian engineer obeyed at once, cutting the tractor beams. The cruiser at once thrusted away and clear of the hangar, even as Tali followed up with strict, shouted orders for the gunners to halt firing on her. The _Lusankya_ spun on and still away from the fleet, and Tanda took off for the bridge.

She soon found that this combat was far harder than any other she had known. Now she was knocking people into walls and turning away blaster bolts and _trying not to kill_. "Yield, yield kriff you, yield!" She shouted, again and again, in a daze of desperation, thinking only of bringing it to an end, of letting the _Lusankya_ escape. Her troops, fighting for their lives, held no compunctions, and gunned down the unprepared crew where they stood and fought.

Pressing on, the blaster bolts swept away to both sides, and even with the way she tried to keep her enemies alive, Tanda felt the death around her, calling to her with the promise that she could end the battle in a heartbeat. _Oh Dea, how did I come to this?_ The swirl around her seemed unending, and scarcely without noticing it, she found herself at the bridge of the ship.

A woman there with the officers around her in their New Republic uniforms paled as she saw the visage of a masked figure bearing a red lightsabre. She had known, she had heard the reports, but it was another thing to see it in person, and hopelessly she fired her blaster again and again.

Tanda turned the bolts and flung her lightsabre down. "Captain, I just want to _leave_. Stop, I beg you, stop this useless effusion of blood! There is nothing that can be gained!"

"The lives of my men!" She answered, and for a moment the two stared at each other in an impasse, the 418 traveling in an opposite direction from both rebels and _Lusankya_ , all alone in the frenzy of that night of singular chaos.

"I need that ship to save the innocent, and I have no interest, my appearance not withstanding, in killing your men. Stand down, please! Deactivate your grav-well generators!"

"You know, once upon a time I thought the Empire defended the innocent... But if we ever did, I sure as hell didn't find out where."

 _Of course, they're defectors, expect to be treated worse than rebels._ She shivered. "Captain, I assure you, I made the same journey you did. Just in a different place, with different people..."

The power to the grav wells was cut by another company reaching engineering. Tanda watched as the woman below her sagged in terror, expecting death from her hands. It was real, genuine, absolute fear. A part of her surged at how delicious it tasted, at the promise that kind of absolute terror held from within and without. It offered her everything.

Above and behind them, _Lusankya_ flickered through a microjump to take her out of firing range of the Rebel fleet. _Tanda, we're clear, now get that interdictor to follow us and be about it!_

Tanda walked past the woman without striking her and went for the astrogation board. She reached up and started to activate the drive computers which would let them escape. _If they would all just stop shooting..._

And then the rebel lieutenant at her side shot her three times in the stomach at point-blank range. _Somehow, I think I deserved that for this stupid mess,_ she thought as she faded. Nyroska's blaster squibbed and the woman went for the console herself. The stars on the bridge disappeared into a glorious blaze of light.

Tanda, trembling, fading, thought about Tali, and thought about how she had deserved this for the fight, and how Tali didn't. And wondered if somehow, she could find that healing energy through the light. The stars... In glorious halo... There were billions counting on her.

War was at its cruelest when there were no Sith Lords and no Reapers to blame.


	88. Chapter 88

A crackling blue light filled the wounds as she lay toppled onto the deck of the Interdictor's bridge, and its power filled Tanda's body, from ligaments to heart, to mind... To soul. Laced with white flickers of lightning, she surrounded her wholeness in a haze of energy. Nyroska was distracted from executing the prisoners on the bridge by it, and the Stormtroopers lowered their rifles hesitantly. The power was almost tangible through the air even to those not strong in the force.

Inside of herself, Tanda could feel every point of weakness. She could feel the cells dying, their strength and individual will to live which made up her life, suppressed by the legacy of the dark side. The short lives of everything in her body, spinning slowly toward shutting down, fighting a slowly losing battle against the corruption that she had let inside of herself.

That felt almost like an end, but her power was here! Her power was here, and it was glorious in the light! She reached out again, and felt each connection of the cells dying from the burns and progressive damage, the holes in her torso that should be fatal, and _pulled_ on them. Pulled them back into life through the force, found the building blocks, and proceeded forward in the wounds.

The bridge crew, the stormtroopers, Nyroska found themselves in entranced silence. This was not the force of the Empire, the force of lightsabres and executions. This was a healing power of ancient lineage, connected through to all of the force and all living things. It was _true_ power, the power of life itself.

A hand lurched to life and reached up to grab a console. Pulling, pulling, Tanda levered herself into the upright. "Bureau Chief, _kindly_ seal my suit," she rasped. Though she thought she saw some light at the end of the tunnel now that she had found the power through the light, there wasn't enough _time_ nor _energy_ to try it now. Survival had been what mattered, not health. Even as tingling at the back of her mind, she knew the other joy it offered. It was a joy that came with immense pain. At first Tanda had thought the pain had been part of the Dark Side. Now she knew differently. It was because this was raw, fresh, the force itself healing life. She was experiencing the real sensation of her nerves complaining as new flesh was created, connections reattached. It couldn't be dampened because it was the work of life itself.

The woman turned to her, biting down an impulse of resentment at being reduced to a medic, but competent enough in figuring out the sealants. To her, the force was still only a thing of fear, and after that display, she was so much less willing to stand up to Tanda that the High Admiral could _feel it_.

Braced on a console, Tanda read the reporting number from the bridge's nameplate. _Not the Corusca Rainbow to begin with, now was she._ She reached for the comm jack, triggering the short-distance with the ship now held into _Lusankya_ 's hold. "Black Asp Actual for Lusankya Actual, come in."

"Ancestors, Tanda, I heard the feed, I thought I'd lost you!"

"The Force showed a way," Tanda answered softly. "What is our status?"

" _Black Asp_ is securely in the outer holding bay and the fleet is securely away to hyperspace with us, Tanda. Damage to _Lusankya_ is... Severe. I'm not sure how she's going to be able to fight the Reapers like this, Tanda."

"Can you get the shields back up?"

"Give me a week's worth of effort and I should have full coverage again, _Bosh'tet_! I am a Quarian Engineer with two hundred machinists!" Her voice was equal parts love and outrage.

"Then we can fight them. We will most definitely fight them. And we will win."

"I always love it when you are confident, Tanda."

"Someone has to be. Look, Tali, I'm going to sort out this mess on the _Black Asp_ and then come back aboard. Hold course for the Asation system."

"Understood!"

The channel cut, and again Tanda looked around the bridge. "I know I'm not what you exactly wanted to see. And I know you all must be thinking that I am a Sith Lord. But I'm just asking you to hear me out. All of you. I'm in this suit because I've given my life and health—with missteps along the way, sure—to a good cause. Captain..."

"Iillor." The woman stirred, with a glint of fury in her eyes. "I've heard the speech before, High Admiral Pryl. In the end, you get pushed to the point that you have to make a stand. I was."

"I'm not fighting for these damned warlords, either," Tanda answered, but couldn't get in another word, her own mind fogged with agony from the healing.

Ulwa Iillor interrupted her with a laugh. "While I grant that is one hundred percent true, wouldn't it be somewhat right to say you _are_ a Warlord?"

"No. I am fighting for a different cause. The cause... Of the homeworld of humanity. Terra. A world at once birth-mother to us all and now also helpless in the face of an alien threat. And I am fighting for the chance not just to save her, but to bring the best and brightest of us away from this civil war."

She pushed herself to her full height, steadied on the council. The powers she had turned onto her own flesh were still slowly working, knitting and binding, inside of her. It was intensely painful still... Tanda didn't have the slightest idea how long that would go on for. It didn't matter now. "Captain, I am not asking you to change sides. I'm asking you to leave with me for a new hope and a new dream. I will hold none of this against you. I will treat your service with the Rebels like service for one of the warlords. I forgive it, and all of your crew with you."

"Kind words, and bold words. And an incredible story. I assume you have proof?"

"Of course I do."

"Good, but I don't care. High Admiral, they've betrayed us, they've sold us. The leadership of the Empire has used us, has rewarded insanity with promotion, punished intelligence, punished bravery. They have neglected talent and given rise to corruption. The Empire, as a whole, is a monster. The New Order was a lie. It wasn't needed. The democracy was what won the war. Then Palpatine killed it with a blow from behind. Oh, I know the answer to that—the New Order was already wrought by the victory, the Emperorship was just a formality! That's an academic's justification for serving evil. It's false, High Admiral, demonstratably false."

"You will _pay_ for those statements! The High Admiral has offered you incredible mercy, and you have spat on it, Iillor!" Nyroska almost lunged at the woman, and her blaster came out.

"Then go ahead and kill me for killing the truth. Your late boss Iceheart did that to plenty of people better than I am, as I can say from personal experience!" Captain Iillor spat.

Only Tanda forcing herself to wobble between the two women prevented there from being a blaster shot. "You have spent a good year feeding off of the propaganda of the so-called New Republic. There was much worth preserving in the New Order, and much we are going to cast off, Captain. I assure you that I do not execute my subordinates, and in fact, neither do I execute prisoners. And I reward promotion, and I reward loyalty. And the Bureau Chief here may be angry, since you insult what she has devoted her life to protect. But we are all in this war for a common cause..."

"Your cause, High Admiral. Not mine, not anymore."

"You have heard her disparage everything about who we are, High Admiral. She is unfit. If you are to retain the loyalty of your volunteers from COMPFORCE you must immediately imprison the crew of this ship."

"I..." Tanda glanced from Iillor to Nyroska and back. "You are right. But only the Captain. Each and every one of them will be given the same opportunity to join us with a pardon that she was. Am I clear?"

"As Corusca, High Admiral," Nyroska answered.

Ulwa sniffed and laughed. "If that's to be that, I'd appreciate to join the good company that has been held in the legendary _Lusankya_ , High Admiral. Keeping a prison ship does not inspire confidence, you know."

"Send her to Commander Zorah and have every courtesy shown to her in confinement," Tanda ordered to her stormtroopers, refusing to rise to the bait. Then she opened the channel back to the bridge of the _Lusankya_. "Lusankya Actual, this is Black Asp Actual. I will need a prize crew."

"We don't have enough crew for repairs as it is, High Admiral! Respectfully, just leave her docked for now, get everyone back here. We'll find use for the stormtroopers. It's bad." Tali tried to be formal, but both the exhaustion, and the relief, and even also the love, were all present in her voice.

Tanda smiled. "All right. We'll shut down the reactor and bring all loyal personnel aboard _Lusankya_ to help with damage control. Holding course for Asation?"

"Holding course for _home_ ," the Quarian answered.

-

Liara T'Soni was at the end of her sanity. Everything she had tried to stop the Reapers had failed. She had lost her lover—twice. A fact she could not publically admit. The successful relief of Thessia made her feel worse, not better. Earth was still under the Reapers, still steadily dying as a consequence.

 _How can I face Hannah with her daughter dead and her world destroyed?_ There was no answer to the question. So she felt desperate, and determined. She had to make sure that they could beat the Reapers. Had to contribute something that would actually work. Had to rise to more than the burning sense of failure that she felt now.

And that was exactly what had led her to take Sair Yonka's lover and drag her back and away, in a hunt for the _Avarice_. They had had their bargaining chip, just to fall to the wayside. Well, as long as she had some way to help the situation, Liara was determined to make sure that she had not left even a single stone unturned, not one attempt, no matter how risky, to make the survival of her home galaxy happen. To maybe, just maybe, reach Earth, and find Shepard alive.

It was a demand which had brought her to bartering Lando's name for recognition and clearance, and then a trip into the hastily renamed _Avarice_ 's docking bay. A trip which culminated in a stunned Commander Sair Yonka enfolding his lover in his arms, hastening them away in privacy to thank them, the bitterness in Liara's heart that this, this she was not receiving from Shepard.

And then the shock when Sair discovered it was Liara and her 'associates' who had kidnapped Aellyn Jandi in the first place. The woman kept unsteady, nervous eyes on them as, alone and in privacy, the Captain was suddenly acutely aware of his vulnerability to assassination.

"Miss T'Soni..."

"Doctor T'Soni," Liara answered coolly. "Yes?"

"You clearly were planning something with High Admiral Pryl." Sair still looked uncomfortable in a New Republic uniform, complete with demotion due to a relative lack of trust. He had a feeling, even as he spoke to the blue alien across from him, that he was about to become a lot less trusted in all. "What was it?"

"The chance to save my people and my galaxy from the Reapers," Liara replied coldly. "To perhaps, just perhaps, see my lover again, alive."

"That nonsense about finding Earth..."

"It's not nonsense! There were billions of living humans on Earth, and the Reapers are slowly killing them as we speak!" Her face flared with passion as she tried to convey the desperation that resided in her heart.

"She's acted like it's true the entire time I've been her prisoner," Aellyn said. Both Sair and Liara looked sharply to her.

"So, you think it's true, Aellyn my dear?" Sair's face reddened.

"I think so, yes. I've never seen her like before, and I don't understand where else all of this would coming from. They're all desperate, Sair."

Liara smiled gently. _Sometimes, treating people well does pay off._ "Why do you doubt us at this point, _Captain_ Yonka?"

"If it was so crucial to save Terra, this motherland of humans... Why did she refuse to hand over Isard?" Sair folded her hands. "My crew won't follow Ysanne Isard, not now, not even to save the homeworld of humanity."

Liara closed her eyes. "We needed her codes, we needed her money, she is concentrating repair ships and new-builds and equipment at Asation as we speak. All of that is worth far more than one life, and one Imperial Star Destroyer."

"And all of it doesn't change the fact that you're making deals with the most revoltingly evil person still alive in this galaxy." A snort. "You want my Star Destroyer rather badly, too, for someone who insists it is less important than Isard."

"But it is still important," Liara countered. "We need your help."

"The families of most of my crew are _dead_ , Doctor, how do you propose to get it?"

Liara looked sharply across the table. _Everything to beat the Reapers; let the chips fall where they may._ She breathed hard and pushed herself to her feet, leaning across right in Sair's face. "How do you propose to kill Ysanne Isard when she is in the Milky Way and you are trapped in this galaxy with no way to get between them? _Pryl_ gave her word to Isard. _Pryl_ is a force sensitive who won't kill a guest. I am the Shadowbroker and I have lost all such compunctions in the forge of this war! Coming with me is in fact the only way that your crew will get a chance to kill Ysanne Isard, and when the Reapers are defeated you have my word that it will be done."

Sair slowly rose to his full height, and so did Liara, uncowed. They had an audience of two witnesses—Guri and Aellyn. That was enough. A silence crossed the gap between the two pairs of eyes.

Sair struck his hand out, and Liara took it. "You've got to tell the crew yourself."

"Telling them is going to make it harder for me to get in a place that I can eliminate Isard from when the time comes."

"Telling them, Doctor, is the only way to get them to leave the New Republic."

"All right." She turned. "But if word slips, I cannot calculate the outcome."

"I'll take the risk for the sake of having my men fully support my course of action." Sair stepped to Liara's side. "What are we doing at Asation before Pryl arrives?"

"A rendezvous with General Lando Calrissian to steal the Katana Fleet off of a retired smuggler named Captain Hoffner that Guri beat at Sabacc on the Coral Vanda a month ago."

Sair goggled. "Jokes like that don't inspire my belief in the sincerity of claims about finding humanity's homeworld."

"But Captain, none of that was a joke." 


	89. The First Katha

**First Katha**

"What is thy bidding, my Master?"

"I have felt a ripple through the force, High Inquisitor."

The man dared raise his head, ever so slightly. But the cloak shrouded the image of the holo and nothing distinct could be seen. Still, he _knew._ "Master, if Grand Moff Kaine suspects..."

"Grand Moff Kaine will prove his strength or be destroyed! You will allow him to suspect _nothing_ until the time is right. Tell him you saw it through the force yourself, High Inquisitor Halmere, and may you enjoy being flattered that he will think you more powerful than you really are!"

"My master." His face fell again. "What is this opportunity?"

"An ancient power that Darth Plagueis believed critical to an understanding of the force has resurfaced in this galaxy. One of my... _Former..._ officers with some hidden talent in the force has connected herself to a well of power so substantial that she bears incorporation into the Inquisitorious so that I may control and study this ability for my own using."

"A former... Officer?"

"Yes. She is headed for the Asation system, and you will need the entire fleet of Pentastar to insure she complies! High Inquisitor, I do not emphasize the urgency sufficiently. She has revealed a power, not merely great, but which would render the revival of the Jedi moot. It sings a clarion song. In the hands of someone who in acting for the values of the Jedi presumes to preserve her own life, it is a tool of survival... Which has betrayed her to my own foresight. In _my_ hands, it will be a killing power, sufficient to strike down such a wounded Jedi as Skywalker with a mere word! You _will_ bring her _alive,_ High Inquisitor. As I _said,_ take the **entire** fleet."

"...and _Reaper,_ My Master?"

"Tell Kaine whatever he needs to hear, High Inquisitor. The hour is late! Make haste!"

The hologram disappeared, and Halmere lunged to his feet.


	90. Chapter 89

With the black, nondescript civilian uniform-style clothes Sair's crew was wearing now—it hadn't yet been replaced with New Republic uniforms, as supply was something the Rebels were decidedly still learning—the bridge felt different from other Imperial bridges. It was different, too. Discipline had fallen away on a ship of defectors. Sair Yonka still handled her well enough, though, that Liara had no doubt the great vessel she still thought of as _Avarice_ could fight.

It made her wonder about the future of her home galaxy, so much in doubt as the Reapers continued their unabated rampage. What would become of the Asari, Turians, Salarians, the Council, even if they won? Winning was all-consuming, but as the mottled reality of hyperspace blurred around them, she could just wait through the last minutes to Asation.

Someday, if it survived, if they survived, this ship was going to keep the peace in the Milky Way. Someday, when the war was over. She swallowed. _Someday, these ships designed to terrorise and kill for one of the evillest men ever to live, will hold the balance of power over my home, ruled by a besotted half-mad woman who was one an officer in this force of genocide, terrorism, and evil._

Blue eyes blinked widely, and alive. Sair Yonka had been an officer in that force, too. And Tanda Pryl, was bonded before Tali'Zorah vas Lusankya nar Rayya to be her wife, before the Quarian ancestors—perhaps that love being the only thing which was saving her home. And Miranda Lawson had been the Illusive Man's personal right-hand man.

She smiled wryly, and looked up. The only thing she could not bear to think about, of what had happened to Shepard, flickered on the edges of her consciousness. But it was banished quickly enough: The _Avarice_ was leaving hyperspace.

Ahead of them was a space yacht, fine, beautiful lines, standing off an Action VI freighter. And lurking behind them, trimmed in blue...

Sair gasped. Some of the men on the bridge muttered oaths. Even Liara took a breath that it was true. Big, big ships, stretched over regular dreadnoughts, with unique markings and weapons configurations.

"The freighter and yacht are powering their engines!"

Liara started, and ran down to the comms pit before anyone could stop her, activating the line and sending her personal code. "Hoffner, Lando, this is Liara. I just came in style, that's all."

"Style? My lady, that is some _swass_ style, an entire Star Destroyer. I thought you _needed_ a fleet, not that you already had one." Lando's voice was tight, still expecting a double-cross. Hoffner didn't even answer...

"The engines on the dreadnoughts are powering up and their shields are coming on-line!"

"Captain Hoffner! This is Liara T'Soni! The deal's still on! And you'll badly regret a double-cross now."

"How are they bringing up those old dreadnoughts?"

Liara glanced up. "The slave control circuitry is still active."

Sair looked at the two dreadnoughts. "Hells, does he intend to make a fight of it, then? Lock onto the freighter with main batteries..."

"Wait!" Liara held her hand up, then spun back to the mic. "General Calrissian, this is Sair Yonka's ship, the _Freedom_. He defected and helped Wedge Antilles fight against Ysanne Isard. I just offered him a better deal than serving in the New Republic, that's all, so he chose helping me against the Republic. You can confirm from the idents. Tell Hoffner to stand down."

"I am not the problem here, Lady Liara! I'll talk. I've talked with larger Star Destroyers than that in the past, in fact. I just need time!"

"We are running out of that, General Calrissian," Liara answered, and watched the lights glow for shields up, the indicators that main turbolaser batteries were fully charged. Seconds now, and worse would be if Hoffner simply tried to leave. She might not be able to get Yonka to chase him, and even if she did, it might waste time too precious to be wasted.

"...Well, fortunately for my lovely lady, you now have all the time you need."

Hoffner's voice abruptly grated onto the comms. "You have twenty minutes to get aboard the lead dreadnought with the codes to the bank accounts, Doctor T'Soni. Otherwise we bug out. If I'd known I was working for the Empire, the price would have been twice as much, and I don't like being double-crossed."

"You're not working for the Empire—would General Calrissian!?—and you're not being double-crossed. And that's all," Liara answered tartly. "The first dreadnought, twenty minutes."

"We'll sort out the truth there," Hoffner answered. "Timer's on, Doctor."

"We're coming over now." Liara killed the channel, then re-opened the one to Lando only. "General?"

"I'll meet you there."

-

The inside of the dreadnought was creepy at best. Liara recognized that blue trim. It was the same blue as the uniforms of the Republic Juridicial personnel who had been part of the defence forces of Ova. The droids still worked, maintaining a lonely vigil in conjunction with the automation systems that were executing their final commands until the moment when Hoffner had spliced in and ordered them to this system. The status lights still blinked in the bay, and the fleet troops with her, Guri and Gillian nar Idenna. They could fight their way if they had to.

Lando was waiting. The docking bay on a Dreadnought wasn't large, so _Lady Luck_ took up a large portion of it, but there was nothing else of note. A Dreadnought typically had enormously large batteries for its size—they normally didn't carry starfighters at all and had been optimized entirely for combat to allow the Judicials to have the heaviest firepower possible within the strict size limit which governed their peacekeeping ships (other ships could carry starfighters)—but a line of them occupied the bay anyway on account of the extra space freed up by the automation, big multi-crew gunships with hyperdrives for detached policing duty. The Katana Fleet had been meant to operate alone.

Liara swung toward him, wearing her typical battledress instead of fancier clothes, but the General still greeted her with the same magnificent smile. She let him take her hand, for the sake of the moment. "General Calrissian."

"Doctor T'Soni," he replied. "Captain Hoffner is on the bridge. This way."

"I would have to say that Hoffner is bound to try to double-cross us. Maybe even escape the system right now while we are onboard as his hostages," Liara replied as they walked, eyes boring straight ahead and voice calm. "Do you have a plan to deal with it?"

"Generally things seem to work my own way."

"You do have a knack for that, General-but I'd like to be a bit more prepared than that. There's a lot riding us winning the hand. They'll be able to tell where the turbolift is from the bridge, correct?"

"On a ship this automated? Yes, if they bother to check."

"If we came in a deck below?"

"They'd know we stopped there," Lando shrugged. "Unless..."

"I could spoof the recorder in the turbolift," Guri offered, "So it looks like we're still in transit."

Lando shook his head. "It'd _help_ , but they'd still know our final destination was either one deck down to come in through the deck entrance, or the bridge itself to come in through the turbolift directly."

Liara thought for a moment and glanced to Gillian. "Prepare yourself."

"Doctor," Gillian answered. "Lifting...?"

"Yes."

"Going to tell me what's going on?" Lando asked nonchalantly.

"Can you trust a lady?"

"...Well, if you put it that way..."

Together, Lando and Liara strode ahead of the others and into the maze of turbolift banks, a small smile exchanged as both, almost at the same time, put their hands down for their pistols and waited tensely, Guri slipping behind them to the console to start hotwiring the 'lift. Midway through the trip, Liara halted the tube before reaching the bridge entrance. "Let him think we're coming up one deck to surprise him," Liara smiled. "Gillian?"

"Doctor?"

"Do your thing, and take the turbolift to the bridge," Liara said simply.

Gillian squatted to the deck, blue crackling around her suit, as Lando's eyes widened. "Is she a..."

"No, General, she's not a Jedi. She's a _biotic._ It's a different use of the same energy fields, I think, relying on internal energy instead of the force. And she's about the strongest biotic I know to exist. Hang on...!"

The dampers weren't on, and they lurched like a rocket to the next level. As Liara steadied herself, she brought her pistol up and triggered the emergency exit button for the turbolift doors. It swung open and, when it did, there was the strangled cries of surprise from Hoffner's crew of men who had been covering the entry-doors to the bridge and were now suddenly having to shift to try and cover the turbolift entrance instead. They weren't fast enough.

"Let's not get anyone killed, shall we? Blasters down, gentlemen," Lando grinned as he stepped forward, cape burnishing his stride as he kept his blaster firmly on the guards.

Hands went up and blasters clattered to the deck. "Captain Hoffner, the money's been deposited. Kindly confirm it and then leave my dreadnought," Liara ordered coldly.

Hoffner looked between the two, sweating hard with his gun at his shoes. "General Calrissian, is this going to make me a marked man with Cracken and NRI?"

"Of course not. These dreadnoughts are destined for a better cause. And a few more, too." He glanced to Liara.

Hoffner lunged to his feet. "They're mine! They're mine and you're not going to steal them from me!"

Guri was calmly walking over to one of the consoles, one hand on her blaster as the other started to tap out code and she put in the memory chips that Tali'Zorah had worked up from her own efforts with the Alderaanian ships. As she did, more consoles across the bridge came alive. "Deploying combat droids."

"They're not your's, they're the salver's, and I just salved them," Liara answered unflappably with her gun covering Hoffner's guards... And her hand, raised, with a crackle of blue energy appearing in it. "Take your money and get out, Captain. It's enough to live richly, unless you waste it all on the _Coral Vanda_."

"Salvage law, you haven't brought the others in or crewed them, Captain. You should have sold the entire fleet to the Rebel Alliance when you had the chance, and you'd be a billionaire and a General yourself," Lando laughed. "Timing's everything in business. Now, I don't want harsh feelings, so I'll double the payment for these two as part of my deal with Lady Liara."

"You think paying for four dreadnoughts when you get a hundred and ninety-five is a _deal_?"

"I think I'm paying for four and getting two. From you. Choose wisely, Captain. A good gambler knows when to cut and run." Gesturing widely, Lando took a step down toward the Captain's chair. "And might I remind you that you were about to double-cross us, Captain Hoffner? I'd say you've picked the wrong time to count your money."

The two men regarded each other with Hoffner's eyes sometimes jerking to the crackling energy swirling around Liara's free hand, with more questions than answers in hand, and the Asari Maiden's eyes cold and sure. That was evidence enough that things were a hair's breadth from going bad.

Hoffner reached for his breast pocket. The hand on Lando's blaster stiffened, but Hoffner, eyes almost glistening, just brought up a flask, popping the top off and taking a strong draught of Corellian whisky. "You _bastard_."

"There's lots of things I'll take from a loser, but you don't insult my mama. Get off the Lady's bridge, Hoffner, _just like she said._ "

Hoffner stared and started hard. He rose to his feet and lurched toward the turbolift, taking another swig of whisky. "C'mon," he waved to his people, following with their guns left behind on the bridge. "This isn't over, Calrissian!"

"Shall I shoot him in the back, General?" Gillian asked, almost innocently. The way Hoffner stiffened...

Lando waved his hand. "Let's not be uncivilised. I've got a pretty good hand for the next round. Let him go."

"I'll take them back to their ship. The orders have been issued, and this dreadnought is your's, Doctor T'Soni."

"Thank you, Guri."

It was Lando's turn to be shocked as he looked sharply at the disappearing woman. "Oh you clever, clever Doctor, Lady Liara. No wonder you're playing for such high stakes. Prince Xizor's HRD?"

"She's her own woman now, General."

"Black Sun 'Droid or her own woman, she is a real piece of work, Liara. I'd be careful."

Liara spun on heel, eyes cool. "Respectfully, General, I am the Shadowbroker and I keep my own company. Guri wants a place where she has her freedom and an escape from her past, and I will give her both. With have an excellent working relationship. I would say that you should be proud enough that you were able to beat her at sabacc."

Lando looked for a moment and then shrugged. "Suit yourself, Lady Liara. We have a business deal, and _your_ business associates are your business."

"Good. That's exactly the way I like it."

-

Over the next several days, the Evakmars, Deepdocks, new ISDs, transports with fighters started to stream steadily into Asation, and Lando's suspicion as he waited for his cut of the Katana fleet to arrive steadily deepened. It was clear by the end that Liara's resources as the Shadowbroker were, to put it mildly, impressive.

Their mutual base on the _Ibutoion_ , the dreadnought they'd occupied, slowly felt colder, too. Liara was a driven woman, and every delay seemed to put her more on edge. Lando tried to pull the news from the holonet, and there was plenty of concerning information regarding the Empire on that. The supplies arriving were all from still largely Imperial-aligned companies, too.

So Lando sent out a notice by some back-channels that he knew would still get to Han. _Hey, old buddy, I know you're busy with Zsinj, but, some interesting goings-on in Gree space..._

When he came back up to the bridge, there was the latest surprise. The great Gree transporter had arrived, a huge saucer which with its belabored Class III hyperdrive still maintained the remnant power of the Gree in space. But instead of the usual lazy transfer of a few Gree and other passengers to the surface of Asation, the ship disgorged a very large number of sauce-shaped Green shuttles from the ventral surface that Lando had never seen before.

He watched as they spread out, and made their relays, Guri silently behind him on the bridge and her mere presence sometimes making a hand twitch toward his blaster. She did not seem to reciprocate the sentiment.

One shuttle came for the _Ibutoion_. The others... Headed for the new ships, the transports, the deepdocks. With the shuttle steadily approaching them, Lando finally spun the chair around to face Xizor's HRD. "So, Guri, would you mine telling me what the shuttles are carrying?"

"Crew."

"Crew. Where did you find crew?"

"They're Quarians, General Calrissian. Like Gillian. A natural race of engineers and machinists working with Doctor T'Soni. They'll be bringing the ships on-line with sufficient crews to let them fight, as there are more Quarians than there are ships for them to fight aboard, as things presently stand. We will go somewhere of the way toward rectifying that problem today."

"And the Katana fleet is the rest."

"Correct," Guri replied, and turned back to her console.

Lando leaned back in the Captain's chair, frowning. _I could have sworn I saw one of those suits in the NRI update brief for this week..._

He brought the data records back up that he'd saved, which thus wouldn't alert anyone aboard, and started to scan through them. It took hours of searching without using a computer or droid, but as they waited for the rest of the Katana Fleet to arrive, they had the hours in which to wait, while outside the passengers on the Gree ship finished transferring to their ships and started to bring them alive. Then he found the reference, and his blood went cold.

Lando traced the route from the scene of the battle and from the origin of the fleet at Commenor after seeing the report about an Imperial High Admiral's _wife_ and assistants of her own species also being wanted. Commenor, the battlefield...

Asation.

"You double-crossing, good for nothing..."

"Shut up, General Calrissian," Guri answered, assuming the words he couldn't hold in were meant for her, thankfully. "I am living my life as I please, and the past is the past."

The click of a blaster's safety catch made her eyes widen and she spinned around to see herself covered. "You may only give me one shot, but I only need one, Guri. Doctor T'Soni is working for the Empire."

"That is not the full picture of what's going on here." Guri was still perfectly calm. "Doctor T'Soni really needs the fleet to fight the Reapers."

"Then why is High Admiral Pryl charging here with a wounded Super Star Destroyer and a fleet while Imperial repair assets concentrate on the system?"

The bridge doors hissed open, and Lando spun smoothly with his gun in hand while Guri lunged forward. "Not another move! Guri, or the Doctor dies!"

The droid stopped herself on a bridge railing.

Liara's eyes widened and her hand twitched for her pistol and then stopped.

"Care to explain your Imperial alliance, Doctor?"

"High Admiral Pryl is married to one of my best friends and old comrades in this war. She's helping fight the Reapers, too. Her ships and troops are no threat to the Republic."

"Then why did she just blast through Admiral Ackbar's Core Fleet and destroy three Mon Cals with most of their crews?"

Liara's eyes widened fractionally, but then she shrugged. "I know Tanda, and more to the point, I know Tali. Because you tried to stop them from getting here, and stop them from leaving. That's it."

"I wish I could believe it."

"You're going to have to. You're kind of outnumbered right now."

"This isn't over as long as I've got a gun in my hand, Doctor." _Han, old buddy, you better have gotten that message..._

"As an old Earth song says, General, you've got to know when to fold 'em, you've got to know when to hold 'em, you've got to know when to walk away, and you've gotta know when to run," Liara let a smile trace her lips, a very cold one. "I recommend you take the Gambler's advice. It's time to walk away."

The bridge screen flared. Guri's eyes flicked toward it, and even the HRD's face brightened at the screen. "Excellent timing, Doctor. _Lusankya_ has just arrived."

Liara's expression flickered to more of a smirk. "As I said, General."

Then a voice that was not at all Tanda's boomed over the open comm. "This is Grand Moff Ardus Kaine aboard the Pentastar Alignment Forces _Reaper_. All ships in the system stand down and prepare to be boarded!"

Lando very calmly and very deliberately holstered his blaster. "I would say, Doctor, you've got a bigger problem on your hands."


	91. Chapter 90

"These ships are loyal to Grand Moff Tanda Pryl and Oversector Far Outer," a voice echoed, run through a vocoder and recognisable as Quarian. "I am Admiral Zaal'Koris and we will not surrender nor permit ourselves to be boarded and will execute our orders for the Grand Moff."

"Grand Moff or High Admiral? Can she make up her mind!? The disappearance of _Captain_ Tanda Pryl and her return, followed now by the disappearance of Director Isard, implies plenty of scheming and no legitimacy. Where were you made an Admiral, Zaal'Koris?" As Kaine spoke, his fleet—and it was not small—was moving in position to encircle the reinforcements and the dreadnoughts. The Gree ship sat quietly in the midst of it, giving no indications of caring that it was about to be at the heart of a battle.

"In my fleet, confirmed by my commander, just as the rank of High Admiral was for the Grand Moff," Zaal'Koris answered without rising to the bait. "This is not Pentastar. Fall back to your own territories, Grand Moff Kaine."

"Quite the declaration from a man with twenty green ships." The channel blinked off, and the Pentastar Alignment forces moved in.

Liara looked to Lando. "General, if you want to be useful, get out of here. They're jamming us across the entire fleet spectrum. Escape past the grav wells on _Lady Luck_ before we're too deep in them for you to work your way out in a timely fashion. Contact Tanda, and warn her. If you don't trust us, the Rebellion loses nothing—two Imperial warlords with Executors hammering each other to pieces is in your best interests. But Kaine is much the stronger, and if he gets the drop on her... Do you want Kaine to end up with _two_ Executors?"

Lando's face twisted into a grim expression. "And what about the Katana Fleet?"

"You'll get paid. I..."

"Imperials sure do like changing deals." The General and Baron sighed, shook his head—in the affirmative. "All right, but you're not going to last long enough against that Super Star Destroyer."

"It might be your turn to be wrong, General," Guri observed tartly, and pointed.

Lando followed her gaze to the screen, and watched as the Gree ship moved into combat formation. Then, suddenly, the smallest waver across the stars, and a _Enforcer_ -class picket cruiser bent and twisted amidships with horrifying ferocity.

Liara recognised it as the same weapon that the Gree ship in her home galaxy had used to smash Reapers. And saw, too, the incredible testament to the power of Imperial ships in the fact that she was still alive afterwards. Lamed, with her back bent and possibly broken, but still under power. The ship nonetheless fell back, _hors d'combat_ , and she could've almost sworn that the entire Pentastar fleet hesitated for a moment in the face of it.

Then the starfighters started to race in, and the battle was joined. Liara held that terrible visage for a moment, another war, here, so far from the one she needed to fight. _I'll go through the fires of hell to get to Shepard_. And that, was that.

"You'd better go, General, if you plan to make it out."

"I don't think anyone's ever seen a Gree ship in combat for thousands of years. It's one hell of a sight to behold, and nobody's going to believe it, especially when I tell them I was standing on the bridge of a Katana fleet dreadnought when it happened."

"That wasn't what I said. It is a fireworks show, but a lot of brave Quarians are about to die for the sake of getting this Task Force through, and I need your help in making sure that it _gets_ through."

"If you insist," Lando bowed slightly and flared his cape, though his look betrayed his own hurt at the implied callousness. "Liara, I do wish you luck, because you're going to need it. I'll get your Imperial Admiral to you—on time." With that, he turned and strode from the dreadnought's bridge.

Guri brought up the tactical holoplot. "They're only sending a few Star Destroyers at range to support the starfighters against us. Most of the fleet is positioning itself to ambush Admiral Pryl along the most likely vectors for her arrival. They actually haven't brought the interdiction fields up yet, most likely to avoid giving warning to the Admiral. Should we alert Lando?"

"He'll know quick enough, and know the significance of that, too. Kaine is expecting to be able to surprise Tanda. We're going to surprise _him_." As she spoke, the ship under their feet began to move with nobody operating the controls. The Quarians on the other Dreadnought had activated her slave rig. A moment later, ranging shots from the turbolasers began, while as a flicker on the edge of the hologram, _Lady Luck_ slipped from the hangar.

Gillian stepped up to the bridge and quietly took a position at the comms console before speaking. "Are we going to be able to hold out long enough for Tanda to break the trap?"

"A little of Shepard's luck has rubbed off on me over the years. Of course we are."

-

"So Grand Moff Kaine is there with _Reaper_ and thirty star destroyers?"

"And six interdictors and sixty picket cruisers," the Rebel General confirmed, the dryness in his voice conveyed through the hologram. "You've got something of a problem on your hand. But they don't have the interdiction fields up. They're positioned to engulf you on your approach vector, and bring up the fields to finish the job. Kaine probably expects most of your sailors to defect at that point."

"Thank you. Do you have an up-to-date starchart?"

"It's being sent now. So about those dreadnoughts..."

Tanda jerked a shoulder toward the blonde woman standing behind her. "Bureau Chief Nyroska will set you up with a suitable payment."

"I'll believe it when I see it, Admiral. Imperials like changing deals on you."

"My mother is a Commenorean merchant factor, I don't want to give the wrong impression to people about the family name."

"Good luck, Admiral."

Tanda turned away as the hologram disappeared. "Contact him and get him his money, Bureau Chief."

"We're going to keep our word?"

"We have no more use for it," Tanda answered preemptorily, watching as Tali brought up the holographic projection of the Asation system.

"Imperial Intelligence might..."

"I need to work fast, and Imperial Intelligence, and the Empire, and everything here, are dead. And if I don't get my game plan down, so are we."

"Right." Nyroska spun on her heel and strode away.

The two suited women exchanged a glance in her wake. As she left, Tali gently cleared her throat. "Tanda, I think there's someone more experienced with operational planning that we should trust to bring into this."

"Tali...?"

"One of our prisoners."

"Tali, we don't have much time..."

"He's had to think on his feet in the past." She folded her hands behind herself and looked a bit sheepish.

Tanda jerked her head. "All right. Bring him up."

She leaned in against the rail around the main holoprojector, looking at Asation and the disposition of Kaine's ships. With a Gree ship on her side, she could make a fight of it, certainly. But nothing would be left against the Reapers. Tanda needed a way to beat Kaine— _cleanly_.

The old man who arrived was impossibly thin, though the robes he wore were again fine, his white beard washed. Eyes dim, he looked so beaten down. But he had survived.

Tanda felt a burning shame at the condition of such a great hero of Commenor, and at herself for letting Isard escape. The suffering had been burned into every pore of the man's body. And the monster presently playing with bank accounts had been responsible.

 _Well, ultimately, the Emperor you served was responsible._ She shuffled on her feet. "General Dodonna."

"Admiral Pryl. I don't know why Commander Tali'Zorah thinks she is going to get me to help you, but she's been explaining some of what's going on."

The Quarian woman shifted awkwardly. "Well, General, our enemies are other Imperials... And they're going to win handily if we don't change the odds somehow."

"In short, you can hold out hope for your advice creating a slugfest that destroys both of us," Tanda offered shamefully. "But I admit, General, there is another great war we are traveling to, where many p.."

"Yes, as I said, Tali'Zorah was explaining it. I am just ... Asation?" He was looking at the hologram.

"That's so, General. Grand Moff Ardus Kaine's taskforce, under _Reaper_ , with six interdictors."

"Tarkin's replacement."

"You did get Tarkin pretty good," Tanda replied with a cough echoing on her voice. "They don't have their grav wells up yet because they don't know we've been warned about their presence. I want to knock the interdictors out first so that I control the tempo of the battle, and can get my fleet safely to the hyperspace tractor."

"The Interdictors have their backs to the planet. You'll want to think like a blockade runner trying to get to the surface if you want to close with them, not like a Fleet Admiral," he said, after a long pause.

Tanda shook her head. "I could come in and let Asation's grav well pull us out on the far side, but by the time we executed a powered orbit, Kaine would have repositioned his flanking forces to cut us off."

"Go through the planet's atmosphere," Dodonna replied in a voice deceptively smooth. "Your ships are quite capable of planing across the upper layers. Come up under the Interdictors."

Tanda started. Glanced at Dodonna. And slowly smiled under her faceplate. "I hope the Gree can't find me to send a bill for the environmental clean-up. Commander Tali'Zorah, stand by to adjust our course. We're going to come around in an arc to the far side of the planet. Now, General Dodonna, they _will_ be able to detect us through neutrino penetration of the planet as a byproduct of our drive tails. But only if they know what they're looking for."

Dodonna snorted. "Battle is uncertain. Deal with it."

Tanda's laughter was almost hysterical "Quite. Here, let me get you kaff." She stepped away, herself, to the dispenser at the back of the bridge, returning with a bulb for herself.

"The suit brought you a sense of perspective missing to most Imperial officers, did it not?"

"You might say that," she answered. "It was mostly Tali, though. I'm... I don't really know what to call myself anymore. Not a Rebel. But... A Revolutionary. This other galaxy is... Barren, but it can grow again. A new civilisation, founded from elements of the local people, from the human homeworld, and from us."

"And what will that civilisation be like, Admiral?"

"Liberty. Less democracy than you were fighting for. But... Liberty."

"The very opposite of what you strove for under the Empire," he answered gruffly with his mug in his hands, turning back to the holoplot as the fleet competed re-orienting on the final approach vector.

"People change. I changed," Tanda answered as she walked back to the holoplot. "...Didn't you?"

Jan Dodonna smiled. "Why yes, I did."

"Tali, order the fleet to stand by. We're going to 'cut the cloud' and come in through the atmosphere. All batteries, all ships, are to concentrate on the enemy interdictors from the moment they have the range and bearing."

The countdown timers ticked away as they waited for the alarms to chime and signal the reversion from hyperspace. They had been timed to activate a microsecond after reaching the planet's grav-well, in case the computation of the planet's position was somewhat off. But the lurch should, in principle, be starting at the same perceptible instant as the alarms.

"She isn't going to like the jolt in her condition," Tali mutterd as she turned from omnitool to console and back, seeming to never run out of tasks with the _Lusankya_ held together by the desperate cleverness of Quarians.

"Just this once, Tali. Promise."

"That is a terrible promise to make. You will never be able to keep it, so I will absolve you of it right now, Tanda." She exchanged a glance with her wife, knowing too much the enormous burden that would soon fall upon this nineteen kilometre pile of deferred maintenance that had become the only hope of her galaxy, people, and friends.

Then Tanda glanced up to the timer. "All hands, Condition One, Action Stations, Action Stations!"

"Action stations!" The cry was repeated by Lieutenant Waroen, and then down the chain.

"Action stations, action stations, all hands man your action stations! This is not a drill, all hands man your action stations!"

All through the ship, with morale high after the victory over the Rebel fleet, they would charge to their stations, pounding across the deck, releasing safeties on the guns and charging them, closing hatches and powering up emergency gear and systems. Across the fleet, they prepared for battle... Battle against their own.

Tanda activated the comms. "All hands, loyals, this is not what we came to do. I assure you I will inform Grand Moff Kaine that if he stands aside, there will be no further prosecution of this little vendetta or feud. We have a plan to force our way through, and that is exactly what we are going to do. Nothing more or less. The future is in our hands, and I ask you to reach out for it with me. That is all."

She turned toward the front of the bridge, and braced herself. The countdown buzzer for reversion sounded above the klaxons, and the screaming rose up through the shuddering deckplates as the hyperdrive motivator cut out and they snapped clear of the mottle of hyperspace with a hammer in _Lusankya_ 's gut, Tali reaching out beside her to keep Dodonna on his feet as Asation loomed up before them.

And then, their engines took over at full power and punched them straight into the atmosphere, cutting their course toward the far side of the planet and Kaine's fleet. The brilliant force of wedges, one so much greater than the others, hit the atmosphere and with shields at full power, burned into it. Red columns of superheated air stretched as great contrails behind them, the glowing red shield faces reflecting to the surface of the planet below.

"All ships, stand by to launch starfighters!"

The comm crackled with the report from the CBD: "Resolving targets..."

Tanda straightened and worriedly shouted her instruction again. "Go for the interdictors, we want the interdictors first!"

Suddenly, with converging arcs of forward and flank guns ahead, they shot around the stone and surf of the planet and lunged spaceward again, the atmosphere blazing like a nuclear furnace in their wake as they pulled hard for vacuum once again, and as they did, their batteries erupted in train. Aiming for the six interdictors at the core of Kaine's fleet as the Grand Moff frantically tried to come around, a wall of fire went ahead of the ships emerging from the planet's atmosphere, and slammed right into their weakest arcs.

Rising on columns of atmospheric fire, Tanda's fleet blazed from Asation, and as they did, the Interdictors were already burning. Immobilizer 418s were not remotely a match for the main batteries of an _Executor_ and that many supporting Star Destroyers, and there were no ships in place, in time, to interpose and cover them. Kaine's grav wells were dying.

And before her eyes, the Interdictors burning right ahead, and _Lusankya_ emerging once more into the blackness of space, there was _Reaper_ , coming about to face them. Tanda sucked in her breath, the Interdictors flashing past as three exploded in a daisy chain of short succession. The others were already _hors d'combat_ , explosions and flaring fire rippling across blackened and pitted hulls, and there were no enemy interdiction fields resolving themselves.

The attack had worked. Kaine couldn't trap them now.

"He seems to have not gotten the message," Tali offered quietly. "We are about to..."

"Shift fire, the target is _Reaper_!"

A moment later, their luck ran out, and a wall of super-heavy turbolaser bolts slammed into _Lusankya_ 's shields, and the helm veered to starboard as _Reaper_ did, too. Both helmsmen, veterans of the same navy, flinching according to the same rules of the road... Whilst thousands of the biggest cannons mounted on warships pounded back into their mounts again and again, thunder in a stacco tempo through the deckplates, two great Super Star Destroyers hammering at each other with not a single gun left out or held back, starting to circle as the two Imperial fleets mingled around them and Asation's atmosphere glowed to their stern from the aftereffects of the drive tails.


	92. Chapter 91

The bad news had kept coming as the fight developed, and Tali was still grappling with the latest news about the Katana Fleet that her sensors had given her. Tanda seemed too busy to care, though as Tali watched her from the consoles on which her six fingers danced, she knew that her wife was intensely concerned. She was just fighting the battle the only way she knew—taking the news in stride, and fighting to win.

"Hold velocity, come about planar-ninety." Tanda's voice echoed firmly, feet braced wide on the deck, hands folded behind her back. That course was dead slow, veering somewhat to starboard in orbit until the order was issued and the _Lusankya_ 's thrusters brought her bow back to port. She got there first and maybe, just maybe, even with so little of the Katana Fleet answering the call, she could outmaneouvre Kaine and win the day.

Even as she tried hard to gain the advantage, though, _Reaper_ spun in response. Mercifully, she _was_ slower in reacting to the almost astonishing moment. Kaine hadn't been fighting peer competitors, with Pentastar's reserve to its core territories, ever. Tanda had been fighting them for years now and was quite up to the task. The maneouvre, while simple, forced _Reaper_ to come to a halt and use maneouvring thrusters only to spin about in low orbit of Asation to keep her batteries locked on _Lusankya_. In the meantime, the _Lusankya_ maneouvred at dead-slow on the outside, concentrating as many batteries as possible into the heart of her enemy.

It barely helped. _Reaper_ had a better battery for ship-to-ship engagement, her armour was fully intact, and her shield banks were not jury-rigged. Tali'Zorah worked frantically to keep rerouting power with the help of her VIs. She was almost in awe of the battle she were trapped in. Her wife standing calmly forward on the bridge, able to look out the windows without automagnification at the _Reaper_ , crewmen in the pits with a kind of disciplined, silent, but palpably frantic effort working at a hundred tasks simultaneously.

And _Lusankya_ 's turbolasers that she was keeping power supplied to, generating waves of thousands of bolts, any one of which could destroy the Rayya she grew up on with a lucky hit, washing in waves of their enemy. _Reaper_ 's shields lit under the torrent, energy refracting at strange angles, and yet nothing more seemed to happen. Tali had to believe it was different for Reaper's Cheng.

It was certainly different for her. Every cybernetic connection, every VI, two hundred Quarian machinists working under direction. Power failures spreading across the grids, losing shield emitters, switching to backups. Heavy shots from _Reaper_ started to punch through, red dust of highly energetic plasma that had once been armour and vapourised air spreading from hits. The other Super Star Destroyer's batteries were firing just intensely, and massive arrays of explosions apppeared in unison down the flanks of both ships as they pumped their rival full of assault concussion missiles. Flak cannon burst intense balls of plasma in space between the two, intercepting missiles by the hundred and destroying starfighters by the dozen. And yet, for all of that, neither ship was yet severely impacted. Tali's dance of power management was helping to keep that true for _Lusankya_.

This was the battle the _Executor_ -class had been built to fight, and Tali could feel the strange calm from her wife and so many of the officers. The Imperial Starfleet had for various reasons rejected the requirements of counterinsurgency warfare, and lusted for this chance at main battle. The emotional currents behind it had, to some extent, drove their professional pride at killing each other as the warlords fought over the scraps. Her lover and wife was not immune to that feeling now as she ground the heels of her boots into the deckplates and occasionally issued a crisp order through her vocoder that shifted the bow and thrust allocation of the _Lusankya_ to keep the fire intense against _Reaper_.

Even as the bridge crew and Tanda were so confident, Tali grew less so. The cascading failures and the weaker firepower of _Lusankya_ against _Reaper_ were beginning to tell even though Tanda Pryl was unambiguously the better tactical shiphandler. It was for that reason that Tali's glances to the other figure on the bridge grew at once more suspicious and urgent. _Is he satisfied, after all these years in horrible confinement, at seeing the Empire come to this? He must be. But does he want us all dead? Surely he must realise we're different, surely he must not want to die that badly..._

She was about to start forward when a sight caught her eyes, so terrible, so grand, that she couldn't tear her gaze from it even in the midst of her own desperate duties. One of Kaine's ISDs had misjudged its course in the midst of heavy jamming, and was driven by fire from _Avarice_ and _Virulence_ into the killbox between _Reaper_ and _Lusankya_. Tali could only imagine, aghast, that it was _Thunderflare_ , the ship she had thought of as an invincible super-dreadnought, her home, her name, the command of her love.

That nameless ISD before them—nameless to them, not to her dying crew—was being torn apart in the crossfire. Hundreds of detonations raked across the hull every second as she accelerated frantically, trying to pull clear. One Picket Cruiser that had been in close formation for a moment was even less lucky, exploding so suddenly and intensely that it obscured the vision of the stricken ISD for a moment, just a flare of white and spreading plasma and debris still energized and melting as they dispersed.

As the flare of the 600-meter warship, almost a dreadnought in her own right by Milky Way standards, dissipated before them, the ISD, flame spilling from her flanks as her atmosphere vented through huge gashes, her armour turned to plasma spilling across her beam-ends, spun helplessly in the gravity well with her engines flickering while she blocked the two ships from each other. _Reaper_ 's effort to fire around her instead of in her was scarcely more than cursory, though the missiles from the two rival _Executors_ did bother to make the detour, and run once again into the massive wall of flak bursts.

Over Asation, there was suddenly a fire upon the heavens. Tali tore her eyes away and forced her feet to General Dodonna's side as the huge flare of hypermatter going up, the ISD torn into a million pieces of high energy reaction, washed the bridge viewports out in light.

As it faded, she saw the subtle sign of Tanda gripping her gloves together harder, probably until her wrists hurt. "Hold the line!" her wife ordered.

She reached Dodonna's side. "General," she offered softly.

"Commander Tali'Zorah," he answered, more informally and friendlier. Over the past weeks, Tali's efforts to improve the conditions of the prisoners and succeeding in their move to house arrest in quarters had produced a degree of respect between them, and now she needed it.

"We need to get through. And we need this battle to stop. But we've got a problem. Doctor T'Soni summoned the Katana Fleet."

General Dodonna brought up an image of the blue-trimmed dreadnoughts holding the line on the right flank of Tanda's force that had been in the system when she had arrived. "I noticed," he answered, wryly. "What are you thinking of? You don't have that much to worry about. Two hundred _Merselkebir_ dreadnoughts will win the day when the rest arrive. If they do."

"Unfortunately you are already right. There are not two hundred coming. Just another sixteen. I checked the logs. The summons signal was probably interrupted."

"The flagship, meant to control the slave rig, was probably capable of recognising it and locking down the rest."

"Yes," Tali agreed. "That was the risk. The flagship would receive the call at a random time, and be able to realise it was a spoof since the call was supposedly coming _from_ the flagship. Any ship which didn't respond before then wouldn't come then. But I had hoped to get more of them," she added, wryly.

"Then what are you thinking of, Commander Tali'Zorah?"

"I was thinking maybe I could convince the Pentastar Alignment that all two hundred actually were showing up."

A tired, wry smile flickered across the old man's face. "To keep my fellow prisoners alive and send Ardus Kaine to the same hell I gave his mentor? Yes, Commander, there's an old rebel trick for spoofing sensor signals across a group of ships I can show you. But it'll need to be programmed into the cruisers."

"I've brought them out of hyperspace just beyond the system."

"Unfortunately," he frowned, "You're going to need someone on board one of the cruisers."

Tali turned to one of the panels and issued a command override to the comms system. "I can do that."

The screen blinked on, and a dark face with brilliant teeth appeared, staring at the two... "You're that Quarian, and you're... _General Jan Dodonna?_ "

"...Lando Calrissian, the hero of the battle of ThonBoka."

"And a few others," Lando remarked wryly. "Nobody knew you were still alive."

"I thought Corran Horn would have told the Alliance..."

"I've been out of touch lately. Retired after Endor. You're working with Miss Tali'Zorah?"

"I believe her people ended up in the Empire because they didn't know any better and didn't have any options, and that the stories about her galaxy are real," Jan Dodonna answered. "And Pentastar is a pretty good target to take down. Are we going to be getting any help from the All..The New Republic?"

Lando shook his head grimly. "Sorry, General. The _Whelm_ with sixty escorts and Admiral Wermis launched an attack on Alsakan, forcing Admiral Ackbar to respond. We don't know why he suddenly moved after years of sitting there doing nothing, but move he did, and no New Republic fleet is coming."

"Well, I think we can win this battle without them, General." He flashed that look of sure, grandfatherly confidence that had encouraged thousands to fight before when he had served as a soldier of three armies. I want you to board one of the Katana Fleet ships, and this is what you're going to do..."

A violent rocking whipped Tali's eyes around to another readout. The forward shields had failed once again. Tanda was looking at her, and she could feel the urgency in her wife's voice. "I can't win this fight with those shields down, Tali!" She shouted, so informally and with a sudden stress in her voice that the Quarian leapt into action with nary another thought.

 _Dodonna will succeed or fail. Either way, I'm vas Lusankya and I'm the Chief Engineer. I've got a Star Dreadnought to save._

"Once you're done, pull back out, and use your yacht to distribute the signal further, General," Dodonna continued. "This _will_ work..."

-

"Goddess, how could the like of those ships even exist?" Liara jerked to her feet from the command chair on the bridge of her dreadnought.

"I have seen fire in the sky," Gillian whispered softly.

Even in such a terrifying moment as the one before them, when it had looked like _Lusankya_ was being consumed by flame, the moment was so awe-inspiring, in the classic sense, as to shut down feelings of fear or despair. Instead, swirling with plasma and vented air, the bow of the _Lusankya_ a sheet of flame, she drifted through the vast explosive fire of concentrated turbolasers against unshielded armour, and reoriented to cover her unprotected forward surfaces.

While a brief flash of exploding secondary reactors had obscured her, she looked almost completely intact, and she was certainly still fully able to fight. Even thousands of kilometres away, on simple visual images the two _Executor_ -class Star Dreadnoughts were easily visible, wreathed in the emission of ten thousand turbolaser bolts a second. The closer images revealed the furious halo of flak explosions at the discrete level of individual blasts instead of a halo of fire, and the rippling detonations of warheads across shields. Their own battle seemed like a fireworks show by comparison. Every single ship of every single Citadel race would already be dead under those broadsides, and even with her terrible damage forward, _Lusankya_ still seemed to be doggedly hammering _Reaper_ without the slightest slacking of intensity in her fire.

Liara sank back down, breathing hard, and looked at the succinct text message from Tanda:

 **Cannot withdraw in expectation of pursuit. Pentastar forces would seek to destroy the hyperspace tractor on Gree proper to prevent us using it—we could not transit the fleet in time to be sure of success. We must force their withdraw back to Sartinaynian or perish in the attempt.**

 _I am very afraid of your perishing, Grand Moff_ , Liara closed her eyes for a moment, and even in opening them again, feared to see worse damage to the _Lusankya_. Mercifully, the ship was holding her own.

They were scarcely alone, though. Indeed, their own dreadnought was at the heart of heavy fighting. Wings of fighters swept past, proton bombs and mines detonating in their wake as they duelled with each other. A wash of missiles swept into their port shields, and the deck of her autonomous warship shuddered under her. Liara did not fancy command.

Quarians crewing the bridge around her were more used to the idea of handling a dreadnought or great cruiser in action. Liara left the work to them, and the three great droid brains of the ship. Cannon billowing fire, the ship was far more heavily armed than her non-autonomous counterparts, with plenty of extra guns and extra firepower to spare, and the Quarians were making the best of it in the way the droid brains alone could not.

As the murmur of voices rose, though, she glanced around. "Tarra'Nora?"

The lead engineer turned back to her. "Doctor T'Soni. We are rather busy at the moment."

"How bad...?"

"Shields out, and more starfighters and now stormtrooper transports making torpedo runs coming in. Hang on, Doctor."

Liara's eyes widened, and she bit back an oath and brought up the screens which might show her own demise. A phalanx of wicked looking starfighters cut across toward them, and she saw Guri's eyes widen.

"Doctor, those aren't normal Imperial starfighters..."

Suddenly pouring on the power, the thin trefoils, not Defenders but something else, slashed across their defensive batteries with a surprising acceleration that spoofed them out. As they did, two waves of torpedoes leapt from the Stormtrooper transports in coordinated salvoes.

Liara leaned in and held her breath. The only calm person seemed to be Gillian, and for once, Liara thought she might be a little blessed by her affliction.

Then the first wave of torpedoes struck, and nothing happened. For an instant, nothing happened.

Purple arcing pulses leapt through every console, shutting them down and some arcing and exploding. Quarians fell back screaming as their cybernetics were impacted in a few cases. Liara leapt up for Guri's side as the HRD collapsed in what effectively seemed a seizure, just to be delivered an electric shock as she touched her.

The ship went dead around her. Gravity cut out, and Liara felt a helpless disorientation grow as she began to float up from the deck. Comms channels squealed and screamed, and the emergency backups fell back into static.

Deep in the hull, a sharp metallic clang tingled through the deck. Gillian, gripping around the back of a seat in front of her, squirmed. "That was a torpedo hit or a turbolaser hit," she spoke, with a growing sense of fear.

Liara felt it in her voice, too. She could feel ... _something_ in the air. Something that was not at all quite right.

Then a Quarian voice broke into a frantic shout over the comm. "Boarders, boarders! We've been boarded. They're in gravity boots, and..." The call degenerated into a scream.

The scream was cut away with a very familiar snap-hiss, and then the channel went dead. Liara's eyes shot wide open. "Gillian, cut a channel through to _Lusankya_ , Tarra'Nora, help her, do whatever you can, keep broadcasting it for as long as you can."

"Tell them that we've been boarded by Sith."

Tarra'Nora looked to the Asari Maiden sharply. "Shouldn't we be preparing to fight against them?"

"No. Keep broadcasting the message until they get to the bridge..." She trailed off, trembling. "Gillian, if we do anything else... Wait for my signal."

"Understood, Doctor."

"Until they get to the bridge? Doctor, there's hundreds of us..."

"That's never mattered for them before! Hurry! Broadcast! And when they get here... Surrender. If Tali or Tanda get here, we can fight. But without a Jedi, we don't stand a chance."

"Doctor, the comm circuits aren't responding!"

-

"High Admiral, we've lost the port shields. All remaining shield banks are down." Waroen sighed in exhastion. "You maneouvred them right into the planet but we can't do it. They're burning against the atmosphere to hold position and they can overpower our tractors, and they're starting to put solid hits on the hangar bay. If _Black Asp_ goes up..."

Suddenly the steady thrum in the hull of concussion missile firings slipped away, leaving only the deeper drumbeat of recoilling turbolasers. "Magazines exhausted, Admiral!"

"Don't worry, Lieutenant," Tali's voice interrupted in growing confidence. "Nobody worry. High Admiral, we've got help coming in."

"Tali..?" Tanda's voice stretched to querrelousness. Tali knew what it meant. That Tanda was worried about New Republic cruisers driving her own people to defect, or about some wasted hope over the rest of the Katana Fleet.

Ahead of them, they were trying to disrupt as many turbolaser bolts as possible with an absolute wall of flak detonations sweeping the entire planet and _Reaper_ out of view, out of their sight. It wasn't working. The turbolaser bolts kept sweeping through, and for every one they got, three more penetrated the defence and slammed into the twenty-metre thick durasteel and steadily ablated it.

"Plan's being executed now. I've got power routing under control. We will hold that long." Tali's voice surged with her confidence as an engineer. "This _isn't_ an emergency."

"You heard the Cheng. And she's the best in the business!"

"Assuming control over sensors now," Tali reported as she turned back to her console... "Linking with ships in range of jamming burn-through, and... **Echoing**."

Tanda ignored the work, she trusted her wife, she had to. "Elite Wing, cut to sector sixty and make your runs!"

Screened by _Virulence_ , the ISD herself blazing with heavy damage to her ventral flanks but the armour on her reactor still holding, Erisi Dlarit's seventy-odd X-wing starfighters broke clear from the flanks of the Star Destroyer and spun on thrusters straight toward _Reaper_ , having broken up and converged against through the storm of TIEs to gain the position with several sacrificial TIE Fighter squadrons blasted apart to provide cover.

It was the last trick of Tanda's classic shiphandling battle, using her starfighters like cavalry at the decisive moment to turn the tide of an otherwise wasted engagement. She leaned over the pit console herself, watching the spinning tactical projection globe and snapping orders until the last, and then leapt up to the main deck.

"Stand to shift fire on the flak guns."

"New coordinates for flak barrage, Admiral?"

" _GOING IN, ADMIRAL!_ " Dlarit's voice broke over the comms, and Tanda watched as seventy X-wings swept across a field of fire and locked their torpedoes on target.

"Target the flak barrage on _Reaper_."

"Aye, aye, Admiral!" They knew better than to ask questions, now.

The X-wings converged their targeting computers and fired in unison, breaking hard against the wall of flak that came up against the point-blank attack. Then the flak itself erupted in a flare of explosions as, with the range so close, _Lusankya_ 's own flak cannons started knocking out the shots from _Reaper_ 's as they were fired, much too close for the set-points for detonation against the incoming proton torpedo salvo.

"Interposition in four, three.."

"Flak cease fire!" Tanda barked, and the flak batteries of the _Lusankya_ went quiet just in time for the proton torpedo salvo to wash in against the _Reaper_ 's starboard quarter shields, coordinated and perfectly timed against the disruptions, overloading the particle shields and knocking them down.

"Flak, resume fire—directly on _Reaper!_ "

Through the opening in the shield, the flak batteries raked across the unprotected hull of her rival even as _Lusankya_ , with her ray shields down, was protected against a similar attack by still active particle shields. The flak cannon could do nothing against the armour of a Super Star Destroyer, but they could, and they did, start to mission-kill sensors, shield emitters, and manual targeting reversion for cannon of battery. The dorsal hull and cityscape of the rival _Executor_ vanished in a wall of explosions.

Wounded and blinded and already too deep in the planet's gravity well for comfort at null-velocity, _Reaper_ abruptly went to full burn on her drives. Kaine was pulling away to lick his flagship's wounds and prevent her from being mission-killed with sensor blinding.

Tali wasn't even watching as she finished the coordination operation. "It's a go, Lando! Hit the hyperdrives!"

"Here we come, General!" Lando called, his words for the benefit of Dodonna rather than Tali. The microjump took only seconds.

The crew of the _Lusankya_ had not been privy to Tanda's plans, to Liara's plans, and the fight had been much too intense to notice that the Dreadnoughts holding the line when they arrived had been trimmed in the distinctive Judicial blue of the Katana fleet. They were astonished by what happened next, just as astonished as Ardus Kaine.

Tanda raised her right hand as a clinched, gloved fist and pumped the air. "Hail, Lusankya!"

"Friendlies coming in! One hundred and ninety-eight IFFs, heavy jamming, fluctuating contacts... Hells, Admiral, is that the Katana Fleet!?"

"As a matter of fact," Tanda grinned under her faceplate. "It is."

A beautiful shell game of electronics and jamming and IFF codes was being played out by deployed shuttles and fighters and friendly ships, as sixteen became one hundred and ninety-eight. Swirling around _Reaper_ as she pulled away, suddenly hundreds of starfighters burst clear of expected firing arcs, and the lead arc, the only ships that were real, the sixteen dreadnoughts that had followed the summons, opened fire against _Reaper_ 's temporarily defenceless hull.

It looked like the lead of a wall of death, and cautious Grand Moff Ardus Kaine had had enough. He could find another Inquisitor.

Abruptly, _Reaper_ disappeared into hyperspace.

Lieutenant Waroen leapt to his feet. "Admiral, you've won! You've won! They're retreating! Pentastar is retreating!"

The decorum of an Imperial bridge broke down, and pumping fists and leaping at their stations, the cheers of _Lusankya_ 's crew turned into a roar.

Tanda turned back silently and nodded to Jan Dodonna in respect. The old man smiled back.

"That work with the X-wings and flak cannon was old-fashioned small move ship handling, Admiral Pryl. My trick set him running, but you had already regained the momentum by the time it did."

"You are the honour of Commenor, General Dodonna. Kriff anyone who says otherwise."

"I never expected to hear that from an Imperial." He smiled wryly. "Of course, I was one, once. And in another age... I might have called you the future of Commenor."

"Well, I don't know about Commenor anymore, but I've got the Motherworld to save." She opened the intercom from her omnitool. "All ships! All ships! This is the Admiral speaking! Recover starfighters immediately and as soon as your squadrons are secure, _make best speed for the Gree system!_ _ **Operation Sword is commencing NOW!**_ "

"Admiral," Waroen stood to, his face flush with excitement. "Grand Moff Kaine left more than twelve hundred starfighters behind. Most of the commanders have commed in, they're asking for permission to receive pardons and serve you as a Warlord of the Empire."

Tanda drew herself up. Even now, even _now_ , after the shame of Dodonna's abuse, after the horrors of the Emperor and Isard, after the years of the slow burn of the loss of respect for the Empire, that title made her feel flush. _Warlord of the Empire_. "Give them vectors, Lieutenant. Commander Tali'Zorah, transfer weapons power to the primary hyperdrive motivator and set course for Gree Prime. We're going home!"


	93. Chapter 92

With a stream of venting plasma still wreathing her bow, _Lusankya_ arrived at Gree Proper twenty minutes later. Tali had no time to cheer; the damage control list was utterly terrifying and wasn't going to go away without effort. Tanda kept the ship at stations, since the damage was heavy and there was the possibility, however remote, of Pentastar resuming the attack anyway. Slung into their hyperspace bubble were two captured ISDs, disabled in the Asation system and dragged with them. A few Picket cruisers as well. The Captains were already requesting permission to visit; they expected another chance like another Warlord would have given them.

Tanda, in retrospect cringing at her ebullient mood over the title, even if it was quite different from being _a Warlord_ to be _Warlord of the Empire_ (though Zsinj, the matricidal, motherless bastard, had amply demonstrated that the transition was smooth), slunk toward her cabin off the bridge. Dodonna followed.

"Whisky?" Tanda gestured to the bottles as she sank into the chair behind her desk. "Please, sit."

"I'm not sure my liver would take it at this point," Jan Dodonna answered. The blanche on Tanda's face was mostly hidden by her mask.

"I am in an uncomfortable situation, General. I made a deal with the devil. Director Isard doesn't want the prisoners released, and she has been critical to supporting me until this point."

"She is still on board?"

"She is... Still somewhere in the fleet," Tanda answered, letting the hesitation speak for itself. "May I offer some table water? It's from Terra."

Dodonna was silent for a moment, then shrugged. "I am thirsty."

Tanda uncorked the bottle herself, pouring it out to a glass and pushing it over, before picking up her drinking bulb. "You'll see the motherworld of humans soon enough, if there's anything left. I've been running late... The galaxy is a nest of chaos now." She shook her head, dissatisfied with her own excuse.

"It's a nest of chaos in which more people live free every day. What will you do to your own galaxy?"

"It's not our own galaxy, it has its own cultures and customs," Tanda replied, slumped to the right and staring mostly at the desk. "It is not meant to be tied to our galaxy, not politically. It is a new chance for everyone."

"Under your leadership?"

"Initially, under the constitutional principles of a legendary independence revolutionary of a similar colonial region on Terra, centuries ago. His words spoke to me, about the Empire... About the need to break free of it, while being realistic about all that which led to the New Order."

"There was nothing good in it." His eyes regarded Tanda sharply, trying perhaps to see through the suit and its concealment.

"The galaxy was in chaos. Something had to be done. Democracy failed. Decisively, irrefutably. You know, you fought in that war! Honourably, through to the end! It was not the coronation of the Emperor which curdled your blood, it was what he did when the deed was done!" Her words snapped declarative ends to her sentences, but her eyes stayed focused on the ground, or in fact on anything but Dodonna.

"So what would you do?"

"Try to chart a course between one and the other... The federal system, the Liberator said, was too perfect: It requires virtues and talents not our own. So he charted his own system. Well, the same is true for us, today, now. For the Old Republic, and the chaos of this absurd Council I replaced. The Federal system is this perfect representation of the Republic, and look how it just utterly failed at home. How the Council utterly failed here. I need a kludge I can actually make work, while Mon Mothma is busy repeating the mistakes of the past."

"Will you have elections, in your bold new system?"

"Of course, for the Council of Deputies with full franchise, for the People's Tribunes with a restricted franchise. The Senate will be hereditary, and a weighted vote between the people as a whole and the Senate will elect my successor when I die."

"Ah, so no Empress Pryl, then. Just Chancellor for Life." He leaned back with a soft snort.

"President for Life," she answered.

"The title changes, to something more worthy of the Corporate Sector, the powers remain the same..."

"It's a title of old tradition, in the Milky Way humanity. We are different here. Names do matter. They frame concepts. I am grappling with the concepts of these people, I am grappling with my own. I am trying to bring them together, into something new, something vibrant... Something native to this land which will take root and grow strong."

"You may find that your plans are not all so Utopian as you envision. You have left yourself plenty of room to follow the Emperor's course."

"The Emperor was a Sith Lord, General Dodonna. I am not. The Emperor loved nothing but himself, power, immortality. I have a wife and faith in the Goddess."

"The last one of those should inspire no confidence for aliens, though I admit a Contispex Chancellor would not have an alien wife."

"I have my consciences around me to keep me honest." She pushed herself slowly up. An alert had gone through her omnitool. "The conference room?"

"If you insist."

"I am afraid I must." Tanda got up and led the way there, stopping to palm a box as she left her quarters. "Captain Varrscha, Colonel Dlarit, General Calrissian. Admiral Daro'Xen."

"Me last?" Daro'Xen folded her hands. "You are very late, Tanda'Pryl."

"Business before pleasure," Tanda muttered back.

"I'd rather vomit..."

Tanda ignored her for a moment, as Lando tried not to laugh. "Captain Varrscha, you executed the screening mission for Elite Wing at incredible risk to _Virulence_ , and successfully. I promised to make you my right hand, and I meant it. You are now Commodore Varrscha and you will lead a section of two ISDs including _Virulence_ , that you shall remain Captain of. I also had these medals struck on Commenor. The Order of the Liberated Motherworld, with clasp of Swords. You will be the first bearer and Dame Commander of the Order."

"I... Admiral, you make me unworthy, honouring me for the execution of my duty alone," Lakwii trembled.

"No, I do what I should have received myself but never did as a woman in the Imperial service... Well, what we are forming today rectifies that." She stepped on.

"Speaking of which," Tanda continued, now facing Erisi Dlarit. "Colonel Dlarit is hereby promoted to General and I hereby make the second award of the Order of the Liberated Motherworld, with clasp of Swords, for heroism in leading her starfighters."

"Thank you, Admiral," the Thyferran bowed her head as the award was pinned on, always a woman with an eye for the main chance. But her glance to Calrissian was also suspicious. "What's the rebel general doing here for our ceremony?"

"Well, he helped us win the battle. So I'm giving him the award too." She stepped past the shocked Dlarit. "As the third awardee, Baron General Lando Calrissian of the New Republic..." Even saying the words brought a strangled noise from Dlarit, but Varrscha looked on more thoughtfully. "For decisiveness in execution of operational plans in the service of the Liberation of the Motherworld, the order with clasp of Swords."

"I'm afraid it's going to go in a medal box alongside some awards you wouldn't like." Lando's winning smile was well in evidence, though his sharp eyes mostly stole glances to General Dodonna.

"Oh, I consider it quite the filip to at least have fought alongside the man who crushed my soul at Endor," Tanda replied dryly, and stepped back to the table.

"Admiral!" Dlarit took a step forward. "Surely..."

"General, you must realise that we are about to abandon settled space. We are building our own nation, according to the principles that we believe in. We have no time for the grudges of the past. With this act I settle them down. With this act, I forgive the deaths of all of my comrades at Endor, as a military operation altogether very well justified in the hearts of those who executed, and who made the birth of this nation possible. Divine Providence has led us here, and we should honour its workings amongst sapients, acknowledge how it cannot be stopped and how it has altered us irrevocably. My nation will not be based on elevating the settling of accounts to a virtue!"

Dlarit didn't press the point. "Admiral."

"General, Commodore, you are dismissed." Tanda sank into the chair at the head of the table and watched them file out.

"Admiral Daro'Xen, are you ready to activate the hyperspace tractor beam?"

"It has been ready for weeks, Tanda'Pryl. The sooner we bring the fleet through, the better. Essentially all of human space has fallen, as well as all the Turian worlds except Invictus. Furthermore, the Leviathan homeworld has been hit and they are out of communication. Worse still, the Asari are reduced to their fortress worlds and the attacks on Salarian space have begun. You will have to hurry if you intend to prevent the fall of Sur'Kesh. They will come after Rannoch and the Empire after that, and are working their way around toward Omega from the other side of the galaxy. Their forces are much reduced, I think, but there is nothing to oppose them so it doesn't matter."

"We'll disabuse them of that soon enough." She glanced to Lando. "Satisfied you've helped us fight a real war, General?"

"I'll believe it when the fleet leaves, High Admiral. Not a minute before. But I did trust you enough to help out this far. Mostly because of General Dodonna. I think I'll be leaving with him and the other prisoners, now, to let you all be on your way."

"I was expecting you to ask that," Tanda answered with a rather grim sigh.

"She made a deal with Director Isard not to release us," Dodonna spoke softly, looking to Calrissian.

Lando Calrissian's face twisted into an ugly look. "Now, Admiral, you're trying to make something different of yourself and your Imperials. Here's where you can start. Let that bitch suck vacuum and release the prisoners."

"General, one does not start a nation by being faithless to one's allies, no matter how revolting they are." Tanda sank back in the chair at the head of the table, and wished she could be smaller. The days of that, however, had ended decisively. They were her past, her childhood. Now a coalition of great people surrounded her, but they looked to _her_.

"One can't have liberty without justice, either! Admiral, if you really want anything to be different you've got to make a stand!"

Tanda's thoughts shot back to the biography of Bolivar, and she glanced up to meet Lando's eyes. "You're right," she offered, almost hoarsely. "To practice justice is to practice liberty..." She raised her hand and let it fall back. Lifted a single finger to tap at her omnitool. "Commodore Varrscha, please return to the bridge and meet with General Calrissian. I want you to supervise the transfer of the prisoners to the surface of Gree Prime."

"Copy, Admiral. Cancelling my departure slot and coming up immediately!"

Tanda exhaled slowly. "Thank you for your service, General Dodonna."

"I have accomplished my mission." His voice sounded as tired as her's. "My fellow prisoners are being freed. I certainly have no regrets for aiding you, now."

"...So it is, I suppose. General Calrissian, if you could get started I would be much obliged."

"What about General Dodonna?"

"He can go to the surface on Admiral Daro'Xen's shuttle. She needs to bring the hyperspace tractor up and begin transferring the fleet."

"All right then, I'll expect to see him on the surface." He tipped a salute. "Admiral, I really do hope the force is with you, and Lady Luck, too."

"Thank you."

"There is one more thing, though. Did you know Doctor T'Soni has been travelling around with a Human Replica Droid, that was Prince Xizor's Lieutenant and perhaps one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy?"

"No, I didn't, but I don't see how that can be worse than Governor Aria or Miranda Lawson.." She waved a hand. "Thank you for the concern nonetheless, General."

"Well, I'm just wondering, because Liara's been incommunicado since we arrived, and I thought she was your right-hand woman."

"Hrrm? Has she?" Tanda checked her omnitool. "I... Interesting, _Ibutoion_ hasn't been updating her comms. I wonder if they have a problem. Thank you, General, I'll... Check that out."

"You're welcome." Lando turned to leave, and as the doors open, he ducked past an intelligence officer wearing the regular uniform, with the rank squares and cylinders of a Bureau Chief.

Tanda started. " _Dea_..."

"High Admiral Pryl, there is a problem," Nyroska started preemptorily, and then stopped and stared, sharply, at Dodonna. "What is that rebel and traitor doing here?"

"He helped us win the battle against the other rebels and traitors styling themselves the Pentastar Alignment, Bureau Chief. I'll have Admiral Daro'Xen take him away."

"Admiral," Nyroska offered crisply to the Quarian, missing behind the faceplate the woman's bemusement.

Leading the old man, Daro'Xen left, and that left the two women alone. They regarded each other for a very long minute, as if there were a war inside of Nyroska's heart. Tanda's was simply too filled with weariness to bring herself to speak.

"They are traitors to all I have fought for, all I have built, in my entire life, Pryl."

"The beauty about this experiment is that you are going to have the chance to build something new, you know. It's an entire galaxy! An entire vision of the future! Does it not occur to you that you secure your position all the better now with acts of mercy instead of spending your moral and political capital on holding on to the prisoners of a war we have already lost and abandoned for a hope and a vision of the future!?"

"We haven't run out of past yet, Pryl!" Ysanne Isard through the flimsy down on the table and leaned forward, blue eye and blue lens covering her heterochromacity flaring alike. "There was a group of V38s, TIE Phantoms, escorting stealthed Stormtrooper transports, look." She brought the sensor recordings and profiles up.

Tanda leaned forward, feeling a curdled lump form in her stomach.

"The Emperor, Pryl! He's sent people. And they boarded _Ibutoion_. That's Imperial special operations equipment."

"What kind of people?"

"Oh, that's very simple. I was friends with one of the founding servants of the order when I was young. They're from Inquisitorious."

"What is your recommendation, then?"

"Lock the main batteries on that dreadnought and destroy it while you've got the chance. The Emperor himself is not there, they won't be able to stop it."

"Bureau Chief, three hundred innocent Quarians and Doctor Liara T'Soni are on that ship. My allies, my confidantes. I know, I know, that's almost certainly why they chose it, what they saw through the force. A way to get me."

"So subvert it. If you are so committed to building your new way in this Milky Way, you know what you must do."

"Tali and I can take a few Inquisitors."

Isard flushed, in fear and frustration. "You don't know how many there are, and many Jedi thought the same thing!"

"I defeated Carnor Jax with Tali's help—and with your's." She cut Isard off, using her omnitool to open an active line to the _Ibutoion_. "Doctor Liara T'Soni, this is Grand Moff Pryl. Please report to _Lusankya_ , we have important status updates to cover and planning for operations on the return to the Milky Way."

Silence.

"Doctor T'Soni?"

Then, her voice came back, delicate and small. "Grand Moff, this is Doctor T'Soni. We've lost all of our shuttles from damage to the hangar bays. Request permission to dock _Ibutoion_ directly to _Lusankya_."

"Permission granted. I will see you in fifteen minutes." She flipped the channel to the bridge as Isard's eyes widened. "Lieutenant Waroen, summon Commander Tali'Zorah here immediately and begin tractor-docking operations with the Katana Fleet dreadnought _Ibutoion_."

"Understood, Admiral."

Tanda closed the link. "It's time for me to make a stand. If I do not... It's all sand in the wind." She pushed herself up, and the door to the room opened. Tali was standing there, lightsabre clipped on her belt.

"The ship isn't exactly fixing herself," Tali muttered. "But something is _definitely_ wrong." She glared at Isard.

"We are about to be visited by the group I have spent most of my adult life in fear of, Tali. Inquisitorious has been sent by the Emperor. And they have Liara captive."

" _What?!_ How did that happ- no, that's not important right now. How bad is it, and what do we need to do?" _And why is the one_ _ **responsible**_ _for most of this still here!?_

"They're about to dock their dreadnought into the ventral hangar bay. When they come aboard, we're going to have to face them."

"Then I guess there's nothing else to be done but get ready, is there?" Tali's voice had only the slightest hint of a shake to it. "They have important hostages, we don't know how many there are, and they're ready for us. It could be worse. I'm not sure how right now, but it _could_ be worse."

"They will be wearing partial ultrachrome armour and have lightsabres," Isard spoke softly, checking her blasters and fiddling with the controls for a personal shield she had picked up _somewhere_ since the last battle. "Taozin amulets, I doubt you are strong enough to see through those, so you won't know how many there are until they actually arrive. We had better hurry. Do you want any troopers waiting?"

"No," Tanda turned and went to Tali's side. "They'd just get hurt. Come on."

"If the troopers would just get hurt, why am I coming along, exactly?"

"You demonstrated you could survive last time. Do it again." She looked hard at Isard for a moment, and the woman shrugged grimly, and followed.

The bay was being cleared out as the dreadnought drifted into place alongside the _Black Asp_ through the windows below, visible in docking control and growing closer to the latching arms and the umbilicals.

The ship was silent, obedient, unresisting. Just a normal docking operation, except for those in docking control. And those aboard the _Ibutoion_.

"Umbilical connections complete," a droid voice droned over the intercom.

"Come on," Tanda turned and stepped out of central control. With Tali at her side, holding her deactivated lightsabre in her hand, she waited. Isard hung back, and as promised, her senses through the force were wavery and indistinct.

The airlock cycled, and through it strode a brace of Inquisitors, and then another, and another, in partial ultrachrome with zyed-cloth capes, holding lightsabres. They marched with Doctor Liara T'Soni and several Quarians in their midst. Tanda's mouth twitched at seeing Gillian. Liara held stiffly upright as she walked, stormtroopers spilling out behind the group of Inquisitors. _Six_.

"Grand Inquisitor Halmere at your service, Tanda Pryl. I must confess, it is something of a shame with your potential that we didn't discover you sooner. You look quite impressive in that suit, though it's nowhere near as intimidating as your wife's. Tali'Zorah vas Lusankya is it, these days? We do have some room for aliens in the Inquisitorious... Some."

"If you think I would ever serve a Sith Lord, you are the biggest fool who's ever been born, bosh'tet."

"How cute." Halmere ignited his lightsabre... And his eyes went wide as one of his inquisitors suddenly exploded upwards into the air ... A heartbeat later, a second, both pinned in place.

Ysanne Isard responded like a rocket, whipping her blaster out and firing at both helpless, singularity-pinned inquisitors. The other Quarians lunged and spun, using their omnitools to generate blades and attack the stormtroopers around them.

Tanda ignited her lightsabre as her legs were already pumping, charging Halmere, Tali at her heels and crashing into the pack. The remaining four Inquisitors just managed to meet them in time as the Quarian prisoners gave their lives to protect Liara and Gillian long enough for the two to make sure Isard had killed their victims.

Tanda reached out with a gloved hand and send a platoon's worth of stormtroopers flying away as she spun back to face Halmere, blade locking and swiping against her rival's. "You appear to have not accounted for biotics!"

Liara, crackling in rage and power, turned toward another of the Inquisitors, and a hideous scream struck the room as she turned her power in against his mind, ripping through it, Tali blocking his power through the force, his attempt to resist, as suddenly the Asari biotic was free to psionically _flay_ him. Blue lightning ensconed the man's head as Gillian turned back abruptly and joined in.

Tali charged against one of the inquisitors at Tanda's side, drove him back, took a second lightsabre that delivered a glancing blow to her suit, and then met both blades and locked them, fighting two of the junior inquisitors at once while the blood exploding from every orifice of the fourth suggested that he was not going to be making more trouble.

Halmere matched her blade blow for blow, facing Tanda competently even as fear started to creep into his eyes. This was not going as planned.

His opponent resisted the urge to gloat, and facing the Grand Inquisitor, struck and counter-struck, lightsabres and biotics flaring as the squib of blaster shots and screams of stormtroopers being run through echoed into the chaos of the landing bay. They had not accounted for omnitools, either.

"So what if you defeat us?" Halmere snarled with renewed intensity in his voice as he dug his boots against a seam in the deckplates and started to drive Tanda back. "So what!? The Emperor is still there! Master is still there! The Sith will triumph! You are making a great mistake! You could have been His pupil, could have been my equal, could have been part of making the Empire great again! Now you are just another rebel scum!" Each sentence was an explosive tempo of blows, and Tanda, trying to avoid the impulse toward anger and hate, felt herself on the back foot as her blows again, and again, failed to penetrate the armour of the Grand Inquisitor.

But as Gillian and Liara finished the smoking corpse of one Inquisitor, they turned their attention to Tali'Zorah's opponents, and suddenly the Quarian with her lightsabre was at a very decisive advantage indeed.

It was an advantage she took care of smartly as the two Inquisitors were halted momentarily before an immense surge of biotics. They tried to drive them back with their lightsabres, dissipating energy into the force. But they were no full Sith, with no full repetoire of training available to resist the kind of power they faced, unprepared for its intensity and skill, unprepared for two of the strongest living biotics.

Instead, Tali took the breathing room to let her lightsabre clatter, and bring up her shotgun in frantic haste. With booming salvoes she emptied the magazine, hideously disintegrating the unprotected face of one of the Inquisitors. She fell to the deck, dead.

Tali snatched her lightsabre up just in time to block the other once again as he forced his way out of the biotics snarl from Gillian and Liara, both panting in exhaustion from the furious use of their energy and powers. But now she had the advantage, and spun into the wall with slashing blow after blow. She could see out of the corner of her eye that she had to hurry, as Tanda was being driven back with indecent haste by the frantic Halmere and his furious style, that which focused entirely on disarming and disabling Jedi as rapidly as possible.

Suddenly, with a crash of lightsabres, Tanda fell and that look turned triumphant. "Tanda!" Tali shouted, and remembered through the force—not even now, not even at her most desperate, could she lose sight of her duty. She blocked the counterslash from her foe just in time.

And that was exactly the right move, as Gillian, so powerful in her biotics, had squeezed at her energy reserves, and caught Halmere just in time to throw him back and let Tanda rise, the right side of her suit on her torso rent and burnt, smoking flesh and red blood dripping from it, but rising she was, back to her feet, with her lightsabre in hand, tamping at the wound.

"Even when I was a loyal part of the New Order, I knew that I never wanted to be part of Inquisitorious, I feared nothing more than your evil, your possessiveness, your cult. The only thing I didn't know, Halmere, was that the rot went to the top!"

"You will never be free of the Emperor, Tanda Pryl!" He rushed again to the attack... And Tanda's lightsabre struck through his head and finished the duel in a blink of an eye.

Before Tali could even think of offering a chance for him to yield, a blazingly furious Liara T'Soni was on her last opponent. He exploded away from her in a heartbeat as she threw him into durasteel framing hard enough for a sickening crunch to echo across several points of his spine, and he dropped onto the deck, limp.

"I was waiting for someone who could keep them from simply telling us through the force to stop fighting," Liara offered, calmly, through her panting and exhausted.

"So... You... Were..." Tanda agreed, softly, and reached down to pick up a strange communicator from Halmere's belt, blood dripping onto it from her side as she lifted it up.

Tali rushed to embrace her. "Hurry up and do your healing thing, Tanda!"

"It's not that bad..."

The communicator suddenly activated. "My Captain Tanda Pryl... I see you have decided to kill the contingent from Inquisitorious sent to bring you to me."

"... _Sidious_."

"That isn't normally what my servants call me. They call me Master."

"I am not your servant, Darth Sidious."

"But you could be, and then I would send a fleet of World Devastators from the Deep Core to you, strong enough to easily finish the threat that the Reapers pose. You would use them to build an enormous force in the Milky Way, uniting it under my rule. And when the time comes, you would bring it sweeping back through your home galaxy and serve me as the _Leader_ of Inquisitorious, shaped to your own image. Your daughter with Tali'Zorah vas Lusankya would follow in your footsteps, and under my immortal reign, the position would be hereditary to your family. You and your blood have all the power and potential to be worthy of this offer. You have proved it."

Tali glared. "You _bosh'tet_ , your offer's as welcome as a suit breach!"

"Control your wife, Pryl."

"To put it more politely: I think that offer is, as the Terran humans would say, all moonshine," Tanda answered. "False glory, and false promises."

"You are leading to your own destruction. If I choose not to get around to your destruction and that of your creation in the Milky Way while _you_ are alive, your daughters will suffer my wrath. Or serve me willingly. Either one would be a fitting punishment for defiance."

Tanda felt a strange lassitude fill her body. _Is he really ... from this far...?_ "The promises of the Rakatan whispered in my sleep were much the same..."

"But look at the power they gave, Tanda. You will not, however, despite all of that power, be able to defeat the Reapers. They are more powerful than you realise, now. I have forseen it."

"Did you forsee your defeat at Endor as well, Sidious?"

"Though you may have fled like a coward in fear from the Rebels at that battle, I assure you, it was no true challenge to the reign of the Sith!"

"That remains to be seen."

"Tanda, here, I will make the offer easier. Activate the Gree hyperspace tractor. Go through. Reinforcements will follow to help you defeat the Reapers. Light and Dark, Jedi and Sith, none of us want to see those monstrosities continue to exist, or to destroy the homeworld of humanity. I will at least provide help in that regard."

"What do you want for it, Sidious?"

"Tanda, don't even give him the benefit of a reply!" Tali shouted.

"Oh, just the death of the only real traitor in the room with you at the moment. She has killed billions, and she eminently deserves to die anyway. She has betrayed me. Both Light and Dark would be pleased to see her dead. Kill Ysanne Isard, and I will send you help." His voice oozed honey, and Tanda could feel the flashes of power in her weakness.

She turned, and saw the raw terror in Isard's eyes.

"She raped you, Tanda Pryl. You're married to an alien, and she laughed as she created a virus that would melt the organs of aliens and let them die in puddles of their own innards, conscious the entire time. Would you damn humanity's homeworld to destruction merely so that she remains breathing for a few pathetic months until your ultimate defeat? When the Reapers have overcome you she will be a mindless, soulless husk just like all the rest of your followers and all of the sapients in the Milky Way. Killing her now is almost a mercy..."

Tanda, trembling and dripping blood onto the deck, ignited her lightsabre. Isard stiffened with eyes wide, and for a moment, Tanda pitied her.

She dropped the strange comm to the deck, and stabbed the lightsabre through it. It sparked, flared, and died.

And the Emperor's voice seemed to come from nowhere. "Do you think you can dismiss me that easily, Tanda Pryl? If you will not serve me..."

Tanda dropped to the deck in a sudden, violent seizure, her lightsabre deactivating as it clattered to her side.

Tali flipped the comm on her omnitool. "Daro'Xen if you don't activate the hyperspace tractor now, we're not going to ever have a chance to get this fleet home!"

She turned back to her wife and clung to her ferociously, as suddenly, mercifully, the powers of the ancient Gree grabbed them, and flung them at last beyond the grip of the Dark Lord, beyond the limits of the Empire, not just physically, but morally. Tali's bleeding, bloody wife had broken the cord in her mind. The revolution had been consummated.

Now it was time to win the war.


	94. Chapter 93

"Admiral, I wasn't able to recover the shuttles," Lakwii braced herself rigidly at attention, staring at Tanda's bacta tank. "G-General Calrissian got the first wave clear, but when we immediately jumped there was no chance for another, let alone the recovery."

"I understand," the vocoder echoed. "Work with Captain Tali'Zorah to alter force dispositions appropriately. Hopefully Admiral Daro'Xen will be able to recover the crews."

"She is not, Admiral," Lakwii steeled herself. "She has already reported her arrival in this galaxy."

"If necessary, Admiral Daro'Xen can return to our home galaxy..."

"No, Admiral. It appears Gree Prime came under attack by _Reaper_ and Pentastar shortly after we fled the galaxy."

"Covering his tracks..."

"Admiral?"

"Nothing. Have the remaining prisoners assessed. Inform them of the circumstances in this galaxy. Inform them that they are all pardoned, however, it would be wise to volunteer for military service."

"I understand. Will I be able to return to _Virulence_ when this detached duty is completed?"

"Yes, Captain. You are not being punished. You contended against forces you could not understand in trying to execute your mission. Let us leave it at that."

"Thank you, Admiral. I will..."

"Try better next time? You performed excellently. Most people would have not gotten those shuttles off at all."

"Of course." She swallowed, staring again at the tank which confined Tanda.

"I called you my right hand, and I meant it. Put together the plan of operation for the fleet at Sur'Kesh as well. The demands are high, but my confidence is absolute. You are dismissed."

"Admiral!" She saluted crisply and spun to leave the medical bay.

The fleet rendezvous followed soon enough. There were forty Geth dreadnoughts, and three human, six Asari, six Turian. A sad bevy of two thousand ships surrounded them. There was the bulk of the upgraded Quarian fleet, three thousand ships present, another forty-five thousand back at Mils and the hidden colony, or at Rannoch with the rest of the Geth fleet, another twenty dreadnoughts un-upgraded.

 _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ and _Bombard_ were all absent, undergoing as best of repair at Mils as possible without compromising their ability to act at least as static guardships of the system. Daro'Xen's _Braka'torja_ was present, however. And even the great Gree ship... Disappeared into the shadow of what arrived.

Drifting, gently, entire dozens of native dreadnoughts disappeared into her shadow. _Lusankya_. Behind her: Seven ISDs, 2 VSD, 20 dreadnoughts, 3 Enforcer-class picket ships, 2 interdictors, 6 _Strike_ -class cruisers, 7 _Carrack_ -class cruisers, 3 Nebulon-B frigates, 3 Alderaanian War Cruisers, twenty-nine corvettes of various types. The Evakmars and the mobile deepdocks, the KDY repair ships and all the other assets Tanda and Isard had managed to strip.

One Lambda shuttle rose confidently from the surface with Daro'Xen's reporting marks, going in ahead of the rest of the shuttles from the other commands of the fleet, utterly submerged into the staggering scale of the force before them. It was belied by the reality that in fact even with the Quarian draughts that had met them at Asation, the ships were 50% crewed at best. The Katana fleet vessels and Alderaanian War Cruisers could at least fake being crewed to the point of combat operations, but the slave rig controls on _Lusankya_ further pressed Tali'Zorah to the limit.

As the shuttles converged, more shuttles and troop transports, barges and assault craft, began to convey volunteers from Commenor and stormtroopers from Carida, toward the undercrewed ships, in a few cases with KDY, Sienar or Loronar delivery crews aboard who would now be figuring out that they were not coming home.

By the time that Daro'Xen arrived, Tanda was out of the bacta tank, though for now, back in her suit. Her wounds were still serious, and she had not yet had the time, nor the energy, to attempt to heal herself. But Tanda, and Tali'Zorah at her side, were both surprised by the figure that was at Daro'Xen's side.

"General Dodonna," Tali offered politely after a moment. "You..."

"Under attack by the Empire, I took the only route of escape open to me. Admiral Daro'Xen kindly obliged, Commander."

"Oh. Yes, I wouldn't want to go back either."

"Precisely," Dodonna remarked dryly, and looked to Tanda. "All things being equal, could you use a hand at Sur'Kesh, Admiral?" The incredible dignity of the man after so many years of confinement shone brilliantly in his countenance, and that he was a natural leader, any would admit.

Tanda rose and reached out her hand to take his. "I'll be glad to have you coordinating starfighter operations, General Dodonna. We're all in this together, now."

"For your republic, even if it is a poor one," he answered levelly.

"That, let's leave to the history books, General," she answered. "Come on, we're about to have Primarchs and Matriarchs and Admirals all descending us, and we're going to have to settle this quickly. We're receiving reports of Sur'Kesh already being under heavy bombardment, an attempt to breach what work the Salarians were able to finish on a planetary shield."

"Did they finish one?"

"Unfortunately, the planetary shields we were able to build here are crude simulcras of one back home, and can actually be overwhelmed by sufficiently concentrated starship fire..."

"Unfortunate, indeed," Dodonna answered. His mind, though, seemed a sponge of information even at his age.

Tanda hoped she would live long enough to have the chance at being the same. Before them, in the conference room, the Admirals, the representatives of the galaxy, were assembling. She went straight for one of the, the slight, dark, curly-haired woman...

"Admiral Shepard."

"Grand Moff Pryl," Hannah looked up. "You came back. And with the miracle you promised."

"Too late, I am afraid..."

"No time for that one, Tanda!" Hannah waved her hand. "If I can liberate Earth..." She trailed off as she saw Liara arrive, and walked quickly to the Asari woman's side, embracing her.

Tanda turned away, and walked to the head of the table. Adrien Victus' eyes were on her as she walked.

"Rather late, Grand Moff. Admiral Shepard may be forgiving, but my people do wonder about it."

"I've been closing up loose ends necessary to get this fleet out," Tanda answered. "The break was decisive. I do not answer to back home anymore: The Milky Way will deal with its own messes, fight its own wars. We have our unity, and we have _Lusankya_. We do not need more."

"Strong words, Pryl. I will admit you surely have the gripping hand with your _Lusankya_ ," Victus answered coldly. "But one could also conclude that you are going to try and rule everything yourself."

"We do need a central leader," Tanda answered. "But that's necessary for the liberation struggle. The government afterwards will be constitutional."

"What title do you propose for yourself?" A shaken, half-drubbed Tevos looked up from the end of the table, worn down by the social effects of the war around her.

"President of the Liberation Council."

"What is the liberation council?"

"Those here, plus the presiding Dalatress, Urdnot Wrex if alive on Earth, Miranda Lawson the same."

"I see." Victus glanced to Tevos, and back. "It is true that none of us remain able to act on our own. You will need all the power you can get, Pryl, if you are going to defeat the Reapers. We Turians understand this. How would you put it in human terms?"

"The power to rule by decree for the duration of the emergency," Tanda answered. She sank back into her chair.

"That is what Palpatine asked for at the start of the Clone Wars," Dodonna spoke stiffly, stepping forward.

"I am not the late Emperor," Tanda answered. "I am not tearing down a constitution. I am taking the steps necessary to make it possible for us to write one. The exigencies of circumstance require me to take actions to unify galactic resistance against the Reapers. Mon Mothma consolidated much the same power for the Rebel Alliance, and you know it."

Victus inclined his head. "It's good enough. As I said, we Turians understand this. I endorse Tanda Pryl as President of the Council."

"President of the Council!"

Tanda sank back, listening to her elevation by acclaimation. All things said, it felt like an extremely hollow event. She still had to win. The reassuring feelings her own conflicted ones brought forth from Tali turned her attention to the small detail that remained.

"I do not wish to set an example of grandeur, pomp, and lassitude at this moment," she began. "Let Captain Varrscha come forward and present the plan for the relief of Sur'Kesh. The rest can wait. I have sold you the regime, and the position, on the promise of results, and now, to the galaxy, we will collectively deliver!"

-

Few executions start so dramatically, and yet end so certainly and anti-climactically than the one that they now commenced. Snapping into realspace the _Lusankya_ led a force including the _Braka'torja_ , twenty dreadnoughts and two thousand local ships, the rest either still fitting out their crews or left as guardships against attacks on the few unprotected worlds still held by the Council.

All of their firepower paled in comparison to the firepower of that single Star Dreadnought at the heart of the formation. The Reapers assaulting Sur'Kesh continued in their operations for the moment. There were around five hundred of them, and that was a more than adequate number for the opposition that over the past month since the Second Battle of Terra they had generally encountered.

For a moment, the minds they collectively represented debated the merit of mass hallucination. The force was now a known, but not understood, quantity. Perhaps it was interfering with their sensors on a large scale? The great Old Machines took an inordinate amount of time seeming to ponder such things.

The sapients facing them might say that the Reapers had finally found themselves shocked. _Lusankya_ drifted steadily toward the planet, her engines on minimum thrust, flaunting herself with her coterie of thousands of comparatively tiny escorts. It was all the old confidence of the first Imperial battles against the Reapers come again.

"The Reapers are pulling away from Sur'Kesh," Lieutenant Waroen offered quietly as the holographic display on the bridge updated constantly.

Tanda grimaced at seeing 'Nyroska' and Dodonna so close. The old man would be outraged if he knew. But for the moment, the encounter in the hangar bay was tightly concealed for precisely this reason. Politics.

Both saw the huge size of the Reapers contrasted with their comparatively weak power emissions. And Dodonna, at least, had reviewed and signed off on the plan Varrscha had devised that was about to come into place.

Abruptly, thousands of starfighters, both QEQs and high-end TIE Defenders, Assault Gunboats, TIE Advanced and others, including a wing of X-wings, began to sweep out of hyperspace near the grav limit of Sur'Kesh, diving down toward the atmosphere and attacking groups of Reapers with massed warhead fire. With full resistance on the planet below, they caught the great Reapers between two fires.

As the starfighters swung down in wave after wave of coordinated assaults, the Reapers concluded that was retreat from their disadvantageous position in the gravity well was a requirement. As they left, they left _quickly_. The speed of their egress didn't matter to the targeting sensors of the _Lusankya._

"You may fire when ready, Waroen."

Three sides of turbolaser and ion cannon firepower converged from the arrowhead of black durasteel that represented the _Lusankya_. The power of her cannonade erased a group of three lead Reapers instantly, while two more tumbled off, disabled. "Without the planet to defend them..." It was a subtle point. Firing directly down into a planet would cause enormous collateral damage.

The starfighters had forced the Reapers up where they could be killed. With their jamming easily overcome with the raw power of the targeting sensors on the _Lusankya_ , and those same sensors feeding data to the rest of the fleet, the Reapers were being forced to run a gauntlet in front of them. Point targeting for the massive batteries was fed back by the starfighters, which now pulled back into the atmosphere of Sur'Kesh, reforming there to face the Reapers if they tried to retreat to the planet once more.

"Let them run. Extract the price from them." Tanda stepped forward on the bridge, hands folded behind her back. Her omnitool and her interface with the ship's computers fed the data on the development of the battle directly to her eyes even as she turned away from the holoplot and tried to envision the battle as more than distant flares.

Reduced from those flares, it could be envisioned very simply. It was a massacre of the races. If the Reapers were what they claimed to be, it was genocide, war to the death. What remained of dozens of races reduced to flares of light on the night. Were it not for the suffering wrought into every pore and every gram of their being, ...

Well, it didn't matter. The Reapers were what they were, and this was no worse than the destruction of tombstones. The tombstones erected in mockery by the real murderers, the real butcherers of the races.

"Your Excellency, the Reapers are beginning to flee into FTL," one of the Quarians filling out the bridge crew spoke, sharply. "Despite the lack of access to the Mass Relay."

"We know they can exfiltrate by FTL over deep space without discharge effects," Tanda answered. "It is an acceptable means of eliminating the fighting potential of this force. Are any returning to the planet?"

"Negative, Excellency. The Old Machines are at least smart enough to realise it would delay the inevitable..."

"And fleeing offers some hope of success. Yes, they function as living things," Dodonna observed.

"So it is. Order the starfighters to the pursuit." Tanda turned back to Tali. "I promised you we could do it..."

"Wait until we get to Earth," Tali answered softly, watching the explosions litter the night's horizon before them. The starfighters were firing proton torpedoes into the fantails of the last of the fleeing Reapers. They were fleeing to FTL faster now, in random directions, too, while the spots of exploding hulks still flashed visible light, a few minutes after the actual eradiction.

And then, abruptly, it was over. Across the void, there was only debris, and oculi drones being mopped up by the pursuing fighters. The Reapers had plenty of survivors, and with their odd communications powers, probably already knew about _Lusankya_.

That was inevitable, and Tanda was prepared for it. The battle had ended in fifteen minutes, the pilots' chatter over the comms filled with references to a butchery, a turkey-shoot to the Systems Alliance pilots. An easy game... A more deserving slaughter could not be wrought.

There were fatalities in the starfighter pilot lists, even so. And the luxury of surprise would only last once. Tanda straightened. "Probable destination for fleeing Reapers?"

It took only a moment for Tali to compare the courses. "Generally Sol-ward, Tanda!"

"Order the fleet to recall and re-arm the fighters. We'll strike while the iron is hot. The destination is Palaven."


	95. Chapter 94

It was strange, ghostly, a bit scary, to see Tanda surrounded by blue light. Glowing, nude, encased in blue-white energy. Her suit shed from her body, hands coiled in meditation, blonde hair draped down her back, eyes closed. Thin, pallid, aged, the wicked lines of raised white scars covering terrifying amounts of skin, the tone of the synthflesh of her artificial forearms and hands clearly contrasting with the rest of her body.

Her breath came rhythmically, and steady. The power it belied was almost terrifying. It was the power to heal life. The power to clean the taint of the Reapers from the living.

The power to _make_ life.

Abruptly, her wife's eyes flashed open. They glowed, blue-on-blue, in the lightning. She had promised that now she would heal herself, but ...

"Come to me, Tali, and don't be afraid. I know without my suit there is a new distance between us, but..."

"You bosh'tet, no distance," Tali answered flatly, walking to the edge of the power, kneeling—reaching her hands into it. She gasped, at the feeling arcing along them, the cool power suffused into Tanda's skin. There was one thing in common in the room that they both shared at the moment, tapped off the same system meant for supply hyperbaric chambers on the standard ISD design as it did on the _Lusankya_.

Tali also was not wearing a suit. They embraced, in a moment defined by the power, losing themselves in the connection with the infinite. This wounded galaxy, that had birthed Tali, raised her, given her up from a mother born to live and die on ships, out onto the freedom of Rannoch, the freedom of the Quarian race standing tall.

A bittersweet triumph, wrought in the durasteel of the Kuat Yards.

Under them again, humming and throbbing through the decks, the lifeblood of the great _Lusankya_. Tali's responsibility, and her pride, and her wife's responsibility, and pride, too. In the blur of the moment, she wondered if it would be the heritage of all of their daughters: Captain and Engineer, for a thousand years, three thousand... A future.

Futures, to someone who had spent so long preparing for the Reapers, raised to simply stay alive in the holding pattern of the fleet, fighting the Reapers... Futures were incredible things, magical and special in every way. One could fold a future into one's mind and expand it out at will, into infinite possibilities.

Even now, as the hammer prepared to fall, there was a future. A future that was based on battle, that was tinged in martial glories. A future of danger, and of life. A future they had all cobbled together from the incredible moment of their first meeting.

Entwined, Tali saw life itself come into them. Saw the cells form, saw her wife heal. For her it was invigorating, in the way that it gently exhausted Tanda. A peaceful, wholesome exhaustion, equal to hard work.

It drifted away from her, very slowly, in the same way that Tanda drifted to sleep, and Tali pulled her wife gently into bed, and covered her with covers which would know only bare skin, instead of the suit which she now reverently hung up, that had now kept her wife alive through the hardest years of her life.

And then she put her own on, checked it, reverently, in the same way that she had put away her wife's, and that she had always checked her wife's, like she would check a child's. Glancing back, there was, mercifully, not the same flare of bitterness at thinking the last time her wife had been outside of her suit, save a bacta tank, had been in Isard's grip. Now it was not true. Now it was the two of them together, again, as it was supposed to be.

Together, and so very much more. A galaxy with hope, hope in spite of the Reapers, and hope in spite of the Emperor. She rose, and kissed Tanda one more time before slipping her face-plate on and completing the last of the checks.

Then she cycled through the airlock, and walked down to engineering. The list of continuing repairs was very large, and they were only a few days away from main battle. This was still an uncertain war. But instead of fighting it in fear of the future, they were fighting it in _hope_ of the future they could live in.

As she worked, a figure in black, with blue skin, entered central engineering. Tali's eyes flicked to her, and this, this, finally brought sadness to her heart. Liara had come to talk to her, and that was a heart-sickness she could not quench.

The Asari maiden bore it with a dignity that few could rival. She smiled. "Tali, I just want to make sure that you are well..."

Tali swept her up in a hug. "Liara, if I die tomorrow, I'd only have one regret."

Liara glanced down, and nodded, and smiled sadly. "Perhaps that's so, but Shepard would have come to talk to you before a battle. I can..."

"Only do the same," Tali agreed, and below her mask, smiled sadly.

"So you understand. Now that I think I have become, as she would have said, Captain Ahab. I have lost everything, but perhaps, just perhaps, the defeat of the Reapers remains."

"We _will_ win."

"Then in later years, Tali, I will say I am more fortunate than Captain Ahab."

-

Tali still fumed sometimes at the way that Tanda was treated with more respect when she was out of her suit. With a half cape tossed over a shoulder with a silver clasp and epalauttes, she had completed her transformation, wearing the boards of a Grand Moff that she had claimed. At the worst, she was just another warlord, but Tali didn't think anyone would call her that... As long as she stayed good, and really did implement a constitution.

Most of the images around the table were holograms. Daro'Xen was as charming as ever. "You look like you're about to die, Grand Moff Tanda'Pryl," she offered very dryly. "Perhaps you should return to your suit, while we still need you as a leader."

"I have wasted away to some extent," Tanda agreed with a mirthless grin. "Thank you for the concern, Admiral."

"I am always concerned about our blessed Tali's wife, almost as much about Tali'Zorah vas Lusankya herself," Daro'Xen answered, managing to sound mild.

"She keeps me honest, you mean. Thank you, Admiral. Well, we all have... Something of a road ahead of ourselves. The full strength of the Reapers has only been estimated before. We are shortly going to know it in full, and that's why we went to Palaven first, to weaken it as much as possible. I worry, I do worry, that if we are not judicious in weakening the enemy by parts that we shall have problems dislodging him from Sol. He is clearly willing to tenaciously defend the Citadel."

"You anthropomorphise our decidedly inhuman enemies," Victus remarked as drolly as ever a Turian had managed.

"I give credit to the dead." Tanda reached up and touched her face, as if she remained in awe of being able to do so at all. "At any rate, Primarch, our main objective is the annihilation of as many Reapers as possible. We will not, of course, do so at the expense of Palaven, but..."

"Turians are a sturdier sort of people than Salarians. We will cope with some collateral damage, that's what you mean, right?"

"I might have meant that." She stretched out, and demurred the topic, which the Primarch rightly took as a confirmation... Of a sort. "The tactic we used against the _Reaper_ is not one that the _Reapers_ will be ready for. I aim to come in at the grav limit, and cut through the atmosphere to force them up. In fact, since they're to ground here, _Lusankya_ 's tractors might even drag a few into orbit."

"That's the plan, then? We just undercut the Reapers and... Let them flee?"

"Not let them flee," Dodonna rose with a glint to his face and stepped to the holo-projector. "Or, rather, we will let them flee to the Relay. Then we'll shut it off. The starfighters will turn in and, as it begins to translate Reapers away from the Palaven system, hit it with the stockpile of magpulse torpedoes that the President acquired from the Loronar Works. That will _not_ destroy the relay, but it will trap the Reapers in one place. The _Lusankya_ 's starfighters can pounce to hold them, and then the main body of the fleet will execute a pre-planned microjump to close the range again. The rest of the Reapers will indubitably flee into hyper... Ah, FTL, but in doing so, they will be indefinitely denying themselves as reinforcements to the main body of the Reaper fleet at Sol. It is more than an adequate trade."

"Thank you, General." She glanced to Adrien. "So you see, Primarch, we should actually, in seriousness, manage to avoid major additional casualties on the ground."

"And the Reapers which remain behind?"

"I will land several corps of stormtroopers to aid in clearing the planet with ground troops. My people are quite willing for the risk, and it is one that we will manage and overcome with the copious Walker and hovertank forces that I have now have available from Carida." She tapped the table with a gloved hand. "I trust it is sufficient."

"A problem I am not sure how to approach, humans liberating Palaven. Ah well. We'll deal with it later." The Turian Primarch looked suitably, and grimly, bemused. "The important thing is to finally get the job done."

"We are all in it together, now, Adrien," she answered informally, and perhaps, in a bit of a gesture of her power as the President. But a smile curled to her emaciated lips. "They had not yet landed on Sur'Kesh, so it was a bit of a wash. Tomorrow, I intend to liberate a world they have held since almost the opening hour of the war. That, that is something that nobody has done before. They think they are the Lords of Creation. Tomorrrow we'll have a real chance to challenge them."

"And if it is _judiciously_ used, Madame President," Dodonna looked to her sharply, "Then it will set the stage for the liberation of the Motherworld."

"Spoken like a good Commenorean, and true. Yes, General, we're going to not do anything stupid tomorrow, and our main objective will be keeping them from escaping. The Force be with us."

-

Tanda stood her bridge, with her lightsabre openly clasped to her belt, and her hands behind her back. The reversion to lightspeed was smooth as the repairs to the _Lusankya_ proceeded to their ultimate limit before the resumption of battle. A lesser ship might have jolted at coming out so close to the atmosphere of a planet, but instead brilliant silver light shone into the bridge of the _Lusankya_ , and she dove into the atmosphere with nary a further complaint from the groans of her great frame.

Great engines burning trails across the sky, the brutalised and minimised population of Palaven saw something almost magical above them. _Lusankya_ 's blackened bow pivoted hard upright, and concentrated her fires into the Reapers in orbit while a column of ionic fire projected from her engines toward the surface of the ocean.

Thousands of turbolasers thundered through the hull in unison as she stood on her engine exhausts, Tali precisely balancing the _Executor_ against the pull of gravity. The hot, salty seas of Palaven flashed to steam where the attrited drive tails reached them, and an enormous cloud of superheated matter drifted with the prevailing winds toward the ruined, lifeless cities over which Reapers stood.

As she stood in her place, the main batteries of the _Lusankya_ fired and kept firing. Disappearing into the depths of space, again and again, they chopped handily through the Reapers in orbit as they passed into the firing horizon of the great dreadnought. And one after another, in the uncertain dawn of the terminator line at which she stood, the flares of light that represented dying Reapers began to flash in orbit above.

Tracking sharply across the planetary atmosphere, the main fleet used the immense wall of jamming that the _Lusankya_ was throwing out in other spectra than those occupied by her turbolasers to get the jump on her enemies. The last minute modification of the plan, the last calls, now, the light ships, the modified and upgraded ships from Geth to Quarians, swinging up through the atmosphere.

In their wake, and taking advantage of their passage, assault shuttles and stormtrooper transports were being used for ground attack. They swept in low, and started to pump proton torpedoes and concussion missiles with their directed fires into the Reapers which remained on the ground. Obligingly, under the enormous hammers of a dozen dozen missiles at a time, those great Reapers that could not raise their shields started to fall.

The rest, in growing desperation, lunged skyward. They had their cannons in their tentacles, they had their shields. They were not so weak as the Reapers that Tanda had first fought, in combination between the two advances, and the singularities from the blackstar cannon detonating in the heart of the formations started to repay the damage. But clawing out of the gravity well, they were subjected to enfilading fire from _Lusankya_ , standing like the point of a spear of fire over the planet, enveloping a hemisphere with the range of her guns.

Very few of the grounded Reapers managed to get into orbit. Fewer still succeeded in getting beyond it.

It was strange to stand on the bridge, with a droid bringing her kaff and drinking it, while looking out at the world inverted at a 90-degree angle. That was a kind of posture that a human would never really get used to seeing from her starship. Tanda turned away from the disconcerting image: She needed her eyes, without disorientation, to be purely focused on the tactical picture just as Dodonna was.

It showed her the view of half the world as the fleet swept up into orbit, blossoming like a flower around mid-day and midnight across the flanks of Palaven. Rising up, their thrusters burning hard, the ships of the fleet tore straight into the assembled Reapers in orbit and took them at point-blank, surrounded and yet uniquely positioned to where the Reaper main guns did not effectively bear and the coalition ships could choose their targets.

The Reapers spun back, trying to evade her fire and concentrate against the weaker, more approachable foes, while they concentrated against them, trying to surround that which they had some hope of defeating, by lifting off from the far hemisphere of Palaven. Tanda watched, and waited, as reports and updates on battle-damage from the fleet swept to her, more information than any small staff could properly handle, though the battle computers did an admirable effort at trying to reduce it to the data which humans could optimally synthesize into brilliance.

Tanda nodded quietly to Dodonna, and then gave the order to Waroen. "Full thrust, for exactly fifteen seconds."

"Ahead full!"

The order rang out, and immediately after it, the blazing columns of thrust-jet reached the very bottom of the sea, if only for an instant, as her acceleration peaked and the _Lusankya_ bodily flung herself beyond the confines of the atmosphere. Rising up into deep-space, the next order came as the first was still being executed. "Roll the ship! Central Battery, your orders are to concentrate the fire of all guns at targets of opportunity in turn!"

As she rolled about her keel, _Lusankya_ 's guns thundered one after another in the low-orbital space, and swept across one Reaper after another according to the plan that had been laid out before the commencement of the battle. The fleet was rather abruptly no longer uncovered from the internal arc.

"Reorient the bow by negative one hundred and thirty-five degrees!" She stayed focused on the holoplot, and let others deal with the nausea. They continud to rise even as the point of the Star Dreadnought's bow spun back toward the mid-day line, and as it did, her full concentrated batteries intersected with an already damaged Reaper. Blackstar cannon detonations washed over the great ship's shields, but as they did, the target she chose, abruptly died.

"Rotate about the axis of velocity, one meter per second! Central Battery Director: Shift targets through axis of rotation as your guns bear!"

Spinning so that her guns bore at each of the Reapers trapped in the fighting along the atmosphere's edge in turn, all of the firepower of a hundred ISDs concentrated at each single Reaper in turn, the Star Dreadnought lavished lethal attention upon her foes. Again, a rippling flare of a series of explosions struck across the dark, vanishing into the glow of the planet's atmosphere on one side and becoming huge, brilliant flashes across the night's sky on the other. Every flash, and one of Harbinger's races died.

Above them, the squalid, indefatigable Turian survivors of Palaven watched the flares, then watched them grow. By the dozen! By the hundred! The leaflets fell, and the comms came alive. They were Turians, and with guns, and artillery, and bombs, and knives, and rocks, they attacked.

Liberation!


	96. Chapter 95

"Contract the fleet to defend us during the landing operation," Tanda ordered as the battle continued. One part of the plan which continued to grate was the use of the light ships in close combat while _Lusankya_ , whose shields and armour were so vastly greater, fired at range. It had worked for now, but she was not going to let the casualties mount once again.

"Landing commencing before the operation continues, you're certain, Madame President?" Dodonna looked up.

"I don't want to leave those on the ground fighting without support for very long," she answered, and looked at the holoplot, sharply. "And no matter what, I want those boots on the ground. I think the Reapers will try us for a while. They'll ultimately close in beyond the point at which converging fire can be effected to try and see what they can do."

She walked forward to the edge of the bridge. "General Colonna," Tanda ordered through her omnitool. "Land the landing force."

"Land the landing force! Confirmed, Your Excellency!"

Tanda took a breath. Most of the Stormtroopers and Army Corps here would be hitting combat for the first time, after years of garrison duty on Carida. And around her, too, the halo of light ships was pulling back as she had directed. A circle of ships roughly following a line around the planet now spun and used thrusters and main engines to retreat into a cloud around the _Lusankya_ , the Reapers pursuing them like a coiled spring had been released.

The Reapers were still suffering a stiff power curve against their upgraded rivals. But the situation had further changed by the fact that the Reapers now facing them were all armed with two of the massive ship-to-ship Blackstar cannon each, and fully fitted with ray and particle shielding. The smaller Destroyers were similarly fitted with scaled Blackstar cannon and shields as well, now, a feature that had been mostly lacking before she had left—when the Reapers at most had one cannon, anyway. Now, one was held in their claws on each flank of the big central gun, which Tanda frankly related as slightly _less_ effective than the cannon they were holding, thin power tendrils flexing back to the Reapers themselves.

A jury-rigged improvisation to try and remain relevant in an age when their frail bodies were being annihilated by raw power of higher dimensions they had, in billions of years, never had cause to research. It had served them well enough. The lack of innovation for uncounted years contrasted with it made Tanda wonder, briefly, where they had gotten the idea. It seemed like innovation was beyond them. _Probably Indoctrinated sapients_ , she decided, another black thought for the day.

Confidence on the _Lusankya_ was high. "Hold here. We're about to launch."

 _Lusankya_ 's maneouvring thrusters stabilised her rotation and she settled down as the gleaming dark daggerpoint at the centre of the formation. The fire slacked against individual Reapers, but batteries by section shifted to take dozens under fire simultaneously. As they did, with the _Lusankya_ 's ventral bays facing directly down to the planet, the landing barges began to issue forth, reserve TIEs escorting them.

Tanda paced the bridge as the barges headed to the surface. The same order had sent the assault transport and assault shuttles spinning back toward the surface from their attack runs with warhead launchers. Now they were deploying spacetroopers, Quarian marines, and stormtroopers in large numbers across the landing zones to secure them, using their lasers and warheads for final point-clearing of the LZs. That was only infantry and light scout forces, though, and landing them meant the commitment of heavy forces had to be seen through to keep them from being overwhelmed by counterattacks.

The problem the Reapers had faced before had been straightforward. A hundred times the firepower of an ISD reduced a Reaper to rubble in instants. The sheer power a Star Dreadnought represented, at range, was such that singular Reapers could simply be overwhelmed by concentrated fire, again, and again, with no chance of internal self-repairing mechanisms or shield balancing or recovery. At closer range, they did have a better chance of surviving, but for the moment, Tanda was quite content to use the enormous firepower of _Lusankya_ suppressively, to keep the Reapers off the landing force and to make sure that the Reapers were not tempted into retreating before she was ready to resume a heavy engagement.

Silver Palaven stretched out below, the flashes starting to appear visibly in space... Flashes that represented enormous energy concentrated against the landed Reapers. Tanda was about to increase it. "Shift fire for the ion cannon to the surface. Target all Reapers within the hemisphere outside of the ionic interference range of the LZs. Fire."

She turned back to the holoplot and watched as the targeting indictators lit up, and then the ventral main batteries began to fire. Waves of fat orange bolts disappeared into the planet's atmosphere. The amount of energy bled from them was enormous, and flashes and flares of trails of superheated plasma arced through Palaven and energized the magnetosphere and the Van Allen belts, creating an enormous light display which wreathed the planet in fluxes of red and green light.

Across the entire hemisphere, resistance from the dreadnought and destroyer scale Reapers slacked off as the landing barges plunged into the atmosphere and set up on their approach runs. This was the moment that the hope of an entire world had been concentrated into, and that had seemed like it was steadily slipping away until the very last.

"The landing forces have begun their final approach, Your Excellency!" An Imperial landing took only minutes... The self contained combat forces of the Legions and Divisions could hit the ground simultaneously, the landing barges carrying everything needed for several weeks of combat. One run, one landing, and they would have a force on Palaven which would sweep the planet. That was all it took.

Tanda turned back. She could make out the Reapers through the windows of the bridge. "Concentrate the light ships ventrally and clear our main batteries," she ordered.

The supporting fleets began to descend Z-relative to Palaven into lower orbit. The Reapers turned after them, but sweeping waves of fire from _Lusankya_ crossed them, ion cannon salvoes crippling or disrupting and turbolasers overwhelming shields. It was obvious that there was one threat in the fleet which could wipe out the hundreds of Reaper dreadnoughts over the planet, and they had not really tested _Lusankya_ in battle yet. Hundreds of the giant cuttlefish began to converge on her. They ran into the darts of her turbolaser fire, and they started to die.

-

On the planet below, the Imperial troops started to debouche from their landers. The AT-AT Walkers and hovertanks went first. Moving rapidly in groups of ten to thirty that were spearheading Legions and Divisions, the AT-AT Walkers relied on hovertanks for flank protection and herding opposition into the fire of their guns. Left at maximum firepower, they destroyed even much larger Reaper Dreadnoughts which had been left disabled by _Lusankya_ 's fire-support and unable to generate shields while on the surface anyway, sending the massive corpses toppling into the ground as they were hit with salvo after salvo. Overhead, speeders and supporting fighters joined in the attacks.

The great resilience of the Turian people was revealed in that moment. Little bands of militia formed behind the Imperials, emerging from the hovels and warrens and the forests and the ruins, and their dirty, wounded bodies were flung heedlessly into the attack, to converge with the Imperials, with the faceless lines of Stormtroopers and the masked Army soldiers who represented their liberation.

Columns of red flame rose across the sky generally, the pyres of destroyed cities destroyed again by the turbolaser fire from above, by the warheads detonating above the ruins of the cities which had been occupied by Reapers, whose citizens... Had been reduced to bare organic matter. Now the matter burned, the funeral pyres of the heart of Turian civilisation.

Turian civilisation, burned out, but its people, not destroyed. To Garrus Vakarian, his Shepard gone, the last evacuated from Britain as the fleet retreated—Wrex and Miranda and all the others left to an uncertain fate—it was a passion play of morality. All of his comrades destroyed, missing, slain, or worse; and he might never really know.

But Liara and Tali'Zorah had come through somehow, _somehow_ , **somehow** , and now leading Imperial equipped Turians, even his stoic people were almost ecstactic at seeing their own race among the ranks of their liberators. It was a bittersweet moment. There was victory, but there was no Shepard.

"All of Palaven! All of Palaven is here, General!" Someone shouted. He nodded, and turned back to his command tank.

"That may be." _And if it is, there's almost nothing left_. Garrus was not normally the kind to be lost for words, but there was not even a place for droll humour here.

In the distance, several Imperial walkers advanced, firing. The wind whipped around him, blowing thick black clouds of smoke in bursts and spurts. They were distributing masks, even to the Turians, for all the chemicals and radiation surely on the wind.

The wind whipped stronger, snapping across his vehicles, making the hovertanks sway as their compensators strained to keep them level. People shielded themselves, and some of the emaciated and wounded who had come forward fell. Then the wind died down, just for another gust to come up. Lights, brilliant lights, flashed in the distance, and his helmet visor automatically shielded his eyes.

It was interesting that all of the people knew to shield their eyes, and avert them. They had lived this nightmare for so long that keeping their vision intact against high energy weapons was second nature now. The roars in the background blended together like surf pounding against the sea, and the wind came up again.

The thermals from all of the weapons detonations were literally supercharging the atmosphere. The passage of the enormous ships—much the same. It was a tempest from hell, the tempest of war. Who knew when the planet would have normal weather again... That was just impossible to say, impossible to fathom.

Perhaps when the people had enough food to eat again.

"Orders from General Colonna! He wants us to swing around to Sector Az-besh-49, Sir! A large flanking force of husks is threatening the Fifth Walker Battle-Group and we need to take the heights around the Merey river!"

Garrus shook his head. He'd like to see a future where Palaven didn't have aliens designating fires sectors on it. "It's going to take us twelve hours to get into that position." He wasn't exactly a General, but he had a staff to do those sorts of things for him, while he wondered how he managed to get here.

"Yes, Sir! That's why General Colonna wants us to move out promptly."

"It really means the battle's spreading out," Garrus replied, and turned in. "A good sign. We're getting maneouvring room away from the LZ's." He had become the hierarchy, and he knew it.

Around him, the liberation was happening, though, and it was worth the price paid. The faces of people... _Oh, Shepard, if only you could be the one to get the glory._ He mounted up, as the heavy lasers of a distant brace of AT-AT walkers fired in unison. The sound reached his ears a few seconds later, and then he pulled his mask down as the command track was sealed up and he was breathing purified air again.

The kind of air that the people of Palaven wouldn't know for a long time. Victory came tinged in the acrid, choking breath of smoke. The lives of so many... Just a smudge on the wind.

He strapped into place and started clearing orders from his human Chief of Staff out. The division would start to roll again, across open ground, across burned out and fallow fields. They had objectives to take, and with daylight slipping away, the immense flashes in orbit were helping make the sky bright. The fleets were still fighting.

Then the flashes all abruptly stopped.

-

"General Colonna is confident the landing forces need no further support, Your Excellency."

"Confidence is a virtue in plentiful supply right now," Tanda muttered, arms folded, watching the holoplot. "Well. I imagine that is enough." Around them lay five hundred Reapers, and they could not get the best of her.

There had been more, when the Reapers had come on strong to get in close and concentrate fire against the _Lusankya_. But using her tractors and heavy fire to deter them from closing enough to disrupt their shields, she'd held them to a leisurely stalemate, steadily attriting them while the light ships covered the landing operations of the Army.

Around them was the strewn rubble and wreckage, the smoking, melted, charred remnants of two hundred full-sized Reapers. They had come on in the same old style, and they had been shown off in the same old style. She turned back to Dodonna.

He looked less sanguine than the others. "There is a danger. They could, with even a few more, reach a critical mass of overwhelming us. Particularly if they take advantage of the weakened, damaged shield banks of the bow and the damaged armour there. They've now had plenty of time to analyse the _Lusankya_..."

"Well, that couldn't be helped if we were to make sure the troops landed safely."

"Certainly so," Dodonna agreed. "Nonetheless, you should be aware of it, Madame President. You should be aware of it."

"I'll take that under advisement." She watched as the fleets maneouvred independently, coming into range. With that support, there was much less need to worry about the shields...

"Transfer excess power from shields and tractors and bring up main battery firepower to standard levels."

As the power routing was accomplished in engineering, the full strength of _Lusankya_ 's batteries came alive, and the heavy turbolasers started to crumple and stave through the weak shields of the Reapers that had endured several hours of harassing fire.

Quickly, the Reapers began to realise that trying to advantage of the abrupt opportunity to bring down _Lusankya_ 's shields would put them in an utterly hopeless position as the Coalition fleets approached. Without risking more damage, the battle had clearly become unwinnable, and the Reapers started to pull back.

"Swing ninety degrees Z, forty X, dorsal batteries concentrate on Reapers in turn!"

The _Lusankya_ swung to track them, all fire converging on her enemies 'above' her as the fleets' heavies began to range with medium turbolasers and ion cannon into the fleeing Reapers. The effect was immediate, and as more Reapers started again to explode, the others... Wavered for a moment, elongated, and disappeared.

"FTL in the system, I... Alert General Dlarit to execute the attack!"

"Order transmitted. Reserve fighter wings confirm!"

"Lay in the micro-jump and order the fleet to execute at once."

"Understood, Excellency. Standing by for the jump to lightspeed..."

"Don't stand by, as soon as you have the coordinates, execute."

The ship abruptly lurched beneath their feet, the last course correction occuring even as she accelerated to lightspeed. It made her bones groan, and Tali's voice cut up from the omnitool "Make your helmsman cut that out!"

Tanda smiled. They were in hyperspace for only a mere second, lines spreading back into stars on the far side of the microjump. The tableau of the Reapers spread around them as they returned, leaving the rubble and the flashes on the surface of Palaven, leaving the silver world itself behind, now out into deep space.

The guns of the fleet opened up at once as the ships came to a stop almost the same instant their journey had begun. Sweeping over and engulfing the Reapers, they were caught, bunched up, trying to escape through the Relay.

Through a Relay which was no longer working. They sent out the activation signals, and nothing happened. Indeed, in the split second they had arrived, Tanda had caught sight of the moment. The reserve wings, sweeping in from hyperspace, standing outside of the system, had caught the Relay with part of their small, precious stockpile of magpulse torpedoes. It was in the midst of flinging some of the Reapers across the galaxy, and the strange scattering effect of the radiation they had been turned into was still spreading like a cone in the outer system, with the Relay having shut down in mid-jump.

Tanda tamped two gloved hands together, and watched as her ships took full advantage of the killbox they had formed. "Good work, General," she addressed Dodonna briefly, and then: "L'tenant Waroen, give them every gun! Maximum firepower, I don't want us to let one go we could slay."

"Excellency!"

Arcing around the hulls of the Reapers, Tanda's eyes narrowed as she saw Erisi Dlarit's starfighters in a fight for their lives. Plenty of Oculi drones had been carried along for the ride, and now they were being used as suicide missiles, trying to do whatever damage they could, to any part of her fleet, as the impending doom of materialschlacht seemed to hover over the whole races of the Reapers.

-

Swinging in her wing of X-wings, General Erisi Dlarit had struck ahead of the supporting wings of Gunboats and TIE Defenders respectively, hitting a coordinated salvo of magpulse torpedoes, in the style Rogue Squadron might have—if they'd ever been issued the stocks—but it was their trademark hammer-and-anvil point attack.

Watching the pulse torps knock down something the size of the Relay so easily had been exhilerating for the five seconds until the Oculi Drones were on them. It was at that moment she sorely regretted the lack of the otherwise pathetic triple heavy blaster used as a VI-controlled gun on the tail of a QEQ.

Hooking her X-wing through another turn, Dlarit coordinated her cannon to fire a burst into another of the drones, and killed it like the rest. Of a couple of her pilots had already made ace twice over in the few minutes of fighting they'd already enjoyed against their enemies. "Don't get cocky!" Advice she'd ignored in the past of her own career, but fortunately most of them hadn't been there to see it.

"I said, watch out, don't get cocky, they're on us hard and there's enough to take advantage of mistakes. They don't care about losses!" Jerking the controls hard right she took another _en passant_.

The Coalition Fleet had arrived, and the vast array of points of light stretching out from the physically discernable _Lusankya_ overwhelmed and filled the sky spinning around her as she fought to survive. Then one of the drones plunged in straight for her fighter... And didn't slow down.

Seeing at first just the blur of movement from the corner of her eye, her natural agression saved her. She brought the nose of the X-wing around fast enough that a chip shot of the lasers sent the drone spinning to the side, slamming into her shields in a flash of energy and sparks.

Fighter spinning out of control, droid screaming about the level of damage and the shield overload, she struggled back onto a steady course. Taking brief stock of her surroundings, she saw that she'd lost ten percent of her wing—eight starfighters—and another drone was coming in. "Let the Moff know we've got to pull back or we're going to get butchered here!" She shouted after cuing the open comm.

Of course, many Imperial commanders wouldn't have cared the slightest. She certainly would have obeyed the order, confident in her personal ability to survive, if she had been told to simply hold the line and been denied permission.

Instead the comm crackled and she heard Tanda's voice personally, the voice of a very busy woman with much better things to do.

"You've done your job, get your starfighters out of there, Dlarit."

"Thank you, Excellency!" It was a strange moment, that a personal interest in the survival of the starfighters had been taken... Unlike with the rebels, she didn't think it weak; Tanda was a million lightyears from home and had their motherworld to liberate. She had gotten very far with her cautious strategies and tactics, and unlike most of the cautious, Erisi had come to respect her for it.

For all that, it was still a very... _Imperial_ order. They were not being supported in extricating themselves, just being given permission to retreat.

Whipping her starfighter around, she executed the orders herself. "Gunboats, Elites, shields double-rear, full power for _Lusankya_. Dodge her incoming fire and aim for her bays! Defenders, cover the retreat!"

The Defenders were unquestionably the best choice, high-energy maneouvring to cover the other starfighters as they broke for safety, though Erisi insisted on staying with them at the rear to help, spinning back and firing into drones again and again and then accelerating back toward the retreating main body of her starfighters, pushing the combination of skill and the technical ability at energy management together to the limit.

With a screaming from her frantic droid and a sharp hiss of valving gas from an overpressure condition on one of the fuel tanks, her fighter spun and she knew she'd been hit again, trying to regain control on three engines. That should have left her dangerously far-behind the others, as she at least took advantage of the forced turn at full power to cut through a few more Oculi drones with the surprisingly sharp movement—just to find it so hard to keep the nose straight when she stabilised afterwards.

It didn't, simply because _Lusankya_ had become a much more obtainable goal. For some reason, Tanda had doubled down on her promise. She had brought the Star Dreadnought forward to recover the fighters, even though it opened a chink in the killbox through which the Reapers were now streaming—though it meant being under continuous fire from her broadside guns—to reach open paths to activate their FTL drives, and escape into deep space.

A few minutes later, with the battle still raging, Erisi was aboard _Lusankya_ once again, leaping from her X-wing as it came to a stop in the bay, just in time to avoid the preventative foam hose-down from the emergency response droids. Shaking, she walked past the ranks of her pilots, muttering to herself. "The President really shouldn't have done that..."

Around them, the sounds of battle in the hull of the ship faded away, as she rode the turbolift to the bridge. Unlike their abrupt change of venue from orbit to the Relay, this was the usual end of a battle. Slowly, simply, coming to a halt.

Erisi strode onto the bridge, helmet-bag slung over her shoulder, at the same time Tanda was cancelling the alert.

"Your Excellency, you broke formation to rescue my wings."

"That's so," Tanda glanced back sharply. "You gave me a hundred Reapers with your maneouvre. I wished to repay the favour."

"You may have cost yourself another twenty."

"Possibly." Tanda turned to the side. "General, if you want to be truly great, you will learn how to make people wish to die for you, not be ordered to. I wish an Empire of Virtue, not Terror. Learn that lesson, abandon the other lessons you have learned, and take a step forward into the future. There is room for everyone in it."

"Only if we _win_."

"I count the morale and gratitude of your pilots and the skill I've preserved to be worth twenty Reapers, General. You'll have to trust my assessment is the correct one." She turned back to the bridge windows. "Whatever else you may say about me, I have brought us this far—to the day of the liberation of Palaven."


	97. Chapter 96

The celebrations on Thessia were beyond belief. The towers that had burned during the invasion were blocked off with barricades; the planet gleamed under shields. The first act of Hackett's counterattack remained his legacy, not in the salvation of humanity or the motherworld, but in the salvation of the Asari from Reaper bombardment and blockade. Now, overhead, the great fleet converged, with fresh ISDs, cruisers and dreadnoughts joining them from Rannoch, with Quarian crews making up the fresh draughts required to make them operational.

 _Lusankya_ , now leading _Virulence_ , _Freedom_ (though most of the fleet still referred to her as _Avarice_ , Sair had refused to change the name back), _Reliance_ , _Invidious_ , and the freshly new from KDY Star Destroyer that Tanda, nervously self-conscious, had given a native human name to, in honour of Hackett even if privately she raged at the dead man. _Riachuelo_ honoured his naval service and Brasilian heritage, and the name had plenty of legacy in battle besides. With them. Two VSDs, four Harrowers, nineteen dreadnoughts, four dozen frigates and corvettes. Two thousand Coalition ships swirling around them in ten major fleets, representing a convergence of power never before seen in this galaxy. Most of that power was concentrated in the thirty 'heavies' that swirled around its focus, the ship that the humans of the two surviving Systems Alliance fleets were now calling 'Lucky Lusy' in their typical irreverant fashion.

The _Thunderflare_ and _Stalker_ were not there, nor were the two ISDs captured from Ardus Kaine. All four still needed substantial repair work, which the mobile deepdock was now attempting to provide at the best defended point—with the best industrial support left in this galaxy—over Rannoch, alongside _Bombard_ and several old Harrowers and Vanguards. Of course, in a way that showed their strength, too. Once the repairs were completed, they had a replacement fleet worth four ISDs—and more.

To the Asari, it was like having the Citadel in orbit, and many women looked to the sky through telescopes to make out the features of the huge, scarred dreadnought which represented hope for the galaxy, in such a strange transformation to those who knew its real past. The planet, which had been starving, was now flooded with food from the surviving Asari colonies. The feasting was not insignificant.

The Matriarchs arrived to the main bays of the _Lusankya_ , along with Dalatresses and the fleet Admirals, representing more and more of a delegation of the Liberation Council. A Geth unit, too, and the Admiralty board; the Governor of Ova, too, greeted by General Dodonna with a shake of his hand, talking quietly and occasionally glancing to Tanda, sitting at the head of a raised table with Tali leaning into her, almost in a daze. The great hall prepared for the reception was normally a pilot wing's briefing room.

Bureau Chief Nyroska stepped to the briefing dais, the jaundiced look under her blonde hair occasion for a sort of lazy smirk from Tanda. "Gentlebeings, the State of the Milky Way."

"We have now liberated the core of Council space. Systems Alliance space, the Attican Traverse, and about half of the Terminus Systems regions remain under Reaper occupation. The current operational objective, of course, is to effect the rapid liberation of Terra. It must necessarily be seen as the lynchpin of the Reaper invasion force due to the presence of the Citadel in orbit—and it is certainly the most populous world left under Reaper occupation at present."

"The essential plan of execution is to hit Terra immediately, before the Reapers can draw back more detached forces to reinforce the major fleet they are maintaining at Terra. It is unambiguous that they _also_ regard the Citadel as the point they _must_ defend, and as the point they expect that we must attack. It is the analysis of Imperial Intelligence," Nyroska was still using the term even if they were no longer the Empire, and Tanda expected that it would never change, "that both assumptions are correct: The Reapers must defend the Citadel, as it is critical in some way to their function even if the Catalyst has proved useless. Secondly, we must retake Earth for the legitimacy of the regime."

Tanda smiled vaguely. "She would put it that way," she whispered _sotto voice_ to Tali.

"Of course the bosh'tet would."

"The situation is death's ground," Nyroska ignored the whispers in the room and carried on with a well-projected, clipped voice. "Both sides must obtain victory, both at the same place. These are the classical conditions in warfare requiring a decisive battle. There is no alternative."

"The Liberation of Terra is not merely morally necessary as the largest surviving population under Reaper control, but also that it serves as the key to the liberation of all peoples," Tanda said, rising to her feet. "The Bureau Chief is correct in that sense. We cannot realistically claim a government while Terra is under occupation. So it is my attention to summon a Congress when we have liberated Terra, which will implement the constitutional governance of the Milky Way. The provisional regime and rule by decree will remain in effect until the Congress returns a constitution."

"What shall be the basis of the constitution!?" Several of the Matriarchs asked, almost astonished at it.

"The constitution shall be based on the Bolivarian Tricameralism. We will not replicate the office of Empire, and a Tribunate will have the power to enforce the constitution and be selected at random from the best of society."

"The traditions and local governments of all the peoples shall be respected, under the principle of the autonomy of the nations," she continued. "Operating under these principles, with the democratic election of the lower chamber, a Galactic government will be formed by the Congress." She ignited her lightsabre, and held it over her head in two hands, the blade gleaming before many who had not seen one before. "I will uphold a Republic of Virtue until the day I die. You have my oath, just as you have my oath that I will not rest until Terra is liberated." She deactivated the lightsabre, eyes blinking in the brilliance of the blade.

"If the constitution is to be Republican, then you have the support of the Systems' Alliance!"

Then Adrien Victus rose and added his own support. "The galaxy and our nations are too crippled and ravaged to survive independent. We will lose our technology and sink into barbarism if we try to go it alone now, with no industrial base for anyone. We will all have an equal say in drafting the rule of Law in the Constitution. It will be a more perfect form of the Citadel Council, not something unnatural to our galaxy. I give my unreserved support to Her Excellency the President, Tanda Pryl!"

The shouts drowned out the looks of uncertainty.

Tanda rested her gloved fists on the table, and waited for them to subside. "General Dodonna, Admiral Shala'Raan, Admiral Lindholm, Commodore Varrscha. You will draft the operational plan for a quick, deep-penetration strike directly against Terra without attempting a broad front advance through Systems Alliance space beforehand. We do not have the time, with the situation on Terra unknown, and we certainly do not wish for the Reapers to pull back and concentrate all of their forces. When the plan is ready, since the fleet is ready, we will proceed at once according to it to put it into effect.

"The campaign for Sol begins when you deem us ready. I will meet with those leaders of the Liberation Council and interested parties who have concerns about the constitution, and other political affairs that need resolution, until the operational plan is ready. At that point, I must give my full attention to leading the fleet and implementing the plan. Thank you all, and may the Force be with you."

-

"The Matriarchs aren't happy," Tali would observe after the next few days turned into a parade of petitioners. "Thessia's cities have always been operated as a direct democracy."

"And they still will. But the Sector will be organised and run as part of the Republic, whatever we end up calling it."

"Of all the things I didn't expect, Tanda, that we'd end up the First Couple of the galaxy..."

"It is a government Quarians can feel comfortable with. Humans, too, mostly. The trick is to bring everyone else onboard with it." Tanda glanced up to her wife.

"Well, trying to do that is what I've spent most of the day doing," she added, a bit lamely. "And I'd rather do other things." She reached down into the drawer in the lower part of her desk, and frowned.

"Which apparently includes going to look for my alcohol somewhere else. Did you move it, darling?"

"No, you silly bosh'tet, you can't have anymore!"

"Since when did Quarians have a strain of teetotalism?"

"When we're pregnant, you bosh'tet!" Tali came off as immensely flustered. "Don't act like an idiot."

"I ... Dea, both of us?"

"YES! Feel yourself!"

Tanda sucked in her breath. "So it is. So it is. Tali..."

"It's the moment we've been waiting for across all this time, you promised it to me, and now it's here. We're going to have children. They're going to have Quarian blood and I'll raise them on Rannoch and on Earth, and someday they're going to be beautiful, proud, strong women who will have their portraits taken with their mothers and alone and won't need suits, but will remind the galaxy what we look like under them, and they'll live, and we'll _all live_." She stopped, and then Tali started to heave sobs as she leaned against Tanda.

"...And I want to name the one I'm carrying Atarah."

Tanda reached back and held her wife's hands, gloves through gloves. She suspected she'd never be able to bear not wearing gloves again, herself, after all that had come to pass. And in Tali, too, was the thrilling in the bringing forth of life at the same time as the remarkable sadness over the woman who had started this all.

"Atarah. Crown. It is a good name." She squeezed Tali's hands. "You will teach them to revere their ancestors, and to never tell a lie..."

"And now we've got to win this stupid war, so they really do have a future," Tali whispered.

"Oh, we will win. We will win."

"We will win." Tali clenched her wife's hands. "Promise me, we will win."

"We will win. I promise you, I swear it. We will win. When we go forth to do battle, we will win, and I will not stop until this galaxy is safe for our daughters. I will not stop until this galaxy is safe for Quarians, and I will not stop until this galaxy is safe from Reapers... And I will not stop until this galaxy is safe from the Emperor. It is our galaxy, a new galaxy, a new opportunity, and I will not give it up, or else I will fall into my grave with my hands grasping for another chance to make it right. This I swear."

"Then I know it will come true, Tanda, because I'm not going to let you die."

-

Miranda Lawson had, unlike some of her peers, actually expected to find herself commanding an Army at some point in time. It had seemed like a natural evolution of a Cerberus career, though she certainly hadn't revisited the vision since she had left the service of Cerberus.

Now she was living it. A few tattered Union Jacks were proudly lofted from local buildings and the emaciated skeletons of the living civilians greeted them with ragged cheers. The smoke from the unending fires of London wafted down from the north, and made the air here perpetually acrid. Compared to the relative cleanliness of the sky at Bristol, it was revolting.

Oculi drones hummed in the sky above, and one of the caravan's anti-air laser tanks opened for with the snap-rapid bursts of a quad mount.

"They're getting more aggressive again," Tasiele Shan remarked softly. "This really is going to be a big push, then."

"Yet another story of the cliffs of Dover showing off an invasion, if her plan works. Otherwise, it's going to be hard."

"Possibly impossible, at this point. Our troops are starting to starve, too, let alone the civilians. Even with Irish farmland mostly intact..." Tasiele buried her haggard face in her gloves for a moment.

Somehow, in the wake of the retreat after Hackett's disastrous attempt to use the Catalyst... Well, there had been a Corps of Imperial troops and a huge Krogan Army as well as several corps of Systems Alliance forces landed on Great Britain, and the Quarian Admirals in charge had made sure that their full planetary combat gear including mobile theatre shields and ground-to-space weaponry had been disembarked.

With all of that force landing in the same place, Britain, to support the attack on the beam leading up to the Citadel, they had found themselves in the unique position that even as the fleet had left them trapped on a world occupied by the Reapers... They already effectively destroyed Reaper resistance in _Great Britain_. Miranda, and Tasiele, had done the only thing they could: Finish securing the island and hang on and hope for relief.

They had repelled four attempts by the Reapers to desant on the island so far. This one was different. Abandoning any hope of succeeding at coming in from the air against the Imperial defences, they were preparing to cross the Channel instead.

As the troops rolled down toward Folkestone, the people were evacuating inland. Miranda had hesitated until the last, on account of the inland areas near London being much more destroyed than the sea-coast. But they needed to be gone now, and she pulled them back. The other reason they had hesitated was the one now manifest.

The scene was _horrifying_. It was a voluntary evacuation, but the emaciated people could barely walk. Clad in the rags of good clothes they were a sea of lost humanity. Some bodies were alongside the roads, of the elderly who could not make the evacuation sucessfully, but had tried anyway. There were no resources to be spared for assisting them.

They had given up their food voluntarily to the Army. These were the British, and Miranda Lawson knew a bit about the mettle of her ancestors. After the occupation of London they knew their fate if their island was again overrun. The soldiers in the column—some looked sick—for they were all fighting fit on account of their rations, the rations which had been given up by these people.

An old man dragged himself by a crutch. He held a small Union Jack and waved it up at the armoured personnel carriers heading down to the beach. "Stop 'em on the beaches, lads!"

Tasiele looked sick. "Never forget that this is better than the alternative, and that, we are fighting for the souls of the living..."

Miranda sank back into her acceleration couch and reached up to rub her eyes. "Yeah, I know. But we're not going to be able to keep this up for bloody much longer. We're running out of tibanna gas, Tasiele."

"Well, that's why Shepard is going to do what she's going to. The fuel from the downed shuttles..."

"...One hell of an Infernal Machine," Miranda agreed, softly, seeing the cliffs, seeing the beach towns. Raising her binoculars, and seeing on the far shore, twenty, maybe in the mists, thirty full sized Reapers, standing around, surrounded by a horde of monstrous husks, massing across the channel. "Though I suppose the better description, is a Hellburner."

"Hellburner?" Tasiele glanced across the Channel and turned away.

"Yeah. Old term used at the Siege of Antwerp a few hundred years ago, for a wooden sailing ship filled with gunpowder and stones and a special sort of primitive shaped charge around the gunpowder built out of tombstones sealed with lead. The one with a clockwork mechanism, a time bomb, went off successfully – the first weapon of mass destruction in Earth's history. It's pretty similar to what we're about to do."

"To what Shepard is about to do."

"Don't call her that, I've said that before!" Miranda snapped, and then, gritting her teeth, swung down from the command track. "Please. She hasn't earned it."

"It's her surname."

Miranda glanced sharply at her. "I still can't believe Shepard pushed her into the escape pod alongside you and Kasumi and stayed behind. You and Kasumi, sure. But herself? We needed her! She should have gone. Not, not..." Her words trailed off, and she looked at the woman approaching them.

"Not her clone." She turned away, and started down the ranks of the troops before clone-Shepard could arrive, pitching her voice, leaving Tasiele behind to deal with the woman who wasn't _her_ Shepard, and yet in some inestimable, unforgiveable way, _was_.

"Lads! This is where we fight! This island has held evil off these beaches before! And you have shown them off before! So here we have it again, right? Show them off in the same old way! We're going to give them Hell!" _And someday, I hope, at least, that I may bury my friend..._


	98. The Second Katha

**Second Katha**

As the fleet stood coiled like a projectile over Thessia, ready to strike, the plan was presented and approved by Tanda for the action. Dodonna and Varrscha completed the presentation, then Lakwii retired to her command. Seeing all was as ready as it could be, Tanda gave them the order for the ships to make the jump to lightspeed.

The door chime trilled on her office, and Tanda, working late on the various administrative documentation of an Imperial fleet, took it. Her mind was mostly preoccupied with her wife, and with the children growing within them. Her head snapped up when she saw who it was, though, the door closing behind her.

"Nyroska."

"Tanda, kindly call me by my name right now."

"I told you it's best to forget that name."

"Isards make their own luck, Tanda," the woman answered, and moved to sit without asking.

"Your uncle died in the Stark Hyperspace War just like mine did, didn't he?" Tanda replied neutrally, almost changing the subject.

"...Yes, he did. What are you getting at, Tanda?" Her eyes narrowed.

"Oh, just trying to find some common ground. What is this about?"

"Dlarit is worried that you are letting... The sentimentality of the Jedi influence your tactical and operational decisions. In the case she referenced, it may well have saved her life. But she still doubts it was the right thing to do."

"I think, Ysanne, that Erisi Dlarit is simply making that fundamental mistake of an Imperial officer, that fear is an effective motivator. Fear was never an effective motivator, but when you think back to the Empire, you see nothing else being used."

"Fear served me very well quite often."

"Oh, I'm sure it did," Tanda yawned. "It served you by making people backbite, betray each other, work harder at pointless tasks, and shut up when they knew their superiors were making mistakes. You know, Ysanne, that's the problem. That's a good way to keep Palpatine's Empire going. A Sith Empire. An Empire of Fear. Republic or Empire doesn't really matter, those are just names which can change according to the perceptions of the people. It is the institutions that matter. I am building, here, institutions which I think will lead to an Army which is loyal, brave, highly motivated, a Navy and Starfighter Corps much the same. And that means sometimes saving the lives of my men even if it leaves me at a slightly greater disadvantage in materiale later, because the moral advantage will greatly outweight the mismatch of arms. Small armies can defeat great ones, Ysanne, and when it happens, it happens for a reason."

Isard folded her legs and took a breath. "You're going to repeat all the errors of the Republic."

"No, I am not. No One Sector, One Vote. No Demilitarisation. No democratic elections for all offices. No armed corporations. And no No-Confidence votes for Chancellors. That's just the start, too."

"Tinkering around the edges, instead of approaching the whole."

"The edges hold up the whole. You have butchered, and slain, murdered, tortured, deceived. I want to make a country where the passions and madnesses which lead to such excesses have no play over the body politic."

"You're going to fail."

"And you're going to be there to remind me of that. Often. And I will say what I am going to say now: I'll take it under advisement. Get out, Nyroska. I'm tired and we're going to have a battle tomorrow."

"I stayed to share the danger, Tanda..."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way."


	99. Chapter 97

"As it pleases Your Excellency, here is the plan for the engagement."

Tanda watched Varrscha begin the presentation, a bottle of Corellian whiskey at her side, along with her wife to her right. Tali never managed to really stop glaring at Nyroska, even when the woman was quietly present only in the background.

The President had already read the briefing papers; she was fairly confident with the battle-plan, but being in personal command, she had to be here. The assembled ranks were hearing it for the first time. "Go ahead, Commodore."

"We will need one of our interdictors to enter the system under stealth, Excellency—running silent. In the worst case, it will succeed in drawing a large Reaper force off to engage it. We will be standing out of system and can cut this force off for defeat in detail outside of Terran orbit. But the Reapers have not shown an ability to detect ships running silent for any practical purpose, especially those which do not rely upon the usual signatures they detect in the form of Eezo-based technology. So the plan has a high likelihood of bringing the interdictor successfully into a Terran orbit on the outside of the moon, Luna."

"Which interdictor?" Tanda asked, her lips pausing on the snifter for a moment, glancing through the ranks of her personnel. "The risk is still great, even with the fleet standing by to provide reinforcement at short notice."

A woman in the back, wearing a blue uniform, got up. She had mostly been surrounded by aliens and coalitionists, and the Old Republic Judicial uniform caught even Tanda's eye... She wasn't one of the Judicials who had kept wearing it. No, she most definitely wasn't.

"Captain Iillor?"

"Captain Uwlla Iillor of the _Black Asp_ ," she offered, levelly meeting Tanda's gaze. "That's so."

They had most manifestly seen each other in the past, and Tanda sank back in her chair with a frown. The padding hadn't kept her body from slowly going numb as she regarded the woman on whose slaughter-painted bridge she had stood less than a month ago, storming it alongside Ysanne Isard.

Well, Iillor didn't know who Nyroska was, and Nyroska took advantage of that. "Looking for redemption, Captain?" She spoke up for the first time.

"I don't think I need any," Iillor answered, and let Nyroska stiffen. "I believe, Your Excellency—and _Bureau Chief_ , for that matter—that we are redeemed by our deeds, and mine have been virtuous enough. General Dodonna has asked me to support this cause, and in the interest of the conciliation of all factions in the new government of Your Excellency, I will execute the mission to show that we are all loyal and all devoted to the same objective—the establishment of peace and the liberation of people from the Reapers in this galaxy."

Tanda sighed gently. "Thank you. That's enough, Bureau Chief. Such sentiments are ones that will build the Republic, and they are to be properly rewarded."

"...I understand, Your Excellency." Nyroska sat back down.

"Very well then, we have our ship. What is the next component?"

"The bulk of the starfighters will be sent to the planet in advance to goad the Reapers up from the surface—the usual operational plan that has been used in the past. Almost invariably, a portion have been held back to cover the rest of the fleet in past operations," Dodonna spoke, ignoring the exchange that referenced him and taking over for Varrscha to continue.

"In this modification, the remaining starfighters will not be with the fleet, but rather tasked with the immediate destruction of the Citadel. It is hoped that the loss of the Citadel will in fact, based on the fragmentary intelligence we have received from evacuees from Earth—Colonel Saveras, Garrus Vakarian—in fact cause the shut-down of the Reapers, as it appears the controlling component of the intelligence is stored in some fashion within the systems of the Citadel."

"And if it doesn't, General? Will we have wasted the first stroke destroying an empty and worthless target?"

"Possibly, but unlikely," he answered steadily. "The Crucible has an enormous concentration of stored energy in it. It was also built in a non-upgraded fashion by the local coalition powers. Massed proton torpedo salvoes will easily penetrate the hull, and unleash a massive explosion in orbit—a mine which should sweep relatively large numbers of Reapers that are, for whatever reason, concentrated to defend it, from orbit."

Daro'Xen folded her hands grandiloquently with her tentacle pack flaring. "And the thought is that the starfighters will somehow escape that blast?"

"They will be attacking from a concealed position, so they will have a chance to launch their torpedoes at sufficient range to escape, while the Reapers are still unprepared to intercept them," Dodonna answered. "There are, admittedly, many failure points... But we generally think we can win the battle as a straight-up fight. My goal is to save as many lives as possible with stealth and guile rather than simply rely on that brute force. The better part of the risk falls on Captain Iillor."

Tanda glanced to the woman again, and her lips curved in almost a rictus. "I suppose it does. Very well, how are we going to hide the starfighters...?"

 **-  
**  
"General Lawson!"

The voice cut across the marshalling yard and Miranda leapt down from her command track. "Major," she offered diffidently, stiffening a bit as Tasiele followed at her side.

The woman who had called her name was standing on the cab steps of a high speed rescue locomotive hauling a rake of parcel wagons close behind. Compressed into Shepard's armour, she was, of course, the woman's spitting image, if less worn. "We're ready."

Miranda glanced back along the length of the train, with Imperial Army demolitions experts linking the hypermatter fuel pods from the crashed ships and downed shuttles and fighters that it would be suicide to send into the sky. They were being linked with supplies of antimatter from similarly downed native ships, fusion bottles, chunks of durasteel scrap... It was a Hellburner, indeed. Sections reported ready and leapt down in turn.

"You're not going to have very long, Major. Still confident you can do this yourself?"

"Absolutely, General Lawson." She turned back into the cab of the locomotive. Miranda grabbed the stanchions and followed her up.

Shepard's clone gestured across the bank of controls. "There's still a full set of rails below the maglev conduits inside the Chunnel, precisely for rescue engines like this one. We've hot-wired the controls so I can override the Positive Train Control and put the throttle to full. As we start to descend into the tunnel, I hit this switch here," she gestured to the emergency cutoff, covered with a plastic cap. "Instead of working as an emergency cutoff now, it holds power to full throttle. I'll jump just as we approach the tunnel entrance. When the track circuit is broken by the derailment on the junction at Saint-Tricat the Reapers have cut, the train will detonate."

A thin smile. "That's what they tell me, anyway," she added. "My job is to just stay onboard until we're moving fast enough we can't be stopped and then jump and try to get clear before the backpressure comes surging out of the Chunnel."

"You have her reflexes. Use 'em," Miranda replied, almost softly. "We'll have armour as close in as it's likely to survive for you to aim to run for. Tasiele will be there personally, she wants to make sure that you make it out."

"Tell her I'm thankful."

"Tell her yourself when you get back. What will I say to Hannah if you die?" Miranda offered, and turned back to the ladder. "Your christmas tree on the hellburner is green, Major. We don't have much time until they realise something is afoot and hit the yard."

"If she's alive..."

"The idea of _two_ Shepards dying is just ridiculous. Kill them all, Major."

"Sir!" She saluted and turned back to the gage cluster.

Miranda, hopping down, saw one soldier from each unit standing back along the train-cars holding a green flag indicating they were clear. Onboard, the Major checked her gauges and confirmed that the bomb was wired in and hot.

Miranda struck a fusee and threw it ahead of the train as a signal, and then took off running for her command track. Tasiele ducked inside of a wheeled Imperial engineering vehicle and let the driver take over, heading down the tracks toward the tunnel entrance service road.

The train started to roll forward, and Miranda caught a last look of the sad but ineffably determined figure in the cab before dogging the hatch as the rest of the engineering vehicles got buttoned up and moving ahead of them. She took up the rear with her command track, climbing toward Lyminge. The troops were cleared from the area, and instead in fortified positions and trenches to the north and south, in case the attack somehow happened anyway. And to maintain appearances.

The train cut under the M20 as Tasiele's wheeled rescue vehicle picked up one of the access roads. Gathering speed, it raced through the smashed ruins of the loading terminal for the undersea car shuttles, and in the meanwhile the speed continued to increase. Tasiele still handily reached the access road first, the vehicle spinning around the turn above the tunnel mouths and coming to a halt on the north side.

Ditch lights flashing the rescue locomotive crackled through the deenergized maglev feeds that would have levitated for the regular high speed passenger and parcel expresses. The tunnel entrance was obscured by the magnetic shielding which let it partially evacuate the air to increase speed. All that mattered to this plan was that the steel rails were intact below, no power required. And they were, from the reconaissance she had conducted, killing husks along the way.

Holding the throttle in notch two past the burned out car ferry trains she passed the signals which were set at danger, two of them burned out and a third melted off the post by some Reaper Destroyer's passage or strafing months ago. The speed for the tunnel was posted beyond, and having reached it, she slipped the throttle all the way open—notch eight.

Starting to build speed, they rushed toward the tunnel entrance. She flipped open the plastic cover on the emergency cutoff and hit it, tense for a moment—what if the reprogramming had failed?

The hard whine of the electric motors reassured her it hadn't, and she stepped out to the open door and kicked herself off and onto the grass and heather just before plunging ahead into the safety zone of the magnetic shield. Hitting the ground hard at sixty kph she rolled away from the train rushing into the tunnel, reached her feet, and dashed up the hill.

Tasiele caught her hands and pulled her into the vehicle. She used the force to actuate the doors, the driver hauling out so fast that they ended up smacking into them, not buttoned down or belted in, tossed around... It didn't matter compared to what was coming next.

The rescue engine was able to bring the train up to 200kph as it raced through the Chunnel. At this speed, it took 15 minutes for the train to traverse the water. The vehicle cut up to join the others by Lyminge, now proceeding toward Stelling. Miranda, out of respect for Tasiele, pulled up with the forward-most troops, buttoned down in their armour, at Lyminge, while the engineers continued to retreat. A few extra hull-down positions by the road were waiting.

On the far shore, more than twenty full-sized Reaper Dreadnoughts stood on the ground, waiting to support the crossing, with a hundred Destroyers around. Down in the hills around Lyminge, she could not clearly make them out.

The train exited from the French portal of the tunnel, running hard. The masses of husks preparing for the invasion were knocked down and about by it where they were on the track, reduced to paste with their electronics shattered. Momentum kept her on the rails for as long as possible as she rushed toward the French-side marshalling yard and passed Fréthun within minutes. Fortunately, mercifully, the Hellburner really did reach Saint-Tricat before it left the rails. By that point, the Reapers were turning to it with interrogatory scans.

One raised a blackstar cannon, alarm spreading through the group, just as the bomb detonated. With its shields down, it vanished a few seconds later.

Just in time, Tasiele's carrier snapped hull down. The woman's eyes shot to the screen, which tried to polarise the view far enough, tried to stay on through the radiation.

Twenty metres away, Miranda Lawson watched, too, as the fireball continued to grow, spreading cloud after cloud. Then suddenly a horrifying rocking struck them and a column of pure fire issued from the Channel Tunnel. It reached to Newingreen, destroying the town instantly. A massive column of flame swept through the sky at Folkestone as the reflected energy instantly set the entire city aflame.

The colum continued through the old airfield at Lympne and slowly dissipated across the English countryside as another enormous shockwave, clearly visible, swept across them, rocking and jostling. Clouds kept forming, one above the other, as the fireball kept growing and rising toward space. The entire atmosphere around them was red. The sun was masked and forgotten in the sky.

A huge column of superheated steam exploded out of the tunnel and finished it off, mixing burnt mud with atomised water and sloshing up the old M20 alignment as the enormous heat and pressure disintegrated the roadway. Fires were started everywhere, though the air barely remained cool enough to breathe—for the most part.

Slowly the air around them stabilised and calmed. Miranda stared at the sensor readings in almost awe as they managed to put some of their tougher drones up to image the boiling, churning sea and sky of the Channel. The fireball, continuing to rise in a characteristic mushroom cloud, obscured the fact that a crater with a radius of 8.5km had been formed centred slightly north and west of Saint-Tricat. The cities of Folkestone and Dover were completely destroyed on the English side. Ramsgate was on fire.

Mission accomplished.

Miranda swallowed, and activated the comm to Tasiele's carrier. "Good work... Shepard. We've earned ourselves a few more weeks."

"If your Moff comes back, they might just matter," the voice so achingly familiar answered. "Thank you for letting me do the job."

"It's time you wrote your own story. Lawson out." She cut the channel, and stared at the sensor readout again, shaking her head slowly. As far as she could tell, Ostend and Dieppe were the nearest intact towns to the immense crater which had formerly been Calais. _Hellburner_.

"Hold 'em at the beaches," Miranda muttered softly. With some luck, they might just manage to all starve to death, yet.

They didn't starve.

-

Light from Sol seemed cool, this far out... Just one more dim star against the night, if they weren't watching the display readouts on the bridge for holoplots of the third planet from the sun. That planet which made it so special, and the focus of all this fighting, and all the way they had come.

Of course, it was in truth no warmer for the starfighters and the creeping cruiser, this close in to Terra, masked from the light of Sol behind Luna. The chill of their mission more than made up for the increased solar radiation. _Black Asp_ and her crew had volunteered to creep in, and it had taken them five days. The battle plan was roughly replicating what she had done at Coruscant—both redoubtable Captain and most of the crew.

Tanda waited beyond the system with her fleet. The starfighters under Colonel Saveras went in first. They would appear on the edges of Terra's gravity well, diving in toward the planet, to attack Reapers on the ground, forcing them into orbit. Tactical plots fed back through subspace comms were being updated on the massive holoplot at the rear of _Lusankya_ 's bridge, showing the brilliant glowing orb that was the motherworld.

Thousands of swirling starfighters, mostly QEQs, dove through the atmosphere and climbed again after the blossoms of their torpedoes against their targets. Few Reapers were on the ground, and from the moment they had arrived, those on the ground took off directly, using their regular defences and Blackstar cannon to good effect... For whatever reason, they were not trying to cower on the surface, they had clearly come to the conclusion it was not worth it anymore, not against the forces that Tanda had.

They were coming up for a battle. This immense engagement was, of course, exactly what Tanda wanted, far from Terra's atmosphere. Against the tens of thousands of Oculi drones, the starfighters started to vanish by the dozen. There were a _lot_ of Reapers in orbit.

For this engagement, Tali was back on the bridge, close to her wife's side. Tanda stood with her top Admirals and Generals, watching the updates, waiting. She wanted all the Reapers fully in Earth orbit before committing.

Dodonna paced nervously, the old man, true to himself, actually very worried about the pilots his plan was putting into harm's way. He was a fatherly figure to the rebellion, and it was easy enough for the Coalition to start looking at him in the same terms, even if some of the Imperials still blanched in disgust at the honoured position that Tanda had given to a traitor. They, like Nyroska, were slow to let go of the past, and embrace the New World.

Tali coughed, and stepped to Dodonna's side. She, of course, did not have to embrace the New World: She _was_ the New World, and was rather proud of what she had wrought by this point. Love had sundered the bonds of evil over her Tanda, and whatever else happened, she had watched the woman defy her own Emperor and live to tell it. There were few who could claim the same.

She tried to offer words of reassurance to Dodonna. "I double-checked all of the explosive points myself. It'll work."

"I'll take that as a word from the force itself," he answered, a glance to her lightsabre, and then, forward on the bridge.

Tanda, standing at the head of the bridge, marked the signal from the holoplot, and raised her hand. "Jump the fleet!"

The stars elongated around them and the ships vanished in flickers of pseudomotion. Tali at once turned back to her control panel and stood by, though the activation code would be sent through her cybernetics. Six seconds ticked by until, with a sickening lurch, the grav-well activated the safeties, and _Black Asp_ sent the entire fleet flying back out of hyperspace.

Well familiar with how hyperdrive worked by now, the Reapers were used to the employment of _natural_ grav wells and grav limits and had planned their dispositions around the exploitation of the limitations of the hyperdrive for tactical engagements.

Being able to control where the grav well was had just completely changed the tactical picture, and in this case, _Black Asp_ had been lined up so that, as they de-accelerated from re-crossing the light barrier, Tali's quick action activated the tractor beams with a pre-planned course to a massive six-kilometre long jagged asteroid held to _Lusankya_ 's bay.

Directly on course with the Citadel, once the minimal effects of the planetary gravity on a velocity that great came into play. The Reapers scrambled frantically, dozens of their dreadnoughts racing between the Citadel and the asteroid and opening fire. The act confirmed, to Tanda, the massive importance of the Citadel to her enemies.

"Down five degrees relative thirty degrees port maintain ahead full!" _Lusankya_ 's bow dipped and she swung to port, and opened her starboard batteries to fire on the clustering Reapers even as she 'ported around' them toward the Citadel, with the entire vast array of a fleet that included _five_ ISDs following behind, four thousand ships...

Their starfighters came breaking away, screaming up to come aboard, to rearm with warheads and to receive protection and shelter from their outnumbered fight. As they did, waves of missiles from the massed fleet swept through the Oculi drones trailing them.

Tali sucked in her breath. "I just hope Shepard really got off..."

"Maybe she did," Tanda offered, her own breath sharp. "Look."

Tali's eyes trailed to the holoprojection of Terra—and the crater near the coast of England so massive that it was visible at that scale.

"...That wasn't there before. Someone showed the bosh'tets _something_."

"They have their own brand of heroism!" Dodonna observed sharply, and the voice brought Tanda's eyes up.

In groups and knots, the Reapers were flinging themselves into the asteroid. The explosions of their hulls against it, destroying themselves, killing themselves after millions of years alive, would have been futile if it had been a real asteroid, solid and fresh and original instead of a simulcra—if it had, in short, really been a solid mass of ferrous metal instead of... A series of asteroids fused together, which now disintegrated, to reveal inside, four wings of starfighters, concealed and ready to strike at the Crucible, the energy-packed explosive battery still fused to the Citadel, a match waiting to be lit. Instead they were _swarmed_ as the asteroid broke to fragments around them.

She watched the display for a moment in awe. Then Tanda snapped into action. "L'tenant Waroen, Pursuit! We must close with the starfighters to support them immediately!"

"Admiral, if we break fleet ranks, we're going to open ourselves to them, disordered!" Despite the desperate reminder, _Lusankya_ was already turning. Her guns were still ripping into the massed Reapers, and more were being destroyed than just by having rammed the asteroid, now, since Erisi Dlarit and her starfighters were salvoing proton torpedoes into them at point-blank, surrounded by a massive of Reapers that had them in a killbox, and fighting back, _hard_. They had been expecting to see an open line to the Citadel before them, and instead they were in the fight of their lives.

"No choice! Form the fleet up in a semicircle to cover us aft, and trust the gap won't be great." She clapped her gloved hands together. "I'm going to get my people out of there. Period."

Dodonna smiled grimly, and Tali beamed. But the Reapers saw the opening, and they pounced on it, while below them, the planet again rose in a ragged gasp of hope.


	100. Chapter 98

Originally, the initial plan considered by Dodonna had been to drop a high-vee rock into the Citadel to open the battle. This plan had possessed a certain degree of inspired brilliance in the details, but in the end hadn't been seriously considered. It might, if the Citadel really controlled the Reapers, in fact end the entire war in a single masterstroke. It was also ridiculously dangerous. The rock could simply _miss_ , and impact Terra, causing a mass extinction event.

A related question bore on the matter of how strong the Citadel was. It had never been tested by Imperial guns. Nobody had tried to destroy it before. An _Executor_ could survive a 6-km asteroid at c-fractional velocities, could the 45-km Citadel? Possibly; so even properly aimed it might fail.

Using the enormous energy reserves of the Crucible seemed a far more viable strategy. Sitting in place, unsuccessfully activated, it was still essentially a floating bomb. If it could be detonated, the war could be won with a single stroke. That meant smuggling sufficient wings of starfighters in against the Citadel under the cover of the _fake_ asteroid.

In practice, the idea had lasted for about twenty-six minutes before it had degenerated into a grotesque mess which was severely imperiling their position in the battle. Tanda wondered if anyone else ever felt like nothing could go right; but there was very little cause for recrimination about it. They could just fight on.

General Dodonna stepped over to Tanda's side, as she stood quietly watching the intercept of the asteroid. "This is worse than anticipated," he growled, his forceful presence belying the worry on his face. "You cannot easily support the rest of the fleet, and there's at least two thousand Reapers present. The high end of estimates for their remaining strength."

"You're right, General. But we've got to support our people." She clapped her gloved hands, almost skittish in her frustration and anxiety. "Order Admiral Shala'Raan to hold the line. Keep hammering those Reapers."

"They're going to get hit hard." Dodonna coughed. "The starfighter pilots are my own concern, though, I admit."

"I know. I know on both counts. Well, I am going to succor them!"

Tanda watched as _Lusankya_ raced away from the primary battlefield of the rest of her fleet. There were some small comforts: At these ranges in Terran orbit, the guns which could bear at least well had the range, and again and again, massed salvoes directed by the CBD tore into Reapers, overwhelming their shields, holing them again and again, and finally destroying them utterly.

The Reapers had a battle plan too. They were racing in against the rest of the fleet now, aiming at the great bulk of the ISDs at the heart of the formation. Blackstar cannon fire was almost immense, flashing singularities against the shields of the ships. Supporting vessels caught by massive packs of Destroyers started to die. Whatever else, they were intelligent enough to take advantage of the sundering of Tanda's Star Dreadnought from the rest of her fleet.

On they raced, the terminator line of Terra flaring before them, the nightside alight with the fires of a thousand burning cities and a thousand burning forests, the atmosphere choked with smoke and cinders.

 _I have left the motherworld of humanity a wreck_ , Tanda thought bitterly, watching the fires of an utterly destroyed civilisation below. Through the hull, the muffled din of the guns firing again and again, of turbolasers and ion cannon disrupting and wrecking the vast array of Reapers around the Citadel, continued without ceasing. It was in its own way comforting, for as long as the guns of a warship were worked, some kind of hope remained. True terror was only for when the hull was silent...

Around them, the starfighters spun and fought and died against swarming masses of Oculi drones which had been mustered to overwhelm them. The only mercy was that it cleared the way for the starfighters which had hit ground targets to reach the other ships of the fleet without significant interference. On this scale, other than the 200-meter long heavy turbolaser bolts, the only flashes in the night were the deaths of drones and snubs, and there were a lot of flashes. Tanda could hope they were mostly drones.

"The fragments are heading into the atmosphere. Tali, intercept them!"

"...Right, trying!" The harried voice of the Quarian whose brilliance kept nineteen kilometres of maintenance backlog going still had a tinge of wry cheerfulness, as ever.

Tanda's heart cheered, and she watched before them at the swirling battle. Starfighters concentrated, linked targeting sensors, and fired salvoes of proton torpedoes and concussion missiles. They swirled, and dodged, and killed Oculi drones by the handful. But there had been less than three hundred in the group to start with, and they were getting swamped.

It was _Lusankya_ that evened the odds. Even as she did, though, with her thousands of anti-starfighter guns sweeping the night's sky, the Reapers were gaining the upper hand. Tanda took another jaundiced look across the holoplot and decided it was time to shift the rules of the game. Most of the starfighters had expended their warhead loads attacking larger Reapers already, and losing them in combat to the drones was simply an utter waste.

"Recall the starfighters to rearm!"

"Recalling..."

Then, abruptly, the _Lusankya_ lurched hard. Dodonna leaned into the rail around the holoplot, though Tanda maintained her balance mid-bridge, feet widely braced and boots gripping the plate.

"Tractors at full, Tanda! We've got the asteroid fragments!" Tali started negotiating the screaming interface of the tractors and the ship, slowly reducing feedback latency and increasing sectional pull force, the velocity of the _Lusankya_ reducing as she did.

"Just far enough that it doesn't collide with the planet, that's all we need!"

"Going to cut the atmosphere, Tanda...!"

"So be it."

The ferrous asteroid fragments swept down toward Terra's atmosphere, their momentum inexorable to any lesser effort than that provided by the tractor beams of such a ship as the _Lusankya_. If they hit the atmosphere, the outcome would be absolutely catastrophic, but the starfighters were distracted engaging the drones and could not fire missiles after the fragments.

"Twelve degrees starboard thrusters," Tanda ordered thirty seconds in. _Lusankya_ began to turn back toward the planet.

Tali shot her a sharp look from her console, before turning back. "Just so you know, the fragments are already breaking up."

"Conform to a powered orbit!"

"And if it breaks up in the atmosphere, Tanda? We're already starting to lose them!" Even just skipping off the surface, the asteroid fragments—now considerably slowed, but not deviated in course-glowed red along the bottom, a trail of vapourised material spinning off as they were subjected to the enormous dueling forces, momentum forward, gravity downwards, tractor beams upward, which typfied the situation. Groaning under the strain, the asteroid fragments swept across the atmosphere—looking to those who still lived below like a red comet of death—and then beginning to split and spread like a shotgun blast, even as the tractor beam deformed their courses, pulling them all skyward.

"Tali. Keep that from happening." Tanda drew herself up, answering her wife's concerns with less than reassuring words, and stepped forward on the bridge. Below her and deep into the hull, the guns went silent as Terra masked them from firing on the Reaper armada.

"Doing that by pulling off! We can cut around the planet from the outside!" Tali answered, frustrated and frantic at once, letting the asteroid fragments sweep clear of the outer edge of Terra's atmosphere, and then cutting the tractor beams with their courses and speeds well established, _Lusankya_ pulling back away from the planet, with a bellyfull of rearming starfighters.

Delays resulted from the pull away from the planet, and Tanda knew that it meant her ship was vulnerable to interception as _Lusankya_ , wreathed in energy from the firing of her turbolasers, turned away from the planet, and then made hard-a-starboard to return toward the Citadel. The maneouvre took minutes at most.

The Reapers were waiting for her as she swung past the terminator again. Tanda heaved a breath at five hundred of them drawn up. Stood silent for a moment, and then leapt into action. "Bow up forty degrees," Tanda snapped, letting her wife's claim—trusted implicitly—be her guide. "Maximum forward firepower!"

Tali's fingers danced across the board, obeying even as she pieced together what Tanda intended, realised it in the details while her wife stuck to the grand ballet above them. The Reapers rushed on against them... And the concentrated fire slammed into the weakened bow. _Lusankya_ surged and bucked violently and heaved under her, deck arcing hard to the side. A series of repaired power conduits had high temperature sensors start to alarm, and Tali hastily turned her attention to trying to address the over-temperature condition. As she did, the asteroid fragments had already disintegrated into a hundred pieces which blazed across the sky a single last time.

 _Lusankya_ 's guns now again started to thunder in massed salvoes from either beam and right ahead, while concussion missile fire swept in behind the asteroid fragments, undetectable until the last moment. The Reapers split and began to change directions in a frantic effort to evade the mass of fire.

Then they started to get hit and explode, Reapers falling to the massed fire of an Imperial Star Dreadnought. _Lusankya_ 's helmsman stabilised her course and she raced in behind the detonations of destroyed and dying Reapers illuminated with the red and green bolts of her main gun fire. Explosions rippling around, like an expanding blast wave, the giant Star Dreadnought swept through the formation, surrounded by the destroyed carcasses of her enemies, and carried on through.

Again and again, the Reapers turned their Blackstar cannon on the _Lusankya_ , hammering her shields again and again as they tried to make their main cannon bear, tracing for any sign of damage. Slowly, the bow shield indicators started to glow yellow, but they were still rejecting energy, and the Lucky Lusy carried on.

Her return fire was usually fatal. Again and again, groups were driven back under heavy fire. More Reapers were destroyed, and the great _Lusankya_ slowed as she now swung in on the fleet from behind. In this position, the bulk of the Reapers were caught between two fires, and Tanda's gunners took full advantage of the opportunity with disciplined, aimed fire that drove the remaining Reapers into close range in the melee that had already developed, and that the Star Dreadnought made all possible haste to join the close action.

As she slid back into the battle, _Lusankya_ started to launch the recovered starfighters, rearmed and blazing back into action. Sweeping out from both flanks of the hangar bay, they were into action, pumping their torpedoes in coordinated salvoes, within seconds of stabilising their courses and pulling clear of the launch tubes.

This part of the battle was low velocity, now, and with it, the starfighters were back in their element whilst hundreds of explosions arced down the shields of hundreds of ships, Reapers and Coalition, simultaneously. An array of Reapers turned to concentrate on the _Lusankya_ as the rearguard that had met her around the planet raced to catch up and joined the engagement.

All around, fire raced to converge on her shields, again, and again, and again. Without rocking, she took the fire, held her ground, and returned it. The fleet closed up around the great Star Dreadnought, and the Reapers kept dying.

-

Arcing low over Terra, the starfighters spun past the citadel. Dlarit's X-wings were reinforced by large numbers of QEQs, and though she appreciated the logic behind the heavy starfighter, she found them somewhat painful to accompany into close action. But they were there, and she was there—and all of the galaxy was there. All of it was there... The responsibility remained chilling and thrilling at once.

Pulling right in an almost continuous circle, they spun and fought their way through the swarms of Oculi drones, coming in behind a group of Reapers that had arrived, pursuing _Lusankya_ in her end-run, and firing at the engines of the great Star Dreadnought. Linking torpedo tubes, they encountered the usual massed defensive fire from the Oculi drones, managing a single salvo. "Break and evade!"

Blossoming in the night, they went low under the Citadel, looping around it and dodging through its defensive fire... At that moment, General Dlarit barely dodged a wash of fire from the defensive grid, and blinked hard. _Wait, it isn't supposed to be firing at us. It's dead._

"Lusankya Actual, Elite Wing Actual. The Citadel is engaging us." She snapped another evasive maneouvre.

"The Citadel doesn't _have_ any defence grid that could possibly threaten you!" Tanda's echoed voice back. "It relies on closing itself."

"Well, it's shooting at us, and I'm losing people!"

"...I see. Those aren't the lightweight defence lasers... _Dea_. Pull back from it, now!" Tanda's voice answered again a moment later. "It seems the Reapers are tapping the onboard power and mounted varying scale Blackstar cannon along it. Don't even try to engage!"

"How are we going to take it out then, Lusankya Actual?"

"Lusankya will move to engage, Elite Actual. Come about and put another salvo of torpedoes on those Dreadnoughts to clear our aft quarter."

Erisi rolled her eyes. Tanda was unique as leaders went, but she was still, at the core, an officer of the Imperial Fleet. _If I could just line a group of X-wings up against the Crucible, I bet the stored power would light the entire thing off._ She was, however, an Imperial General herself. "Roger that, Lusankya Actual. Elite Wing coming about."

"Form up and stay well clear of the Citadel, I don't want to lose people to that fire!"

They spun and twisted out beyond the Reaper formation, turning in from the opposite flank, and taking fire from the Oculi drones as they did. Returning against a group of a dozen Reapers, Erisi assigned two squadrons to each target and went for weak points in the shields. They were taking plenty of fire from the _Lusankya_ as well, after all. Targeting parabolics converged, and the order went out. "Fire!"

Confirmed automatically by the fire-linked targeting computers, microsecond precision was belied by the customary shout. Racing in, the proton torpedoes battered through jury-rigged shield mounts and the defences of four of the Reapers went down. She reallocated fires and the rest of the X-wings and QEQs jinked into final strafing runs, using ion cannon to suppress fire and then at point-blank putting proton torpedoes into the main cannon projectors of several of the Reapers. One of them, in the process of firing, lost control over main beam integrity, and spraying, slapping its own limbs, blew through its Blackstar cannon and tumbled out of control.

 _Lusankya_ 's main batteries saw the damage and briefly shifted enough to the target to finish it off, a spectacular spreading explosion following behind the squadrons. It was in that moment Erisi envied the QEQs with their triple heavy blaster aft, perfect for demolishing pursuing Oculi drones, as she tried to shake four off herself...

But the skills of a Rogue Squadron pilot came through again, and taking what the locals called a sharp Immelman on them, she took out two with linked bursts of her cannon and then evaded the other two. They were left open for the fires of her wingmen, and for a moment, she was alone in the void of space.

Ahead of her, a terrific tableaux was spread across the canvas of Terra. Arcing and banking with her thrusters to keep her batteries clear, _Lusankya_ began to maneouvre toward the Citadel. No doing it the easy way, passing by dozens of Coalition ships, dozens of Reapers great and small. As she maneouvred, her batteries kept firing... It was amazing to see what she could do to Reapers. They were as big as ISDs, and yet they died like Frigates under her fire.

Again and again, she pinned them in place with temporary systems failures from ion cannon flailing out against the Reapers until they found one unlucky enough to lose maneouvring power under her fire. Then the turbolasers homed in, and under disciplined fire they punched through the shields, the bolts tore deep into the armoured carapace of the beast, and as it began to burn with much of its insides gutted by the penetrating turbolaser bolts expanding in a wash of plasma. Spinning in place at low speed and spewing energized particles, the Reaper was struck with a progressive series of fires until its internal energy sources detonated, and great chunks of the monstrous beast spun off in disordered remnants.

Watching that happen to a half a dozen targets simultaneously as Erisi brought her fighters together was inspiring, stunning, as spectacular of a battle as she'd seen. Not even Endor could match it among the Rogues, she thought, and here she was, fighting it out.

A group of ten of the big Reapers caught her eye, coming in against _Lusankya_ 's starboard bow where all the others had been unavailing. She remembered the pre-combat briefings, constantly harping on the shield weaknesses up at _Lusankya_ 's damaged bow.

"Elites, form up! Target designated now..." She selected the dreadnoughts and tagged them. "Deep Space Wing one, form on Elite Wing, Lusankya Wing One. I need some reinforcements for this one."

"Roger that, General Dlarit," Kesalia's voice echoed over the channel, and Erisi couldn't help but smile a little at the Twi'lek, who managed her own laughter despite being so beaten down by this war.

"All right, all squadrons. Go in and go for the big ones!" She brought her drives to full power, droid chirping shield status in the background and X-wings swarming around her, leaping ahead of the QEQs as they arced into position and then the big heavy fighters with their good in-line accelerationg starting to catch up.

A swarm of Oculi drones descended on them, but they were already committed to the run, and the Thyferran woman's face twisted into a savage grin whilst they swept past the shattered, plasma-venting hulks of a half a dozen big Reapers.

"Elites One, Elites Three, Elites Five, with me!" She punched hard right and bucked up, engines glowing, rising with her cannon firing, and three squadrons peeled off behind her while the rest spun in. Firing torpedoes into the midst of the Oculi drones, they detonated them on their own, leaving each Elite in those groups with just two left, but that was enough for one massed salvo.

The action was over in seconds as the detonated torpedoes were quite powerful enough to kill several drones at range, and then the fighters were in their midst. Strafing through them, the formation was reduced to ragged holes, and the two wings of QEQs covered the rest with their tail guns as she tried to bring them back around in time... And just barely did, for lining up on the Reapers with the rest of the three wings.

They hung there in space, whole for a moment, once the terror of the galaxy. Then the _Lusankya_ 's shadow swept over them, and blacked them against the light of Terra, and Erisi Dlarit laughed. "How does it feel!?"

Her targeting sensors started to chime, and she led the plunge of two hundred starfighters into the massed group. Ahead of them, _Lusankya_ began to take fire from the group, whilst she concentrated her own fires on the Citadel. Explosions flecked the night, and huge flocks of drones passed in the distance, swirling straight into death from the defensive fire of a Geth dreadnought squadron closing up to cover the port.

One of the Reapers spun toward them, and her targeting sensors chimed. "Fire! Evade!" The commands came so close together that a few of the fighters started to turn, spoiling their torpedo shots, but it was just in time as a wave of heavy fire tried to stutter across the fighters, just to find them already blossoming away.

The Reaper physically _crumpled_ moments later and three more followed into the night with their dying fires a clarion signal for a few of _Lusankya_ 's batteries to shift fire and make sure they were not merely damaged, but irrevocably destroyed.

And then the dreadnought passed through the formation with her drive-tails bright and her guns filling the dark with silent fires, and ahead of her, the blackstar cannon on the Citadel opened up, and all at once, the Arrowhead was alive from steam to stern with concentrated main battery fire. The Citadel... Was wreathed in a halo of light. And all together, Reaper and Coalition, the battling fleets swept across the terminator line, and Terra stood aside, and bathed them in the light of Sol one more time. One hundred minutes. The battle continued.


	101. Chapter 99

"Steady, steady..." The Citadel was ten times the size of the _Lusankya_ by volume, massive, overwhelmingly so. It was also proving incredibly stubborn in terms of its ability to resist damage, the hull... Ever so much stouter than she had expected. It was spinning gently now, maneouvring to cover the vulnerable Crucible with the heavily armoured outer skin of the Wards.

This confirmed what Tanda had forever feared of the trap of the Citadel. The intelligence within it was fully in control, and it was actively working on the side of the Reapers now that whatever attempt had been made to activate the Crucible had failed.

Even now the vast waves of turbolaser fire were gouging deep craters into the outer hull, though. Uniquely strong by the standards of the local galaxy, it was also uniquely old, and that hull had never been challenged by such firepower before. Whatever the intelligence that had designed it had originally intended, simple isotopic decay and neutron brittleness would affect even starship grade durasteel after long enough—and it was probably millions of years old.

Around them, even with five ISDs at the front, the fleet was being pounded heavily by the Reapers of the main fleet. With most of her guns concentrated on the Citadel, _Lusankya_ could provide ranging support with her stern batteries, but nothing more.

"If we could get a clear shot on the Crucible we could probably finish this battle in a minute," Tali fumed.

"No doubt, but as usual, when both you and your enemy know the problem..." Dodonna let the sentence trail off. "Don't you think we should call for the reserves, Your Excellency?" He addressed Tanda.

"Summon Admiral Daro'Xen," she ordered. "The fleet _is_ hard pressed."

The giant Gree ship arrived from the outer system, sweeping in with fifty locally built Hammerhead cruisers as a covering force. She immediately engaged the Reapers, main batteries twisting, shearing the very fabric of space, inducing huge gravity gradients which snapped main Reaper dreadnoughts to pieces. As before, the _Braka'torja_ was less of a threat than in her moment of initial surprise; but she was a powerful asset nonetheless, second only to the _Lusankya_ and incredibly capable.

Standing off with the great range of her weapons, Admiral Daro'Xen concentrated the wing of QEQs she had available and sent them in covering the 315-meter cruisers while she let her long-range weapons speak. As long as the Reapers couldn't pull a large enough group off to attack her at close range, she could provide ranged fire support to relieve the fleet.

And let Tanda concentrate on the Citadel. The woman turned to pace, again, weighing the battle. As she watched, the Reapers were drawing back to closer range, knowing that if they got in close enough to the Coalition fleet it would be very hard for the _Braka'torja_ to target them effectively without collateral damage.

Moving into close range, they opened themselves to the vulnerability of being unable to target missiles with countermissile fire before they hit, and of local targeting easily able to burn through jamming and make every turbolaser bolt and ion cannon shot hit their marks. Of course, it stopped thier utter disintegration to the heavy fire of the Gree ship, but with such limited batteries, the Reapers could not cover all of their arcs. Maneouvrable starfighters and light ships quickly got into stern positions on them and poured fire against their shields, battering them down and letting the ion cannon mounted on countless upgraded Quarian cruisers, Turian and Asari dreadnoughts and human ships too, all work to temporarily disable Reapers, and pin them in place for their final destruction.

"Order the Star Destroyers to pivot and pull out into Sector 87-X," Tanda directed. "Concentrate forward firepower into the Reapers while keeping them pinned. _Lusankya_ will assist!"

"And the Citadel?"

"I've got a plan to deal with it," Tanda answered. "Give them a respite for a moment, we've got important things to do."

"Landing the garrisons?" Dodonna guessed.

"Yes. I want to complicate the tactical picture for them and get the troops safely to the ground. Make them think that maybe our only objective was in fact to land troops. I have an idea..." Rubbing her hands, she called out the helm orders as the _Lusankya_ pivoted on maneouvring thrusters away from the Citadel, providing cover with her forward shields.

Tali frowned. "Forward shields are weak, half the generators are knocked out, Tanda."

"It's just a few minutes, Tali!"

"Right... Just a few minutes... you're such a bosh'tet sometimes."

"CBD-Open a path for the Destroyers!"

For a moment her guns paused in firing, and shifting from the Citadel, opened up against the Reaper fleet. Several Reapers, with shields down or otherwise already heavily damaged, flared at once, pierced through by hundreds of turbolaser bolts simultaneously. The flailing wall of fire opened a course for the group of star destroyers—five ISDs, two VSDs—to pull back, spinning their bows toward the enemy to keep firing as they nestled around _Lusankya_.

-

Once in position, the landings of the troops began. Ten prefabricated garrison bases with theatre shields and ground-based starship scale heavy turbolaser mounts, twenty legions of troops, hundreds of AT-AT Walkers, tanks, and dozens of Juggernaughts.

The destinations were places which had demonstrated sustained resistance against the Reapers which would form a nucleous of reconquest. Sucré in Bolivia, San Juan de Compostela in Spain, Lauterach in the complicated borderlands of Germany, Austria and Switzerland south of Lake Constance, Nizhniy Novgorod in Russia, Kunming in Yunnan province of China, Coimbatore in the complicated and rugged Southern Ghats of India, Canberra, to clear the lightly peopled Australian continent, Madagascar to sweep the island in imitation of the success in Britain, Kayenta in the remote and as-yet untouched Navajo country at a central point between Denver and Phoenix; and Riyadh, from whence the Imperials could maneouvre across open desert to deal with the husks, pitilessly in desert terrain which provided no cover, and no collateral damage for the use of their weapons at full power.

Plumeting to the ground and deploying automatically as they did behind a host of barges and escorting starfighters, the force reflected the usual Imperial philosophy. The entire military was designed carefully to be in combat instantly from the moment it landed, even if this resulted in heavy casualties for the landing force; the garrison bases were intended to be deployed and operational within minutes after a reentry that lasted about a half an hour. The Empire had designed its military forces to conquer worlds so fast, in a disciplined combat drop operation, that would be completely impossible for organised resistance to even begin before it was over and done, the swan song of their enemies written.

Of course, the sheer scale of the problem reflected in trying to wrest Terra back from the Reapers was not something the Empire had ever considered. It had been a long, a very long time since someone had needed to clear a world of the Rakghoul plague, and that comparison remained the best they could do to the monstrous scale of the challenge.

Retrorockets flaring and ablative heat shields glowing, onboard machines continued to unfold the base and erect it even as it descended, the area under the heat shield defined for the completed base and each task occurring in sequence. The packages were assembled in the hangar bay of the launching Star Destroyer, sent on their course, and with full crews, troops, and equipment on board, the garrison—which was, after all, fully spaceworthy and capable of being doubled up to serve as a space station—would be virtually combat ready by the time it hit the ground.

The Legions would provide cover until they were, deploying smartly from their landing barges to ground where the initial wave—the assault transports—had already secured the LZ's. Spread out by regiment, they secured the area the bases were coming in, sweeping the ground with fires that could annihilate the husks by the ten thousand. This was the kind of combat even Imperial ground forces rarely conducted, the level of concentrated firepower was usually reserved for the kinds of invasions meant to make _examples_ of planets... But so dreadful a hell the motherworld had become, it was the necessary evil.

Planets, after all, could survive ground fires in a way they'd never survive the orbital bombardment that Tanda's fleet could produce. It was comforting, in a way. These Imperials, raised on a diet of humanocentricism, the COMPFORCE volunteers who largely made up the Legions and Divisions, were giving themselves over to being blooded for the sake of the human motherworld, the place their species had originated, against an evil so grave none could doubt the rightness of their cause. Their morale was beyond description, and the only criticism that might be levelled was the sheer reckless vigour with which many of the attacks were conducted.

Miranda Lawson was crying in relief. There were some shouts and toasts, too. Back in the provisional government headquarters overlooking Queen Square in Bristol, the whole leadership of the armies and the British and Irish governments were celebrating together the landings which represented the beginning of the end. Though it might take months, the liberation of Earth was beginning on that day.

A massive hand lightly clapped her shoulder. "Miranda," the gruff voice echoed. "While you're upset, you should probably contact Shepard's mother."

"Wrex?"

"You're upset. The conversation will make you miserable. Have it now and then get drunk celebrating."

Miranda couldn't help but that her lips twisted into a bit of a wry grin. "That's utterly miserable advice, Wrex."

He snorted. "Shepard being dead again is miserable no matter which way you cut it. But Hannah's kind of fond of the clone, so she'll want to know."

"The woman has a stronger spirit than I ever will..." Sighing, Miranda got up and slipped back to her office and the comm link. She tried to raise several elements in the fleet, finding herself bounced between irritated comms officer after comms officer. With the battle still going on overhead, none of them actually really wanted to waste any time on her.

Finally she raised the _Orizaba_. "Admiral Shepard?"

"Director Lawson?" Her voice was harried.

"I wanted to..."

"Do I have one daughter or none?"

"One," Miranda answered, stuttering. "I... I'm sorry. Atarah saved her clone's life, but..."

"I know we just landed a major force and so it may seem like the battle is being won, Director, but I'm afraid that you should probably get your people to bomb shelters and cut out the celebration," Hannah Shepard's voice came back harshly. "The situation has gone straight to hell and we're probably going to have to pull out. Please try to keep my daughter alive. I'll sort out what it all means later!"

The channel cut out and Miranda sank back into her chair, her stomach a clenched knot of guilt and horror.

-

High overhead, Tanda's next attempt to crack the Citadel had begun even more auspiciously as the first. The fleet maneouvre had required a steady and careful pull-back from the engagement once the landing forces were safely deployed to the Terran surface. With her heavy-hitting assets out of the melee, their batteries were used to cover the rest of the force pulling back with them.

Starfighters were struck to their hangars enmasse, and the fleet began to bunch up. Heavy fire from the main Imperial ships was concentrated across the lines of escape for the fleet. It looked like they were preparing to pull out, in every possible way. Having landed troops on the planet, their mission was now complete, and they were going to act accordingly.

It was getting to be more realistic than Tanda wanted. Though _Lusankya_ stood her ground the whole while, the Blackstar cannon on the Citadel were concentrating against the bow of the Star Dreadnought, and then more and more of the heavy dreadnought Reapers were doing the same.

Tali was frantically working across a series of consoles which showed the forward shields of the Star Dreadnought glowing red. It had started during her escape from Coruscant. Damage taking off from the planet had been concentrated on the bow. Shield imperfections had crept in that had never been repaired over Thyferra.

After that, both Booster Terrik's people and then Rogue Squadron had identified the shield irregulatities and concentrated fire against them. This had led to heavy damage of the ship's bow which Tali had hastily repaired over Commenor. Then first the New Republic fleet, and then _Reaper_ , had both concentrated fire on the bow, and once again the repairs had to be conducted without drydocking or any serious attempt to fix the ship, except that the damage from those successive combats had been so much that the bow was basically a burned out cinder forward of Frame 80 and the first fully armoured transverse bulkhead. Since that was a very small part of the ship's volume, it had still seemed like relatively manageable damage against an underpowered foe like the Reapers.

"Tanda! Come over here!" Tali shouted.

Tanda turned, and took the ten paces she needed to be at her wife's shoulder, staring sharply at the diagram. "We've lost forward shields."

"Yes, and we're not getting them back. The Blackstar cannon were shaking the generator mountings loose. _All_ of their power was going into the gravitic energy spectrum against the shields, so it was all being transmitted into the frame. With the microfractures..."

"Kriff." Below her feet, Tanda's flagship started to ring like a bell faintly shaking in an earthquake. Her bow was wreathed in energy fire.

"We need to get out of here, Tanda."

"Well, I guess the plan is that much more convincing."

"Then you'd better hit them fast! Look, there's a bunch of Oculi drones converging through the gap in the shield coverage. We're about to be strafed from stem to stern with most of our starfighter cover already gone."

"Right." Tanda spun back. "Admiral Daro'Xen," she raised on the battle comms. "All ships in the fleet will spin up their hyperdrives and kill power at the last moment before entry. You'll come into range to make the shot on the Crucible then."

"Confirmed, High Admiral," Daro'Xen answered, insistently still using her rank, and tweaking her a bit with it, perhaps.

After all, the gravitic weapons the _Braka'torja_ carried cared nothing for angle of shot. Once the Gree ship was in range, a single application of its main batteries should detonate the Crucible, and with it, finish the Reaper cause.

Tanda raised her hand. "Execute the false jump!"

"Hyperdrive now and... _cancelling_..."

At once, the Gree ship swept into place with a flicker of pseudomotion from a single precise microjump under Daro'Xen's personal supervision. As she did, however, something went wrong.

A group of three new Reapers arrived, and fast, through FTL. They had been lurking down on the surface of Luna, and they were _strange_. The Blackstar cannon were integral to the entire form of the Reaper, and they were far more angular than the others—they were partially made, Tanda realised in dim horror, with the armour and hull plates of the destroyed Harrowers and Valiants from Hackett's abortive attack when she was back home—and they were firing, raking the big Gree ship from the moment she arrived.

Her shields failed, and the Reapers kept raking her with a vigorous fusillade of uniquely heavy Blackstar cannon fire. "Daro'Xen, get out of there!"

"Don't need you telling me!" The Quarian admiral's voice shot back, her flagship clumsily dodging for long enough to bring power back to her hyperdrive. "Going to take some time!"

"Ahead flank, bow twenty ports to port!"

"The rest of the Reaper dreadnoughts are swarming her, Your Excellency!"

"Star Destroyer squadron, forward!"

The star destroyers pulled out in her shadow and raced into close range as the entire Reaper force hammered them from an open position, concentrating both main beams and Blackstar cannon, aiming on the lead ISD. The three new-model Reapers kept firing into the _Braka'torja_ continuously.

Suddenly, Daro'Xen had her hyperdrive power, and without even bothering to give a warning, brought her precious, ancient warship out of the battle into hyperspace on the most convenient open vector, just before the Reapers had closed it off. Tanda heaved a sigh, only for her gut to clench in horror instead.

Though the starfighters and assault transports and other armed ships had been launched again after their recall for the false maneouvre, racing in to take up the fight, they weren't going to be there in time to take up attacks against the three new Reapers. Instead it merely guaranteed that like her soldiers, _Reliance_ 's starfighter corps personnel survived, when the three Reapers concentrated all of their fire against her.

Like all of the ISDs in the fleet, they had now been in heavy combat for hours, and during those hours had been attacked continuously by hundreds of Reapers and thousands of Oculi drones. They had resisted these attacks more or less successfully, but the creeping loss of shield power and exhaustion of the crews had finally caught up. Like several ships in the fleet, _Reliance_ had been continuing to fight with her shields down by that point, relying on the overall formation to provide her with coverage and protection.

Instead, in the effort to save _Braka'torja_ , Tanda had directed the ISDs out in a formation which had forced _Reliance_ , despite being in the worst condition, to lead. And then she had been subjected to concentrated fire from the entire remaining Reaper force—just to come into point-blank, close contact range with the three new Reapers. Even then, it was a testament to the Star Destroyers that several behind her, like _Virulence_ —in nearly as bad of shape—came out perfectly fine.

An unfortunate Blackstar hit reaching the reactor caused the ISD to simply explode in a vivid and vast detonation. Multiple times the volume of a _Harrower_ , thousands of years newer, the entire fleet was staggered emotionally and mentally by the sight of what had once been the most powerful ship in the Milky Way finally, finally, being made to succomb to Reaper fire.

"Maintain ahead flank!" Tanda, braced on the rail, watched her dreadnought sweep past _Reliance_ 's grave, and take the entire Reaper fleet under a fire that tore through another half-dozen Reapers, themselves worn long by the battle. That provided the cover needed for Commodore Varrscha's squadron to retreat.

It also opened _Lusankya_ to the fire of the three strange new Reapers. "Shift fire!" She ordered next. "Concentrate on the lead." Eager to prove to the fleet that _Lusankya_ was up to the task, her position blocked the Reapers from engaging the rest of the fleet, and allowed all of her firepower to be concentrated onto the leader.

The three new Reapers returned fire, and kept firing again and again—straight into _Lusankya_ 's unshielded bow. Even as the fire of the ship staggered, hammered, and finally collapsed the shields of the leader of the new Reapers, Tali was almost moaning in pain from the damage to her ship.

Through the hull, a screaming, creaking groan reached the bridge. "Number One Tranverse Bulkhead compromised! They're firing through into Frame 100! Evacuating compartments, Tanda..."

Tanda's face went pale and she stared with wide open eyes into the void—and then had cause to blink hard. The lead of the new Reapers simply exploded under the massed firepower, the fragments incorporated into the hull spreading hard, and fast, a proper explosion driven by an attempt to replicate their power sources. _now there were two_...

More alarms started to howl, and the remaining two Reapers pressed in, firing in rippling salvoes of black fire onto the night. Then the Reapers committed their own reserve; Harbinger had collected the last outriding Reapers, from Batarian space, from the Terminus systems, everywhere he could, and those last two hundred Reapers arrived with Harbinger leading them, deploying in an array directly ahead of the _Lusankya_ and blocking her course to the Citadel.

Tanda clenched her hands until she thought she'd break the bones in her fingers, and then whispered the order. She had never been _foolish_. "All ships withdraw."

Staring down at the deckplates of the shuddering _Lusankya_ , the big star dreadnought held the line as the fleet, already mostly in formation and ready, spun up its hyperdrives in an almost uncomprehending, dismal daze, and obeyed the order. Varrscha's much more heavily worked over squadron followed two minutes later, and Tali, with a deft touch, brought them clear after twenty more seconds of concentrated fire from the whole Reaper force—shields and hull armour on fire, but still a working, living ship as she disappeared from their grasp.

Tanda staggered, and sank down against the railing next to her wife's station. "H-how..?"

"Harbinger claimed only humans were fit. But the Elcor, the Batarians, maybe the Turian world of Taetrus. I don't know, but I thought I felt.."

Someone raised to be less disciplined would have retched. Tanda just hung on the rail, and tried not to give into anger, as she wondered, and furied at the wonder, if she could ever find a way to relieve the motherworld of her race, ever find a way to end the depravities that had come to stand for a war she could not shake, that she could, in the end, never quite close the deal.


	102. Chapter 100

"So, Bureau Chief, what did we do wrong?"

"You know, I originally wasn't an analyst," Nyroska sighed. "Especially not a technical analyst. You should bring your friend Lawson back from Terra if you want that. So, I suppose I'm only giving this briefing since you've hoarded most of the Corellian whisky this galaxy will ever know."

Tanda glanced down to her desk. "You know I'm not drinking any of it right now, yes?"

"I never did quite understand that."

"You can have as many vices as you want," Tali interjected, exasperated and leaning forward, showing two fingers to Nyroska. "Because _you're not having children_ -and my wife can give you as much or as little alcohol as she wants to, bosh'tet, and you'll still do your job!"

"You're a terrible Jedi," Nyroska shot back drily, and turned toward the holoprojector. It was just the three of them; Tanda had sent Dodonna to try and quiet angry personnel in the coalition fleet. The situation was not good, even having just retreated here, to Benning in the Euler system about forty lightyears from Terra.

"The metric is this. The Reapers have withdrawn from essentially the entire rest of the galaxy. There are roving patrols of husk transports—asteroid based ships—indoctrinated remnant Cerberus cruisers and a few Destroyers being reported, but they've actually concentrated all of their dreadnoughts at Sol. Functionally, if it weren't for the armies of husks on many of the planets," and the woman formerly known as Ysanne Isard seemed able to say things like that much too calmly for her own good, "then we'd have already reconquered the rest of the galaxy, such as it is. They're clearly desperate to defend the Citadel, and though the battle was technically a tactical defeat, we forced them to withdraw from everywhere else to do so—a strategic victory, by any means."

Tanda saw her sallow face reflected in the room's mirror, and paused. It was a collection of slowly growing wrinkles and sagged skin from the hollows against the bone that massive weight loss had left, and picked up the mug on her desk. It was chocolate from Benning, no sugar; spices, instead, and some maize-meal, some kind of Central American drink which was about as healthy as she expected something could be; at least there was some kind of buzz in it from the chocolate. Chakwas was lecturing her about the need to gain weight for a healthy pregnancy and trying to help her recover. It had grown more urgent, to be sure...

Her eyes met Nyroska's. "The Reapers rebuild. They'll get enough humans from Terra to make a new one of those Reapers with the debris from the battlefield. They may already be trying. They'll be repairing damaged Reapers in orbit. Much of our gains will be lost if we wait."

"I agree. We should counterattack almost immediately. Fortunately, the rest of the fleet is arriving soon. _Thunderflare, Stalker, Revanchist, Indomitable_ , and several other large draughts of repaired ships for reinforcement—though the first four matters the most. We went in with five ISDs, lost one; we'll go in with all eight next time."

"Obviously." Tanda, distracted, looked down at her hands again, and started to pull gloves on to cover them. Sometimes she had seen enough—and the perfection of what was artificial was too much of a reminder of the toll of the war on what still lived. "So it's been confirmed that they've withdrawn... Everywhere?"

"Yes, we're even receiving communications from the Batarian outer colonies."

"I thought when they Reapers converted a race they converted all of it," Tali muttered foully. "Are you sure it's not a trap?"

"I don't think that ever made sense," Nyroska answered. "It's much too hard to collect everyone on a planet, let alone a spacefaring culture..."

"From experience?"

The comment elicited a glare, but Nyroska continued. "At any rate, they probably just used most of the biological material and exterminated the rest they couldn't catch in a practical frame of time."

"Quite." Tanda reached for her mug again. "So it was what Tali surmised?"

"Yes," Nyroska answered stiffly. "Yes."

Tali made a retching noise inside of her suit. "Nausea drugs are certainly required right now... I didn't _want_ to be right."

"The fact remains, this is Terra, this is the human homeworld, and we need to liberate it," Nyroska ignored Tali, and locked her eyes with Tanda. "Fast. We've got twenty legions of our troops on the surface, ten garrison bases. They're fighting right now. We can't allow them to be destroyed, cut-off on the surface."

"Do you have a plan?"

"Effect repairs and then go back and finish the job. Look, they're clearly on their last legs, utterly desperate themselves. And they're working to enact horrors again. The latest report from Lawson is that they've maneouvred the Citadel to a holding orbit over the eastern United States and projected the collection beam again."

Tanda looked at her mug. She forced herself to drink, but badly wished for something stronger. "I could have used with not knowing that. At any rate."

"At _any rate_ , we're going to let everyone down, _including_ Shepard's memory, if we don't do something about it." Tali was trying to be too busy to mourn, but it still leached through in her voice.  
"It'll take months to repair the damage to _Lusankya_ without a proper deepdock capable of handling her," Tanda laughed, tinged with hysteria. "With all due respect, Nyroska, you should have figured that out over Thyferra. Your idea is—well, if it would work, we'd do it."

"I don't need my work criticised, Pryl."

"Very well then. We need some way to even the odds, and until we find it, your plan is correct and straightforward, but cannot be executed. I'm not taking _Lusankya_ back into action with the forward transverse bulkhead compromised and compartments flashed to Frame One Hundred, when the forward shield generators are already gone and I don't have any good way to effectively protect the bow, sitting there like a gigantic chink in our defences."

"It's Terra! The motherworld of our race! You were right, you discovered it." 'Nyroska' squeezed her hands, reached up, bit at her fingers with her teeth, blue eyes flashing as she paced, staring at the two women. "You've taken everything else from me. Don't let the Reapers win too!"

"And don't be disloyal. I'm going to do it. I just need to plan. Get out. Isard."

The woman spun on heel, but rather than sensing anger from her, Tanda felt almost like she had been starting to cry.

"I know that I should do better at feeling sympathy for the bosh'tet, but I don't."

"I..."

"We need this war to be over. It's cost us so much, it's costing _you_ so much."

"We need some kind of super-weapon that can wipe out enough of the Reapers to give us an open path to the Citadel."

"You Imperials.."

"Yeah, I know. I'll think of something else. Promise." She reached out, and took her wife's hands into her own.

-

With repair ships and a mobile deepdock hovering around the fleet, the rest of the ISDs mustered into place, and the remaining thousands of allied ships—though two thousand were Quarian, a thousand were geth, and the remaining thousand or so were the Turians, Asari, humans, and first Salarian upgraded ships—in position, they seemed resplendent in strength and life, even if the closer inspection would suggest the weakness of the bustling fleet, that there were only a hundred dreadnoughts in the number, and the better part of them were Geth.

Below them, in greens and browns, Benning lived. Of its population, however, they had only found around seventy thousand of the original two and a half million inhabitants. It was another grim reminder in a war that had broken the back of the galaxy. The contrast with the splendour of the fleet overhead could not be denied, with some two hundred ships—built across four thousand years—from the Republic and the Empires, and the imitations of them built here too, all floating together as the core.

Eight ISDs flanked the fleet, now, as well as VSDs, Harrowers, Valiants, Dreadnoughts. The Gree ship hung back in a lower orbit, Daro'Xen's Quarians continuing to make repairs to systems that they all barely understood.

Slowly, the details of survival on the Systems Alliance's core colonies had filtered in. Eden Prime, despite its infrastructure being wrecked, still had four million humans living on it, even if an equal number had died in what was being called the Cerberus Holocaust. Elysium, with ten million people and unattacked due to the vigorous Imperial offensives of the early war, was in the best condition, and had accepted no less than five million refugees, and Terra Nova with four and a half millions and two million refugees was much the same. Intai'sei, Noveria, and Therum were untouched. Horizon with the hideous Cerberus experiments there still hadn't touched many of the original colonists who had fled into the interior. Most of the space stations were gone.

Outside of Terra, the largest human population remained the human population on the Republican world of Ova. The Asari had been slammed, but though there were a hundred million dead from Thessia, with its rapid liberation most of its infrastructure had survived and civilian resilience remained—and three major Asari colonies _had_ survived untouched. The Salarian homeworld was in a similar position to Thessia. The Turians were much worse off, with only Invictus untouched. Up to half of the entire Turian population in the galaxy was dead—or worse—and their entire industrial base and economy had simply ceased to exist, leaving survivors clinging to wrecked worlds.

Of course, it was worse still for a fair number of the minor races.

Once again, a great council of war was mustered in the briefing rooms meant for _Lusankya_ 's starfighter pilots. This time it was far angrier and more fractuous than the last one, and Tanda was wearing a wool greatcoat to hide how her uniform hung against the frame of her body, drinking another mug of the thick, powderful cocoa, chili and maize, and half to the point of beseeching Dea in public for the strength to bear her child.

Somehow it didn't seem like enough. She wanted to be in her suit again, like Tali, able to hold the power of facelessness. Able to keep herself at a remove from the clamor of the people before her, the strain already at the gates in her first attempt to unify this galaxy. Victory with her fifty mothers—as many as there were hells, by no coincidence—and defeat, well.

Queens and Heads of State alike, in fable and reality, they were always the ones solely responsible for defeat.

Tali'Zorah stood up against the noise. "All right, you're all supposed to be officers, statesmen, Captains, people that your people trust! I am Tali'Zorah vas Lusankya, a Quarian, and _yes_ , the wife of the President! But I fought alongside Captain Shepard, too, and right now, in this moment, we need _unity._ We need to come together as one galaxy, one united force for our mutual survival! _That_ is the vision we are fighting for in working to defeat the Reapers."

And then another figure stood up, and walked toward the podium. Slight, and in her dress blues, she was trembling, somewhat dissheveled. "I'm Admiral Hannah Shepard, second ranking commander of the Systems Alliance Navy, and, as many of you know and many do not, Atarah Shepard's mother. I'm asking you now to sit down, shut up, and listen."

"The bulk of our strength," she continued as she went to stand before them, "is yet untapped. We are united, we have reinforcements, and we have a plan. All that is necessary is that we address command and control issues in the fleet with _more_ integration, not more dissension. We will be back over Earth within a fortnight, and when we do, we won't be leaving. We destroyed almost seven hundred Reapers in that battle and they won't be able to rebuild them all that fast. That's a _fact_. We've suffered problems with their ability to be regenerated before. So we're _not_ going to engage in infighting and make our enemies stronger!"

"Now look, all of you. Tanda Pryl was trusted by my daughter, by the hero you all claim to respect. She has set aside the Empire, and assumed the Presidency to cut us off from malignant influences from her home galaxy and to let us achieve our own destiny, our own culture, our own unified galaxy. ALL OF THAT goes right through the Reapers, first and foremost! We're not giving up, we're not backing down, and we're not changing the horse in mid-stream."

"Right now, as we speak, twenty legions and ten garrisons are emplaced on Earth, fighting and retaking territory. Those troops are counting on the rapid return of their space-based support. They're counting on _us_. The entire Reaper fleet is concentrated in one place, and defeating it is a straightforward task. When we have the gameplan down, we're going to attack, and we're going to win." She clapped the podium with her hands, and stepped away.

General Jan Dodonna stepped forward next. "Some of you, from the Republic and other places, know me. Others have just seen me as a ranking advisor to President Pryl. I wish to assure you that her leadership is as sound as that of the many officers of the Republic I have worked with in the past, that her commitment to victory is absolute, and that her staff consists of the very best experts available. We will be returning to Terra, and we will be winning."

"That include you?!" One of the voices in the audience shouted, but it was jocular, and that tone gave Tanda an in, a moment to work with.

Tanda convulsively finished her cup and surged to her feet, eyes wide and face twisted to a grimace by the bitterness of the dregs of the cocoa draught. "Forgive me for my silence, comrades, but I have given my health, my limbs, and my soul in the service of your galaxy. I was named your President not on account of my ambition, but on account of the fact that from the very first moment, I have commanded the loyalty of the many races, and I have forever been fighting against this evil, by every wile and strategy I knew. Where I have, at times, failed, my virtue is in my fortitude, and my vision in this triumph is a collaborative one, in the formation of this Dominion of the Galaxy, unopposed by older races."

"Comrades, I do not ask you to follow me but that I order you to die. Our cause is a glorious one, and you will see me leading it until this war is ended. We will not debate, and we will not bicker. The plans are being drawn up now. As soon as the fleet is ready and the plans are drawn up, we will go back, we will execute the plan, and we will be victorious. You have all agreed to serve under my authority, and this Imperial fleet remains mine lawfully to command. Now, I will receive updates on ship repairs, ship upgrade capacity, and fleet dispositions from all the relevant commanders, and we will make plans to improve the organisation of the fleet for the next assault. _That. Is. All!_ "

-

As the fleet slowly ceased to be a disorderly coalition and started to become a real fighting force, the commanders who were promising final victory came together to figure out a way to make it really happen. With all the effort going into the technical and organisational works around them, it seemed an almost informal affair by comparison.

Slowly, some ideas came together. There was consensus, certainly, about certain aspects of the anticipated operation. One obvious fact was that the Reapers greatly feared the potential of the _Braka'torja_ to destroy the Citadel, and probably couldn't un-dock the Crucible or else they would have already done it.

"So, the genesis of the plan," Dodonna was summarising, "is that we must use the Gree ship to lure the Reapers off of the Citadel, as they assess it the greatest threat. It's not necessary for Admiral Daro'Xen to effect repairs in time," he added, a bit hastily, since the woman was at the conference and about to start talking if he hadn't. "Just to show up and leave again when attacked."

"Bait, again, and with damage." She folded her hands and despite the faceplate, one could feel the glare.

"We're all in this together, Daro'Xen," Tanda murmured.

"...As you say, but Quarians have done a greatly disproportionate amount of bleeding."

"No civilian casualties yet.." Hannah was shooting her a look. Quarian and human glared for a moment.

Daro'Xen raised her hands with a rippling of mechanical tentacles. "As you say. I will prioritise the shields. Of course, I will leave when I judge I must to preserve the greatest ship my race has known."

"Just give me one salvo, Admiral. Promise me one salvo." Tanda leaned in. "I need that commitment."

"I'm taking _Lusankya_ into battle with the Number One Tranverse Bulkhead shored up by masses of vacuum-set ferrocrete," Tali answered, feeling snappish toward the Admiral.

"And it's a foolish decision. This ship is the better part of our fleet. We still need a way to destroy the Reapers once they're lured off, or else the holding fleet will be hammered _and_ they'll be back to the Citadel in minutes anyway, another chaotic attritional melee," Daro'Xen answered. "What's the plan there?"

"We could lure them into the sun, unlike Imperial ships they're not strong enough to survive major solar emissions... If we can disrupt their shields." Dodonna was frowning. It was inadequate, but...

Tanda shook her head. "My apologies, General, but we've already done that. I doubt the Reapers will fall for it twice."

"If we could make a big enough bomb, we could duplicate the effect at will, then," he answered. "Perhaps resume manufacture of a second Crucible?"

"It would take almost a year," Hannah replied. "I know, I was involved in the logistics for the first effort."

A blonde off to the side of the room leaned forward, earning a sharp glance from Tali. She tossed a datapad onto the table. "What about igniting a gas giant?" Nyroska asked. "It's mentioned from the review of the Battle of Yavin that Tarkin..."

"...That though many people say Tarkin should have fired on Yavin to open a path to Yavin IV, but couldn't because it would just turn the planet into a star by igniting self-sustaining fusion?" Dodonna looked down. "I was there, you know. That's precisely why it didn't happen."

"I'm well aware!"

"Enough!" Tali shot a look at both of them. "We're here to find a way to win... And we don't have any way to ignite a gas giant anyway, are the ones in Sol even big enough?"

"With that much energy? Yes, oh yes," Tanda answered, her face suddenly bright. "I remember thinking about this before. Lucifer. Lucifer! Arthur C. Clarke's Lucifer!"

Hannah stared. "...Lucifer?"

"Yes. Jupiter ignited into a star. With enough energy it could work."

"We don't _have_ enough energy!"

"Yes, we _do_ ," Tali stood up and brought up her omnitool, her hands moving excitedly. "Eezo. We could get enough energy out of it... Even the core of a relay is enough to destroy an entire system."

"That's refined eezo," Hannah sank back. "How do we get enough if it's unrefined? It'd be the size of a bloody asteroid."

Daro'Xen and Tanda exchanged a glance. Both had had interactions with the place in the past, and both thought of it at the same moment, thinking of the failed asteroid gambit in their last attempt... And how that could be adapted to carrying a _very special_ asteroid.

Tanda shed some of her exhaustion, cracking a wry grin. "I think I know just the place."


	103. Chapter 101

Burning forests rose in continuous firestorms from the ignition of the entire length of the peat bogs and Boreal forests of Russia across the background of the city, but the Imperial forces at Nizhniy Novgorod were counterattacking. Meeting remnant local defence forces that had fallen back toward Kazan, they were approaching the ruins of Moskva from the east, sweeping the land with continuous fire and incinerating the husks in masses.

Within the limit of the theatre shields around a base, the Reapers could not provide orbital fire support. That meant the Reapers in Moskva were completely unsupported. The Imperial troops had the heart of the husk infestation in the entire region undisturbed in their sights. What remained of the city would burn, but the sooner it was wiped from the face of the planet, the faster the survivors would be secure.

Even without support from above, their confidence in cleansing the area under which they could protect themselves was absolute. Starfighters raced overhead, cycling through rearming cycles in the base, supported at approach ranges by the defensive cannon of the prefab base, and providing cover for the Legions in their offensive operations. Under a blackened and oily sky, the invasion was being turned back.

Deep penetrating strikes had left the legacy oil still in the ground across the Arabian peninsula burning. Wreathing the sky in the sickeningly sweet-acrid stench of petroleum, gouts in the ground burning like pools that led to Hell, hovertank regiments raced, cutting off and annihilating groups of Reaper creatures. From their central position, they had wrecked the hordes advancing down into the very tip of the Arabian peninsula, having swept all life away above it.

But Oman did not fall, and now would not fall. And racing to the north, detachments of hovertanks made their way for the Golan, and the last surviving human forces in the region. Using area effect warheads on concussion missiles with multimegaton yield, they cleared the way through lighter enemies and picked apart the rest at range, covered by mobile ground-to-space anti-ship weapons as they moved from position to position.

Forces in Yunnan were advancing in every direction, dispersing to support the large Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Burmese regular and irregular forces which had been providing such intense resistance in the vividly rugged banded terrain of upland southeast Asia. The people starved, the armies fought, and now, for the first time, counterattacked, massing, swarming over hills and across raging rivers, against a sky whose hues of purple and red and blue were so vivid and so beautiful that people would remember it for centuries, the ash, the dust, the smoke choking the air and cooling the planet, the deritus of billions of dead, nonetheless bringing alive the wreathed sky, writing with incredible colour a tale otherwise of despair.

In Australia the Reaper forces, small compared to the extent of the continent, had been defeated completely within that promised fortnight. Madagascar had been cleared much the same way, and in the devastation the survivors knew only a new wariness, of the hidden risk of indoctrination from the pieces of Reapers and what had once been reaperified living things now strewn and scattered across the landscape. In the heart of the Four Corners region, the survivors in the savaged remains of the North American Union across the western part of the continent surged into safety past the guns of Legions now clearing out what remained of Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Denver.

Miranda clung to hope despite the withdrawal of the fleet. They were winning everywhere they attacked. The Imperial forces due south of her in Spain were busy clearing most of the peninsula, even as to the east in the Alps, the Swiss militias and the Tyrolean rifle leagues were fighting as irregulars in technicals alongside Imperial forces in the desperate effort to take as much territory as possible, as quickly as possible, to save and succor the survivors of Europe—and plant as many gene-engineered crops as might have some chance of growing, with snow falling again, and this time the planet much deeper into a nuclear winter. Summer had lasted three months, and consisted of the snow simply melting south of about Glasgow, while temperatures remained only in the 10s above celsius. In some places it wasn't on the ground simply due to the heat of endless scorching fires from the war.

By that standard, the starving half-corpses in the streets of Bristol were the lucky who were alive. That was all that they could claim, but if food came... The reports from Benning said that the storehouses were full. If they could just get ships to Terra from Benning, they'd have plenty. Miranda had authorised the propaganda reassuring people of that even as she waited in her own worry.

The hyperwave transmitters in the Imperial garrison bases ignored the Reaper jamming, and so the planet's hope abounded in the reports from the rest of the galaxy. That, too, was never something the Reapers had known before: An enemy with hope.

There was a strange feeling in that. Miranda could not help but envision the Intelligence at the heart of that evil. Its power, its vision, its persistence over a course of millions of years. What was it thinking now? In the sky above, she could still see the Citadel, hovering far to the west, but massive enough to be visible over the horizon at that altitude, looming in the atmosphere. Revolting, intimidating, evil, now, when once she had seen it as the beating heart of the galaxy, as a place of beauty.

She wandered onto the balcony, where Wrex was already standing. He glanced to her. "The beer's so damned warm for the snow falling. But I guess it makes sense. I heard the English actually like their beer warm."

"That's a bit of a simplification," Miranda answered, her accent betraying her sympathies. "It's that traditional pub cask ales are cooled, well, in the cellar, and the temperature you get from it, is what you get. We've got people dying, and we're only drinking it because it's calories and it's already here. It's warm, because it's from a cellar. That's all."

"Yeah, everyone is going to fucking starve if Pryl doesn't hurry up." Wrex glanced up again. "Stupid way to go in a war."

"Starving?"

Wrex should his head. "Nope. Whatever happened to Shepard up there. I hate thinking about it, but the stupid thing hasn't gotten blown up yet, so I come back to it."

"She probably fought to the death against thousands of husks."

"I hope so. She's too famous among krogan to have gone out any other way. We don't want to start idolising losers. But Shepard was no loser, so yeah, that's what she did. Yeah. I hate this. We've cleared the island, so why don't we cross?"

"You know I'm working out the details with General Loidono about that right now. But we'd have to land at Normandy with the area around Calais so contaminated, and with the storms the way they are..."

"Why not the Bay of Biscay?"

"Storms."

"Further south."

"Open ocean directly facing it. Normandy will still be terrible, but the Imperial vehicles are very resilient, so we can probably contribute a force—whenever Loidono breaks through the Pyrenees."

"Hrmf. War will be over by then, and all my boys will have gotten to do since clearing the island is going around dealing with these groups of people who get themselves indoctrinated."

"Do you want to do something else?" Miranda looked up, leaning on the balcony with her own beer mug.

"Yeah. When it comes time, I want to take my krogan and hit that beam, just like Shepard did. I want to clear that Citadel from the inside, and I want to break computer consoles until we shut that stupid intelligence—hah!—down, and reclaim the Citadel instead of just blowing it up."

"Oh." Miranda frowned. "You want to see if there's anything left, don't you?"

"Probably isn't, but I owe it to her."

"I'll put it under advisement to President Pryl." The snow had started falling again.

"Fine, but make sure she says yes."

-

Burnt-out bows or not, _Lusankya_ was quite impressive when she left hyperspace, standing off of Omega. Even without a fleet at her back—and Tanda had taken the ship alone, leaving the rest of the fleet standing in Systems Alliance space—she said everything that she needed to about the power that the President had brought to confront the truculent 'Governor' of Omega.

Unsurprisingly, she had survived this long, too. The Relay was no longer in the system as part of the opening moves of the war, and the limited Reaper penetration by FTL had only begun about a week before _Lusankya_ had returned. The comms crackled, and a very familiar and harshly feminine voice cut onto the channel. "You do sure know how to make an entrance, Pryl—I'll give you that. And that you weren't lying about your Empire having serious compensation issues. Omega is holding our own. What do you want?"

"I'm coming aboard, Governor."

"You've got your own space station now, La Presidenta," Aria mocked. "Must you really keep inviting yourself to mine?"

"Well, I keep doing it, so clearly I must."

"I'll be waiting. Oh, congratulations for getting out of the suit. You've wrecked yourself so well you'd look better in it. T'Loak out." The channel cut.

"Why don't we just open fire on that cur right..."

"That's enough, Bureau Chief." Tanda turned away to Tali.

"You didn't tell her that we needed her help," Tali offered.

"...Quarians are cooperators, dear. You're the better angels of sapient nature, quite frankly. With T'Loak, my problems would be _worse_ if I told her in advance that I needed her help, I assure you. Would that Lando had been stuck here, he could solve this entire thing for me..." Muttering, she started for the turbolift.

The small knot of officers took a single Escort Shuttle to Omega, and boarded at once. A Turian woman was there waiting for them. "Aria is not pleased, I must remind Your Excellency, and is waiting for you..."

"In the usual place, I'm sure." Tanda started off through the corridors, shrugging down into her greatcoat and staying close at Tali's side, lightsabre reassuring on her hip, straight toward the legendary nightclub.

The station resembled more of a postapocalyptic wasteland by now than a decadent gangster's paradise, though. In the wrecked conduits, the blacked out panels, the collapsed stanchions and abandoned, machine-gunned shops, in the outlines of bodies flashed into vapour by plasma to prevent huskification, Tanda woozily thought of an entire galaxy of a similar level of devastation. One of her main objectives was not thinking of it. They needed to win the war... And the scale of what would be required afterwards, was something that it seemed, needed to wait for afterwards.

"A drink to celebrate, Pryl?" The lights were working _here_ , at least, and Aria had her feet kicked up as she leaned back in a threadbare and torn booth table.

"Sorry, I'm pregnant."

Aria snickered. "Who is the lucky father?"

"Tali," Tanda answered dryly.

"...She doesn't strike me as the type."

"I'm pregnant too!" Tali offered with a wave, but held her tongue about the plan.

"...I'm not sure I should really believe any of this. How?"

"Force magic," Tanda continud deadpan.

Stiff and pale, Nyroska insisted on standing. Mentions of Tanda's pregnancy viscerally upset her in some way.

Tanda, generally speaking, would rather not speak of it. "Governor, I need a six kilometer long chunk of Eezo... Two kilometers wide, one and a half deep, roughly. From the best grade, untapped sectors of the mines."

Aria stared. _Stared_. "You're shitting me. You'd have to blow part of Omega off to get that! Why!?"

"Because I need to trap the Reapers in an explosion powerful enough to destroy a massive fleet, but not so powerful that it wipes out an entire system."

Aria sank back, staring at her. "You'd ... Hack straight through our reserves."

"And we'd win the war in a day, Governor," Nyroska spoke, surprisingly smoothly, her lips fading to a bemused smile. "Surely you'd like to be known as contributing to that."

"Whatever. All that matters to me is power, and I've got it over Omega, and you've caused enough..."

"This is the fate of the entire galaxy!"

Tanda raised a hand to silence her Bureau Chief. "This is a buiness deal, Aria. What do you want for it? You make money selling Eezo, but selling Eezo won't be happening without my collaboration. I am, however, interested in buying a lot."

"With the economy the way it is now you don't have enough credits to pay for that much," Aria answered flatly.

"Well, in your capacity as a Governor I am going to make you a hereditary Senator under the new Galactic Constitution," Tanda answered. "That, is your due, for what you have already done."

"Hereditary Senator? Great, I don't have any kids. My daughter's dead."

Tanda closed her eyes. "I know. You are..."

"Shut up. I want money."

"Fine." Tanda smiled tightly and let her eyes flicker open. "Money. All right. I'll give you all the power you could want under the new government. Eezo is going away, Aria. It's not needed for the brave new future. It's not needed for hyperspace."

"Not fast enough to matter here. And your primitive kludge hyperdrives still use it for power routing. I know you brought resources with you, but enough to build proper ones? I'm gaming on no, not in quantities enough to be relevant in the near future, anyway."

"Eezo could be needed for currency. We'll use it as the basis of currency, since it still has utility with creating biotics and there are fixed quantities. I'll locate the mint and a reserve bank on Omega."

"The mint and a reserve bank, and you'll pay what.."

"With my gratitude. And your Governate having the mint and the reserve bank in it," Tanda answered levelly.

"You just need that volumetric quantity of eezo, correct?"

"Yes, and so in consideration of your sacrifice in having chunks of Omega blown off... My gratitude, in the form of the mint and the reserve bank."

"Deal." Aria reached out her hand, and Tanda took it, almost surprised that she'd gotten the government of Omega to agree.

"...Thank you for being reasonable," Tanda half whispered. "I'm sorry. I know how important Omega is to you." She took a datapadd from Tali, drew the terms up, sealed them, and handed it over to Aria. "Automatically broadcast by hyperwave."

"Thank you." Aria checked the send tags to confirm it was done.

"I... Know it will be some issue to secure the necessary asteroid, but we must act quickly."

"Oh, it's not a problem at all," Aria grinned. "I'll just direct you to the other half of the Omega asteroid in the asteroid field. I have the location personally memorised... As a back-up."

Tanda opened her mouth, closed it again. "Governor..."

"I protect mine, Madame President. Now go win your fucking war."

-

 _Lusankya_ returned to Benning with the gigantic chunk of Eezo secure in a massive cradle across her open docking bay, with several of the tractor emitters under it. The fleet was before them, standing ready to go.

"Signal all ships to stand out for battle! All taskgroups, all squadrons report status, recall crew from leave and make final preparations. We are on a twenty-four hour clock to departure!"

"Confirming signals across all taskgroups..."

Tanda turned away from the forebridge and retreated to the tactical holograms at the back. "All right. What remains to be done?"

"Just one problem," Dodonna answered. "We're going to have to reach the outer edge of Jupiter's core before deploying the asteroid. When it leaves our shield perimeter, the abrupt _change_ in pressure will release containment on the series of hypermatter pods. At that depth, the detonation should proceed naturally. As we know, there is a fundamental link between Eezo and dark matter—there is at least a small chance from that link that the singularity, not of the regular type, will become self-sustaining and a true star will form."

"The consequences for Terra?" Tanda glanced over the readouts. She needed summaries, at this point...

"No different than in Clark's novel at the broad level which is important for human life. He was quite good at that sort of science, for a man living on an essentially primitive world," Dodonna answered with some admiration evidence in his voice. "The planet's ecosphere would have to adjust to a perpetual dim backwash of light at night, but the star would still be immeasurably weaker than Sol."

"All right. So _Bra'katorja_ will arrive over Jove to draw out a Reaper attack. Once they're fully committed, _Lusankya_ will move in to cover her retreat, simulate hyperdrive failure, and dive on the planet. We'll ride the blast wave out. You both look uneasy. What's the problem?"

"The lack of foward shield emitters. Yes, we'll have our stern to the wave, but it's still a significant risk of our destruction," Dodonna answered.

Tanda closed her eyes. "Yes, I suppose it is. Do we have any way of dealing with it... Tali?"

The Quarian was silent for a moment, turning, looking uncomfortable, her hands working her omnitool and playing with her scarf. "I should really be a Doctor-Engineer like my mother, not one promoted on the battlefield, to be sure about this, but... As much as I hate to say it, we can put the bow back on later."

Sometimes, Tanda was very concerned about her mental state... Or maybe it was her wife's. "...What?"

"What do you mean, what? We'll set the charges at Frame 70 forward of the Number One Tranverse Armour Bulkhead, look." She interfaced her Omnitool with the holoplot and projected it. "There's nothing at all intact forward of that bulkhead, every single system, emitter, weapon, cabin has been fried to a cinder, and the frame is fairly badly damaged. Yes, with a year in an improvised yard, I could rebuild it with people in spacesuits and lots of Geth. But we don't have a year. So let's accept a three or four year refit when this is done, if we survive, if the ship survives. Let's just set explosive charges at Frame 70, ten frames ahead of the bulkhead for dissipation purposes, on the outer side keels, the main keel, and the armour lapstrake joints here, here, and here. And then, when we blow the bow off, look, we re-angle the shields projected forward from the second tranverse bulkhead, and at the tightened angle, they close around the forward bulkhead—complete coverage. We'll be going into battle with full shield strength!"

"Rig the charges and brief the EVA Salvage Teams." Tanda clapped her hands together. "Get it done on time, Tali."

"Right! No sleep tonight!" She furiously tapped out the signals on her omnitool, and then turned to the turbolift. "You think you've crippled my ship," she was muttering to no Reaper in particular. "But that weak spot won't be there when I'm done..."

Tanda watched as her wife formed her crews and got to work. It was only as she saw them set the charges, that she in the end let a strangely solicitious Isard help her back to her quarters to sleep, that she hazily realised she was about to create a star. Sinking into bed, her quarters were hazy and indistinct. It seemed like she had discovered the end of the universe itself. She had grown into the person she never thought she would be, and the life inside of her, utterly precious and growing strong, was a charge, a duty, that could not be denied, abrogated, or resigned. The weight of every ripple of chaos in the galaxy was on her head, and tomorrow, she was going to bring light.


	104. Chapter 102

Tanda had slept, and rose in such a daze that she scarcely noted where things in her cabin were, having another bowl of pozolli and wandering up to the bridge. She took the reports, read through them, commented them and sent them back down like before any other battle, but then wandered out to the bridge, and just looked, like a young cadet fresh to space.

It was strange watching the ship's bow detached. Gentle puffs of smoke from precision shaped charges against the strength girders. Tali's crews with cutting torches went to it after they had done their safety checks, and a couple of light tugs hauled it away. 760 meters of starship, roughly the size of a local dreadnought, blackened and twisted. A fragment of her ship, now marked with the repaired forward armour bulkhead, a gigantic plug of ferrocrete stretching back another 380 meters from it. When the work was done, Tanda felt like sleeping again; they still had some hours before the jump to hyperspace was to begin by the hour clock counting down to the beginning of the operation.

"I imagine she'll trim down by the bow in Jupiter's atmosphere despite the loss of hull, so do the calculations carefully and check with me before you program the thrusters to compensate," she remarked to the helm crew before turning away, her mind processing details of the situation despite it all. Counting the _Harrower_ s, she had almost twenty destroyers. With the _Valiant_ s, about another twenty-five Dreadnought-scale ships.

"Shield emitters complete full enclosure, Excellency!"

"Of course they do. Self-doubt aside, she is most definitely a Doctor-Engineer..."

"Excellency!?"

"No matter, L'tenant." She wandered back to her small cabin just off the bridge. Even sea cabins were luxurious on Star Dreadnoughts. She activated the comms to the _Black Asp_ and waited.

"Your Excellency?" Captain Iillor blinked onto the screen, with a jacket tossed over her nightclothes. "Forgive me, I was trying to sleep."

"Oh, I'm about to do the same. I just wanted to know if you thought that within the technical capabilities of our interdictors to use the grav wells on repulsion and thereby... Create a wedge in a mass ejection."

"...A hole, in _the_ mass ejection, I assume?"

"Yes, for _Lusankya_ to aim for. An expanding wedge generated by both interdictors which will start to push the wave aside. This will be a close matter even for _Lusankya_ , and we'll need something for the sensors to lock on to in the maelstrom of our own making."

"Understood, Your Excellency..." The Interdictor Captain paused for a moment. "...May the force be with you."

"Thank you, Captain Iillor. Here, I'm drafting the orders to the interdictor section now... And, _sent_. May the force be with you and all of your crews, Captain. You'll be in command of the section."

"Thank you." The channel blinked off.

Tanda pulled her uniform off and sat in the empty bed for a while, cupping her stomach, at the life within only weeks old. She dimly tried to imagine treating it as anything other than life, and couldn't, feeling the force pulsing through her daughter. Sometimes, the mores of this place were very strange indeed.

Starting to drift off to sleep, she felt a warm rustle of fabric and tubing and hard metal rings rustling against her under the cover, and an arm encased in rubberized fibres following it. She didn't care, didn't open her eyes, just snuggled into the form. By long connection, she knew well who it was, and what that form was.

"Asleep, Tanda?"

"Only halfway."

"...I shouldn't have said anything. You should sleep."

"I slept forever. Now I feel tired and I'm sleeping again, mfff... mmm." Tanda cuddled into her wife incoherently.

"Exactly what I meant," the Quarian answered, and in her own exhaustion, curled around Tanda, holding her, letting her find sleep again.

Some people, veterans mostly, slept before battle. Not even all of them, however. Many others... Could not, did not sleep.

Everyone faced war in their own way. Tanda had some trouble rising, but used the last of her table water and some coffee from Benning—they had the plantings for kaff, but who knew when it would ever be in regular production—and she'd come to like the beans that had evolved in Terra's soil more, anyway.

In a slightly surprising twist, she had a hefty breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese brought up, half to please Tali, half for the energy. Stretching, pulling a simple, old Imperial uniform on, she braided her hair as the time counted down, and helped Tali with her scarfs.

"I've got to go and make sure engineering is ready," Tali said quietly.

"I know." Tanda clinked her face against the side of Tali's helmet. "No smudging," she whispered, elliciting a faint giggle.

And with that, they went to their duty posts.

-

Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh, lately vas Bra'katorja, had been one of those Quarians with a legendarily bad Pilgrimage. Equally impressive, she had survived it, come back to the fleet, and prospered, her brilliance and talent overcoming the dark things it was said she learned during the horrors she endured.

She had long ago resolved to keep her people from ever being weak again, and devoted her life to that cause. To her, _Bra'katorja_ was a blessing from the ancestors which had come after many years of long effort in the cause of her people. The risks being taken with the still badly damaged ship turned her stomach.

At the same time, she didn't want to let Tali'Zorah vas Lusankya down. The girl, and she still thought of her as a girl, was brave, loyal, and had elevated the stature of Quarians immensely. She was also _intimately_ connected to the fulcrum of power in the galaxy, and though that made Daro'Xen a little sick...

Well, it was useful.

The order given, she watched as her great ship accelerated out of the fleet muster point over the tiny backwater human colony at Alpha Centauri, and leapt into hyperspace. This journey, too, would take only seconds, and it was a journey directly into battle. The massive, damaged Star Dreadnought behind her faded to a pinprick, and all of the fleets with her, and then the mottled reality of hyperspace was alone visible.

And then, they were in the Jovian system in the middle of the overall orbits of Sol, the great red gas giant sweeping, storms boiling before them. Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, four great moons spread out before them. "Target the surface of Europa and the site of the old base," Daro'Xen instructed crisply. They only had two of their six weapons working...

"Targeted and locked in, Admiral!"

"Fire."

The ice flexed and heaved, and abandoned power stores before the surface exploded. Then, again, and again the ice heaved and crumbled, water rushing out to the surface even as the massive pieces of ice quickly worked to freeze again, and the vapour plunged off, roiling into space.

The whole point was to create a mystery for the Reapers. Why were they attacking their own abandoned infrastructure, in orbit of Jupiter, with the most dangerous weapon that the Citadel had cause to fear? What possible explanation was there for it? Was it simply a trap, or something else entirely?

And instead of worrying about the massive fleet assembling to find out, half the remaining Reaper strength in the system, Daro'Xen doggedly kept firing. Oh, but she wanted to be worried. She wanted to leave outright with her ship, that represented, to her, all the power of her race. But she'd hold her ground for long enough... Long enough to crush the Old Machines.

They responded as had been hoped, though the six hundred Reapers coming for them were perhaps not as many as Tanda should have liked. Daro'Xen formed her starfighters up and sent them out on a vector toward Mars to further complicate the issue. The planet had plenty of abandoned and evacuated infrastructure, and was at its closest approach.

Then the two interdictors arrived at the outside of the Jovian system. To the Reapers this made it seem, from past practice, that the Coalition was certainly offering battle. Harbinger and his main fleet continued to hold position in Earth orbit. They were refusing to take the bait.

She watched the Reaper force spread out, using FTL to cover the distance swiftly and then slowing down to approach in a pincers through Jupiter's moons. "Cease-fire and start to pull back through sector XJ-83." Daro'Xen designated the plot position. "Execute."

Their weapons left the churned surface of Europa behind and the gravity drives of the Gree ship backed her away from the planet on a least distance course to the grav limit. The right wing of the Reaper force was growing closer and closer. She wasn't supposed to escape it, but the Reaper disposition suggested she was going to be engaged by three hundred of them much more closely than she might have wished.

There was no point in waiting; Daro'Xen watched the display impassively as the Reapers reached the outer range of _Bra'katorja_ 's fire. "Target the leading wave and open fire."

In short succession both operating weapons fired, and two Reapers died, crumpled and disintegrated under the massive gravitic shear, blackstar cannon exploding in flashes of singularities and power sources rippling a series of distributed small detonations. There were still three hundred in that prong of the pincer, coming on fast.

Through the hyperwave comms that she was broadcasting, Tanda was surely aware of it all. Daro'Xen set her course and held it. She just needed to reach the grav limit, that was all. The two operational guns were ready, and fired again. Killing two more Reapers, though, seemed like pouring a pail into a wildfire that was sweeping toward them.

Then the Reapers had the range, and fired simultaneously with all of their beams converging on the shields of the _Bra'katorja_ , firing, and firing again. The shields flared, but held even under the concentrated fire. The Blackstar cannon were a bit shorter ranged, and it would take a moment before the shields really came under fire. Fortunately the strongest shields and the intact weapons were on the same flank (by no coincidence—it was the undamaged side of the saucer), and with the ship independent of orientation, Daro'Xen could keep the enemy facing her there, and buy herself a few more minutes before the problems started to build.

But build they did. The blackstar cannon gained the range too, and soon enough the converging courses had brought the Reaper pincer into close contact. The left side of the Reaper formation was curving in pursuit. Expecting a trap, they were still standing off cautiously while she picked at them, bleeding them, but not enough.

Warnings started to flare for shield failures in the alien colour-sense warnings of the Gree. The Grav limit was still so damnedably far away... Under her feet, her prize, her ship, started to burn. She didn't have enough shields to cover all flanks, and though the Reapers weren't trying to engulf her, they started to get in around the edges... And these systems were much too old to take that kind of pounding.

Like a conductor commanding prearranged maneouvres to the best tempo and timing, Tanda Pryl arrived with _Lusankya_ on the outer edge of the grav limit, boring in hard. Daro'Xen heaved a breath through her suit filters.

Welling off the damaged length of the arrowhead, a wall of green and red bolts swept in. They were at range, still coming in from the grav limit, but against the great mass of Reapers the rapid fire salvos, fired like they were bombarding a planet, were not meant to reliably destroy. Instead, the walls of fire disrupted the attack, sent Reapers maneouvring out of bearing on the _Bra'katorja_ , and paved the way for the concussion missiles which followed, homing in against their targets and causing real damage.

 _Bra'katorja_ shook again, and Daro'Xen ground her teeth. Pryl was certainly getting more than one salvo out of her! But _Lusankya_ was coming in recklessly fast in the complicated Jovian system, firing hard. She was clearly working to open a path for the Gree ship's escape, and the Quarian Admiral had to admit as much.

Entire groups of Reapers were venting plasma, backlight by the clouds of Jupiter. Swinging hard in against them, _Lusankya_ carried her course in toward the clouds of the planet. Engines flaring hard across the sun, she drove into the mass of the Reapers, treating them like bugs, swatted with fire.

Around her, the hammer-blows to the _Bra'katorja_ had brought her systems down, failing, engines losing power but momentum carrying her across the grav limit. The only thing that mattered was the hyperdrive, and Daro'Xen laid in a course all the way back to Ova and executed it at once. Power flaring, the ancient Gree ship escaped as the Reapers were consumed into a melee battle with the _Lusankya_ , leaving her fight behind, leaving Tanda's flagship to plunge toward the planet.

-

"Admiral Daro'Xen has made good her escape?"

"The _Bra'katorja_ is clear, Admiral, yes."

"Thank you." Tanda watched the battle around her. With the shields at full strength for the hull coverage that they had to defend, the Reapers found themselves at a stalemate. But the Reapers still only dimly understood precisely how shields worked, from their own attempts to replicate them. They certainly didn't have a good grasp on how to manage them in battle.

And _Lusankya_ , superficially, looked badly damaged with her missing bows. "Start fluctuating the power to the shields, Tali. Time it through their bombardments with a slight lag."

"On it." Tali's fingers spun across the controls, setting the shields to waver after each salvo, like the aftereffects of burn-throughs and penetrations... Which had not happened, the shields still strong as the Reaper fire took them. They were aided by the fact that the Reapers were networked intelligences, and timing fire usually made the most sense. After all, it was naturally hard to interrupt a rhythm, humans organised themselves in rhythms, so did other sapients, and they were fully independent, sapient beings.

The rhythm of fire coordination reports thus built a tempo which, in regular combat, was actually advantageous to the Reapers. It combined to allow them to overwhelm the shields of enemies that much more quickly, to direct simultaneously fires on a small location of an enemy, to maximise through collective action their efforts.

But in this case, it made it a manageable excercise to convince them that the shields of the _Lusankya_ were in much worse condition than they really were. And with that promise, the Reapers followed as she maneouvred toward the planet, keeping her broadsides to them, leisurely at first, pounding the Reapers, raking through their ranks. Black limbs tumbled away as plasma vented from massive holes in their carapaces, some cracking even as the Reapers still functioned, from the shock and heat of the fires, while others tumbled away with power lost.

Dodonna looked to her across the side of the plot. "They're not going to reinforce this group. They definitely think that the situation is under control, unfortunately, and though that promises a bloody battle for them, they're simply not going to further uncover the Citadel."

"It's so. It's so." Tanda tapped on the railing, muffled by the gloves. "Well, six hundred, give or take. It's good enough. We get them all and escape with our shields at power... Tali! Cut power to the starboard Number Two engine bank."

"Power cut, Tanda!"

 _Lusankya_ yawed wildly to the starboard as her port engines drove her, curving away from Jupiter at first, but then swinging in an uncontrolled arc, as though she had lost control authority from collected and concentrated damage.

She swept through the middle of the Reapers. There was no reason to pretend her batteries were damaged. Instead they fired as rapidly as the capacitors allowed, giving the good image of a crippled dreadnought, trying to use her guns and her raw firepower to create walls of fire against the enemy which would keep them off of her, keep them away long enough for repairs to be effected...

Spinning straight through their formation in a powered, skidding turn, her batteries thundered through the deckplates as hard as they ever had. It was a grand show, with the Reapers suffering as they went, even in this battle of one against hundreds.

"Regularise engine power and steady the helm! Aim for the planet, least time course!"

"Least time course, right ahead, aye!"

"Engines stable, holding course," Tali added.

"Excellency, they are pursuing..."

"Of course they are," Tanda breathed hard. "We're lamed and we're trying to escape through Jupiter's atmosphere. Of course they are... We've done it before, and they must surely think they have a counter for it now."

"Admiral," Dodonna said, forgetting for a moment the details of Tanda's snarl of ranks, or perhaps not really caring. "Now would be the time. We must give the enemy time to make more mistakes."

"Yes... You're right." Tanda turned toward the comms pit. "Send signals Admiral Shala'Raan: The fleet is arrive on least-time course from the grav limit of Terra and conduct a general assault on the citadel and all Reaper forces in the vicinity."

The comms officer bent over his console for the secured hyperwave to the _Thunderflare_. "Admiral Shala'Raan sends confirmation, Excellency."

"Very good." She pulled at her gloves and looked up. Jupiter filled the sky visible from the bridge. There was no black; only red. Nothing but the swirls of red and brown and white of the immense atmosphere before her. It caught in her breath and it filled her heart.

The fleet arrived. Eight ISDs leading in the van, it was a headlong cavalry charge of the ships, forty-five hundred strong, straight at the Citadel, at Harbinger, at the nu-Reapers, at six hundred of the dreadnoughts and countless destroyers. They swept in at full power, slowing only when they had to, and angled to let them conduct ranging fire without risk of missing and sending turbolaser bolts on to crash into the unprotected Terra, approaching perpendicular to the Citadel's powered 'orbit' about the blue-green orb that was now dirtied with atmospheric soot.

The Reapers swung up to meet them. Tanda watched tensely, desperately, and pleaded in her mind as Jupiter rose, now ignored, before her. _I am fully committed. I have no reserve. They know this. If they think their forces around the Citadel are more than sufficient for their victory, they can send more to entrap me in Jupiter's atmosphere. That's what I want. Come on, Harbinger... Get greedy. If you assign the right forces to the right jobs, you can win this war in an afternoon. Don't be conservative; whatever you're guarding, you want to win. You've always won before. This is the battle of no return!_


	105. Chapter 103

The planet loomed before the _Lusankya_ , and they slowly descended into insignificance around it. The shields flickered and flared with the concentrated fire, while they seemed to be hurting, fleeing to the safety of the upper atmosphere. The Reapers pressed on harder, feeling like they had their chance.

Tanda watched the range clock running down. Gently, _Lusankya_ buffeted, and her now bluff bow oscillated in the growing pressure of the atmosphere. The thrusters began to compensate, and downwards they sank into the gas giant, ever-more on their powered course.

"What are they sending...? Have they taken the bait?" Tanda asked urgently as the atmosphere began to interfere with all but the hyperwave sensors.

The plot resolved itself, and Tanda groaned almost painfully at what it saw. There was no luck to be had in it. A group of Reapers had flickered away in FTL, but it wasn't enough. Fifty dreadnoughts, two hundred and fifty destroyers. Just a fraction of what was engaged with the rest of the fleet at the Citadel. Harbinger had analysed his forces, or whatever was in control had analysed its forces, and found the best fit. Not Harbinger himself nor either of the nu-Reapers were present in the force.

Tanda ground her heel and gritted her teeth. She'd done too good of a job of convincing the Reapers she was wounded. Even as she thought that, though, there was the countervailing notion that they would have never sent forces out to engage her at Jupiter at all otherwise.

"Six hundred and fifty," she muttered. "If we escape undamaged..."

"Enough." Tali echoed, firmly. "Enough."

Tanda glanced up to Dodonna.

He nodded as well. "If we quickly destroy them and return with our fighting power intact, the rest are finished. We must deploy the weapon as we are."

"Weapon." She laughed, but shook her head. "Forgive me. It just seems faintly absurd to call this untested kludge based on untested physics a weapon. We will have to take the risk.. If, if, if it all goes according to plan..."

She turned toward the beautiful visages of the roiling clouds before her. "I hope someone is recording this," her lips whispered below her breath. "Helm, take us down."

The bow pitched down, and the Reapers pursued, their beams skittering through lightning and igniting blossoms of gas pockets across the atmosphere, singularities creating momentary voids, gas rushing into the vacuum driving the ship's buffeting, and the oscillations creating spinning vortices in the planet's atmosphere. The light of the sun still penetrated this deep, a single ray of light punching down into the clouds.

Her own guns were still alive with fire. She had better sensor performance than the Reapers in the muck of the dense atmosphere, and she used it. Reapers approaching were holed in the atmosphere, glowing dim and weird colours from the atmosphere around them and the energy released... Pieces dropped with a deceptive slowness as the Reapers were destroyed. They fell with all the acceleration of the Jovian atmosphere, they did not still have power to try and fight their dooms, but the vastness of Jupiter's atmosphere meant that the falling took a very long time, and even _Lusankya_ was small compared to the massive clouds. She floated more like an airship than a starship and it was in the lances of fire from her flanks that the scene was illuminated like a reddish vision.

Altogether, that sort of vision looked a great deal like the Hells. It was not at all a point which was lost upon Tanda. She could well imagine that they were descending into a place of torment for sinners, rather than infinite agglomerations of hydrogen.

Sometimes obscuring, sometimes revealing, the clouds still presented contrasting images of the hellish and the ethereal. The exchange of fire as the _Lusankya_ spiralled steadily ever downwards was now being interrupted by the intensity of the storms they passed through, so great that at times even the great Star Dreadnought was buffeted.

"Depth?" Tanda asked over her shoulder, watching another group of Reapers on their starboard quarter try to come on, and be driven off again.

"One thousand klicks... Approaching the liquid layer now."

"...Hang on."

"Excellency!" Waroen answered, and the ratings in the pits steadied themselves. Looming up with shocking speed below...

Suddenly they were no longer in a gaseous atmosphere. Instead they were slamming into a layer of conventional liquid hydrogen. The ship skewed, and the Reapers... Followed. It was surprisingly gentle.

"Not actually a true liquid layer, so the jolt wasn't that great," Tali explained urgently. "Just increasing heat and density..."

Tanda smiled tightly. "Thank you. Keep them on us... Keep speed down to ten meters per second –zed, one thousand planar."

"Ten/one thousand _confirm_."

"Do you think they're follow you all the way down?" Dodonna asked, watching... They were in a uniform layer where the grandeur was created by the interactions between their drive tail and the atmosphere, now.

"As far as the metallic layer. They might be concerned that traveling in it would release enough energy to cause damage. That's when they should cut... I expect. I'm going much deeper than I did last time, but there was no reason last time to reveal _Thunderflare_ could take this, too. By now, I expect the basic physics are well understood."

"Only truly the greatest stars," Dodonna agreed, softly... "A million times more luminous than Coruscant's sun for that... We will be the first and the last, Admiral Pryl."

"Yes we will," she whispered. "Cut starboard engines!" Was added sharply next. "Let's not give them pause to think to break off. Let's let them think we are having engine problems again..."

 _Lusankya_ turned back slowly, still descending. Now fully exposed to the pursuing Reapers, the beams lashed and dashed through the endless melange of hydrogen, with a heavy rain falling—helium and neon—around them as they maneouvred.

Her batteries remained ready for the task, and the imparted momentum churned the atmosphere around them into a whirling, spinning light-show of illuminated gas, so intense that Tanda finally ordered "bridge screens!" and let Tali's improvised armour panels slide across the windows. It was just a distraction to their duties in battle, and they were recording.

Spinning through the Reapers, _Lusankya_ took their full fire across her shields, and the shields stayed up. She continued to turn, and descend, the Reapers now taking advantage of her leisurely course to pace themselves, though they couldn't simply orbit as they didn't have the control authority in the intensity of the atmosphere to move against their primary thrust direction.

Tali watched the shield indicators tensely.

Waroen began the countdown. "Fifteen seconds to metallic layer... Fourteen seconds..."

The Reapers continued to pursue. There was silence on the bridge, except for the small shudders through the hull of the impacts of enemy fire. There was darkness, the windows now shielded. The tactical plot removed it all to an abstraction.

This time, there was a shock, and a series of heat indicators spiked across the hull as the metallic hydrogen aft, directly fired by the engines, briefly underwent fusion at close range before the energy in the drive-tail spread it out and it naturally tapered away. "Contact!" Tali shouted.

"They're following us down..."

Tanda shot a look to Dodonna. "I didn't need to hear that."

"I can't change the truth."

The Reapers continued to pursue and fire, and by extension, to remain in viewing distance of the _Lusankya_. Tanda wished for no warning, no foreknowledge to allow them to calculate what was going to happen to the planet they were now well within.

Around them, the giant cuttlefish were plunging into the metallic layer as well, and as they did the fire of their own beams and blackstar cannon started to rough them up. The energy bore down on their hulls, and fluctuations through drives shook them from tentacle to stern.

"Keep falling, Pryl," a voice cut across the open comm.

"Harbinger," Tanda answered, using her omnitool. "Why wouldn't you let your minions come and play down here?"

"Your ship shall never climb out in such condition, Pryl. Your doom is at hand. You cannot escape your destiny, Pryl. You have merely delayed the inevitable."

Tanda smiled. "I suppose you have me. Well, I'll pit my engines against the grav well yet."

"You will fail."

"At least I won't have to listen to you..." She killed the feed. "It's amazing to think after all this time they still want to gloat."

"Reapers are breaking off, Excellency!"

"Of course they are," Tali remarked, half in wonder. "They're going to leave us down here. It's working, I'm preparing to release the asteroid now..."

"All hands, brace yourselves," Tanda ordered. Collision alarms sounded just to be safe.

There was no movement, no feeling, from the asteroid detaching. Tali nimbly and personally guided it with the tractor beams under the ship, handing it off from tractor beams to tractor beams until it was directly below the engine block as Tanda ordered the bow facing up—directly away from the core of the planet.

"Tractor beams on full repulsion and engines ahead one-tenth acceleration!"

"Engines ahead one-tenth acceleration!" _Lusankya_ began to rise, even as her tractor beams steadily kicked the enormous mass of eezo into a collision course with the planet's course, inexorably declining as she rose.

 _So, Harbinger really did buy that I had crippled engines. So much for the intellect of a nation..._ She watched the counterdown timer until the hypermatter charges would detonate on impact with Jupiter's core.

Even as they continued to accelerate out of the gravity well, it went by with incredible rapidity, the tractors on full power repulsion kicking it faster and faster into the depths. They tracked toward the position that, if they had not been heavily attacked, the interdictors would be waiting to provide support...

The timer read zero.

The planet heaved below them and massive lightspeed shockwaves raced upwards toward them. The shockwaves passed through Jupiter's atmosphere like a bow wave, a ripple that kicked into the maximum strength aft shields of the _Lusankya_ ; the shields held, and the engines held, too.

"Maximum acceleration, right ahead!"

"Engines ahead flank, confirmed..."

Tali's fingers were moving as a blur across her boards. "I don't know what's happening, Tanda, but it's not a CME. It's ... There's a mass field... The gravity of the planet is altering... Increasing by orders of magnitude. Tanda, it's ..."

"Oh _Dea_." Tanda could watch the wave approaching the bow come driving back toward them above. It was too late, they were already braced. They just had to take it as it slammed into the ship, into the bluff bows, and she rocked, and staggered, alarms went off, shields spiked into the red zone for energy discharge, and their forward momentum was cancelled.

That had simply been the energy from the initial bow wave collapsing back into itself. Now, under the influence of the mass effect field radius from the event being generated in the core, the entire planet was beginning to collapse into itself.

"Is it turning into a singularity!?" Tanda asked urgently.

"Negative... It's stabilizing, it's accreting. It's turning into a star, I mean a real star! Starting to condense to the required pressures... the Mass Effect field is becoming self-perpetuating, it's feeding off of... Ancestors, it's got to be dark energy! The readings are going crazy! Fusion is commencing in the lowest stages of the planet!"

Tanda's eyes widened, and she mouthed again the name. "Lucifer..."

"Tanda... We've got a problem." Tali looked up, and she said that, in a voice which left no doubt that the problem was very serious indeed. "We're not increasing velocity. The engines are maxed out, but we're starting to fall into the mass effect field."

Harbinger's mocking voice was baiting her over the open comm channel, Tanda was sure, but she'd turned it off for a reason. Somehow, they had figured out what she was going to do... And sacrificed half the remaining Reapers to bag _Lusankya_ in the hope it would make the war, from a sure defeat, into once again the victory they had always known.

"Tali, bring the hyperdrive motivator on-line."

"Tanda," the Quarian looked up. "How... We'll be annihilated by Jupiter's natural mass shadow the moment that we enter hyperspace, and we won't have enough velocity to escape the mass effect unless ... _Ancestors_."

"Yes, use the force. The instant between entering hyperspace and staying in realspace, we'll..."

"Maybe get far enough that the engines can overcome the lower gravitational energy at the altitude we reach. On it, standing by... Permission to have the conn, my captain?" She finally asked, rising from her console.

"Permission granted. Commander Tali'Zorah has the conn!" Tanda folded her arms, and watched her wife hasten to take the same position on _Lusankya_ she had once taken on _Thunderflare_. Fingers dancing across the hyperdrive controls, overriding astrogation which was actively counterproductive...

The incredible thing was that the crew trusted them. Dodonna was grinning. "The force be with you, Tali'Zorah!"

The Imperials on the bridge didn't say a thing.

In the hull, the hyperdrive motivator began to scream. The _Lusankya_ leapt forward... And with a cough, an immense shudder, Dodonna hanging onto the rails and Tanda with her feet wide-braced...

Tali immediately put the engines ahead full. "Are we...?"

Tanda glanced at the plot. "Again!"

The Quarian shook her head grimly... "Tanda, I'm not sure... That did something to the hyperdrive motivator..."

"Temperature around the hull is increasing, Tali. We're turning into a sun around us. Give it one more time... It doesn't matter if we wreck the motivator. We can fix it."

"...Right. Initiating..." The Quarian woman pulled back on the levers again, and held them.

Tanda's eyes widened. _We should be entering hyperspace by now..._ The force though seemed heavy, heady in the air... And the moment went on, and on, and on. Tali pulled back on the handles sharply.

Tanda looked at the holoplot. The planet was compressing behind them rapidly, and time itself— _Oh Dea_... Time itself had, for a while, really slowed.

"Screens up!"

As the order was obeyed, the polarity on the bridge windows went to full. And the star system, and the Coalition ships battling in orbit of Terra... They were all witnesses to it now. All of them. Jupiter was starting to glow as it contracted. It had been, for the past hour, that hour which had lasted seconds for all aboard the _Lusankya_ , time passing in this strangely almost imperceptible blur through the force.

Tali collapsed at her console, and Tanda rushed to her side, while around her the crew gazed, stunned, at what they really just done, almost as stunned as Tanda was at her wife's holding back time.

As she bent over Tali, she heard around her, the crewers whispering a name she had never heard before—a name for _her_. An epithet which almost quailed her heart as she pulled her wife up, feeling the power and the responsibility redolent in it, like in the epithets of the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic, not the miserable remnant of her childhood, but the one of Tasiele's time. Daunting, powerful, and overwhelming, when it had all been part of a team to get this far. But the name, still they spoke it, reverence growing.

"Tanda Sunlighter," she was hearing them call her.

Tali stirred, and with her face stinging wet with tears, Tanda stared with her crew at the light burning at their polarisation, at the corona of the star engulfing them and radiating off their shields in a corusca of colour. "Lucifer..." 


	106. Chapter 104

The star blazed behind them, the white fading into the steady spectral emission of red light. Her course set in, _Lusankya_ continued to accelerate away from Lucifer and it was through the rear sensor feeds that they watched the continued progression of the star into a stable state. The interdictors had remained in position, with Admiral Daro'Xen's starfighters now orbiting them and providing support. They had not been heavily attacked.

On the bridge, Dodonna had helped Tali to lay down in Tanda's sea cabin. Then he had returned to the bridge, watching with the others at the plan he had helped form. For all of his issues with her, personally and professionally, he was ... Quite happy to let Tanda Pryl have the glory for the moment.

Tanda was trying to gain a sense of scope of the situation and the battle over Terra, when she saw it: The most stunning visual image she had seen with her own eyes in real time, since the destruction of the Second Death Star. Io! Io, the innermost great moon! "Dea..."

The moon was sweeping past the terminator line. It was _wreathed_ in flame, in plasma, in some kind of energy, in the solar wind of a new star. It was blowing matter off, struck with light, interacting with the corona. Huge geysers of flame across a broken surface rose to join the wind which, extending from Lucifer, drove the matter of the planet outwards into the system, sulphur and rock turned into energized gas. The planet glowed in the light of two stars, shadow and light playing across the surface and reflected in cloud around it, a bridge, the legendary Norse bifrost, seeming to stretch and shimmer with the reflected colours of each chemical component, from Lucifer's shining, furious side across the planet, and gently wavering, carrying on past Io, and finally disappearing into the depths of interplanetary space.

She forced herself, tore herself away from the sight, and stepped down into the comm pit personally. "Raise Captain Iillor."

"...Black Asp Actual, go ahead Lusankya."

"This is Lusankya Actual," Tanda answered. "Shields at critical low, but no hull damage. We've lost the hyperdrive motivator, but we still have the backup. Did any of the Reapers escape the formation of Lucifer?"

"...Negative, Your Excellency. Six hundred and thirty-seven dreadnoughts plus the destroyers went in. None returned."

"Thank you Captain. And good work."

"We got one data log out of this you wouldn't believe. We also thought we'd lose you, Your Excellency. The fleet is... Not in the best place right now. The Reapers have been pushing them hard."

"Is Admiral Shala'Raan remaining engaged?"

"Yes. Until she knew one way or another, she wasn't going to back down from a chance to finish the job."

"Then we had better finish the job. Stand by for a micro-jump, and bear in mind that we'll be running behind you."

"Understood, Lusankya Actual. Standing by for vector."

Tanda jogged up to astrogation, where the regular crew was standing at stations. "Set in a course that will let us bring the remaining Reaper fleet under two fires with Admiral Shala'Raan's main battle fleet... Slave the navcomps on the starfighters and the Interdictors."

"Standing by... Locked in. We'll be arriving eleven seconds after the Interdictors."

"Confirmed." She closed her eyes, opened them again a moment later, and took a breath. "Jump the ship."

The astrogation crew worked the controls and threw back the levers, now slaved to the backup hyperdrive. Space blurred around them. The Interdictors, following, passed easily beyond the _Lusankya_ and arrived first.

A group of destroyers turned toward them as the terrible scene of the last phase of the battle played out around them. Despite the jamming, Harbinger had by now been able to confirm the survival of the _Lusankya_. Reapers were accelerating to ram their enemies.

The ones targeted for the Interdictors interposed with _Lusankya_ 's shields as she arrived, two Reapers simply vanishing in a flash that sent crewers flying to the deck and panels rocking loose through the battered Star Dreadnought. The impacts brought the shields down, to the endless screaming of alarms, but there was only shock damage.

A wall of fire followed them back in. Most of the Reapers in the sustained battle had already suffered the degredation or loss of their shields. Six were burning with heavy damage from the first salvo, as the rearmed starfighters rushed forward to line up and execute a vast series of coordinated torpedo and concussion missile attacks.

Twenty Reapers broke off from the rest of the fleet clustered around the Citadel and turned hard toward _Lusankya_. Tanda designated them through her omnitool. "Suicide runs, get this group first."

The CBD dialed in the guns, using ion cannon to cripple drives. Tanda saw the obvious virtue and immediately directed the fleet to use the tactic. "All ships, all ships. Target engine clusters on the Reapers! Don't let them get enough vee to threaten you."

 _Lusankya_ 's main batteries raked through the group with precision. Ion cannon held the Reapers from closing, and the turbolasers picked them to pieces while continued ion fire kept them from bringing their drives up to add vee. It was a meticulous execution while the shields were reestablished by Tali's hardworking cohorts of Quarian engineers who stood to their duties even with their Commander's incapacity.

And that incapacity wasn't for long. As the _Lusankya_ shifted fire to another group, Tali limped back onto the bridge and took up her position at the engineering consoles. Tanda turned toward her. "You.."

"Shush, you silly bosh'tet. Shields at fifty percent, my captain," she added, shutting down the conversation before it had even started.

Tanda smiled, and turned again to face the immense battle before her. As another group of Reapers were destroyed, she watched while Dodonna, working behind her, orchestrated a sweeping series of maneouvres from twenty fighter wings. Converging, they ripped through an equal number of Reapers and tore a hole through which the ISDs of the fleet, with their shields recovered as the pressure was taken off the main body by the _Lusankya_ , could thrust into the heart of the force.

"Bring us about to port. Ahead one-tenth!" Tanda ordered, and _Lusankya_ squeezed from her own side, pointing her sawed-off bow at the Reapers, and pumping out concussion missiles in massive volleys that would continue until the magazines were exhausted. From that, with all batteries concentrated on the same point, one Reaper after another was being destroyed, one every two seconds when they were already unshielded.

Fire continued to converge upon them, and there was no escape for the terrors of a billion years. Now they were dying, and dying again. No more gloating from Harbinger, no more reinforcements, no more time to fight back against the Coalition. Tanda Pryl took her hammer and wielded it and, using the fleet as one, rolled the Reapers back against the Citadel and started to crush them. That hammer, of the fire of thousands of ships, took losses as it advanced, but was relentless and remorseless in the effort. Hours slipped by, and even if the Reapers sometimes recovered, sometimes maneouvred, the moments of overwhelmed groups and rapid destruction were obtained again, and again, in pulses which steadily wore down the Reapers and at the same time reduced their capability to destroy ships of the Coalition fleet.

She stopped losing ships of Republic or Imperial manufacture... Including the four thousand year old ones. She stopped losing her cheap knockoffs. She stopped losing the Geth newbuilds that incorporated their technology. Stopped losing the upgraded ships of the fleet.

The Reapers kept dying, but they lost the ability to hit back as their numbers and strength were sapped. They simply could not concentrate enough fire to do further damage. The end was becoming a matter of mathematics, rather than strategy or tactics.

Two Salarian fleets of un-upgraded ships started to arrive by the Mass Relay, the final reinforcements which could be mustered. They burned inwards for the _coup de grace_ led by stealth dreadnoughts. The Reapers had no way of knowing that they were not upgraded ships. It was like a hand had closed around the throat of those black and evil beasts, and started to strangle it.

Harbinger with the two nu-Reapers, the evil, hideous ripe fruits of the harvest, spun out and led a breakout, spinning around the planet. Trying to escape from the clutches of the Coalition fleet. Trying to flee... Abandoning even the Citadel as they did.

Tanda turned back to the holoplot, picked up the handset from it, and began flipping through channels, shouting orders, almost incensed at the evil, the hideousness of those two ships. _Lusankya_ 's engines spun up and she broke out in pursuit, main batteries shifting to target them and them alone.

They cut low along the atmosphere of Terra, trying to protect themselves by using the planet to shield their bodies from the bulk of the pursuing fire. Tanda had the _Lusankya_ put on more speed and rush inside of them, striking along the planet's atmosphere and watching, once more, fire curl from the Star Dreadnought's shields as she got in close.

Three Reapers, and one Star Dreadnought, connected by a trail of fire, red and green flaring up from the limb of the planet. Racing to escape, her enemies thrusting spaceward now that the planet offered them no protection whatsoever.

"Intensify forward batteries! Don't let them escape!"

One, two... Salvoes, waves of energetic fire, raking across them. Crippling them, each turbolaser bolt vanishing for a moment, and then a huge gout of plasma, flame and debris eruptly from the strike. Ion cannon leaving the entirety of their hulls skittering with energy, the Reapers falling back... Harbinger, and two companions, tumbling in space.

And then three fires lit the night, seconds before the _Lusankya_ roared through the dust and debris, spreading it with her drive tails, and spinning back in a lazy arc back toward the Citadel. Tanda stared. It was over in a flash... An almost anticlimactic execution of a foe that had dogged her since the moment Tali had entered her life. It scarcely sunk in.

"I would say, Your Excellency," Dodonna stepped up to her side. "That you have just won the war."

"Dea..." She started like she'd been shocked. "I... I might have... Dea."

Lieutenant Waroen stepped up to her, body trembling with excitement. "Your Excellency! A report from Admiral Shala'Raan: 'The Reaper fleet has fled. Less than two hundred dreadnoughts escaped, we have destroyed more than a thousand Reapers throughout the engagement, and suppressed all resistance in the system except for the Citadel, which continues to keep our ships distant with heavy fire from its onboard Blackstar cannon batteries and defensive grid.'"

"Thank you, L'tenant." Tanda swayed, and watched as around Terra's terminator line, she saw the Citadel beginning to reappear, with its beam thrusting down toward the planet. The fleet was pulling back out of range, even as it finished bombarding the remaining Reaper cripples into rubble and dust at range. But they were clearly no threat..

The Citadel, and what that monstrous beam represented, that... That might still be a threat. She patted at her stomach and at her hips and belt, swayed like she might suddenly fall, and felt something lodge in her throat.

"Don't bother engaging with the Citadel."

"Your Excellency?"

"Prepare a shuttle for Commander Zorah and myself for the surface. Wherever that beam is... Ah, countermand that. As close to it as active human resistance in the area permits."

"Ah, Your Excellency," Waroen turned and checked the sensor feeds. "The beam is centred somewhat west of the major metropolis core of New York – an area called the Meadowlands. Almost the entire east coast has been completely overrun and... Processed, Your Excellency."

Tanda gritted her teeth, swaying again until Tanda arrived at her side and grabbed her. "I'm sorry, Tanda... I know you wanted to see Earth so badly. And not like this."

"And not like this," Tanda repeated, straightening into her wife's side. "What's the nearest large concentration of resistance, L'tenant?"

"Ah, a natural mountain range allowed military units to defend the urban area of... Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Your Excellency. The southern part has been overrun and wrecked in the fighting, but the northern part is intact."

"Thank you. Order all starfighters recalled, and rearmed. They are to be fitted for the air-to-ground mission and all to be used to open a corridor for those forces to attack east. Tali and I will arrive in several hours, pull loose a Stormtrooper regiment from _Lusankya_ as well as a battalion of Quarian marines for support, they'll do hot landings ahead of the mountains to make the advance easier. Make sure General Colonna is clear that the objective is to secure the area around that processing beam, understood?"

"Clear, Your Excellency."

"Come on, Tali. We're going to... Get to the bottom of this ourselves. And get revenge for Shepard."

"Revenge isn't a good motivation... but, you know, just this once, the bosh'tets can _burn_. Maybe... well, we haven't won yet. Let's go. She'd want us to keep pushing until this was really, finally _over_."

Tanda looked back to the Citadel. "Until it's over, my love. Until it's over." Squeezing Tali's hand, she turned to go with her.

-

They swept through an atmosphere choked with smoke and ash, in a shuttle, like the others which were available and going toward the cleared areas, laden with ships' emergency ration packs. Below them, the ruins of the eastern megapolis were still burning. Coiling smoke buffeted the Escort Shuttle and occasionally obscured their view of the planet's surface.

Distant flashes rose to the north, about the vicinity of the Meadowlands she had ordered attacked, Tanda fancied. They were an echoing crescendo of heavy air attack, and they were routed to the west to avoid the strafing paths of the starfighters and run tracks for the bombers.

Tanda watched as they turned west, lazily sweeping across a ruined metropolis that had once commanded a peninsula between two great rivers. Both rivers were dammed with twisted wreckage and masses of debris, flooding the ruins of the great metropolis and the endless spreading agglomerations on all the banks besides.

Not a single building seemed to remain standing, just charred cinders, collapsed roofs, burned houses. The stubs of collapsed skyscrapers, the remaining single columns of bridges dropped into the water, and sometimes entire areas of what had been a regular and orderly street gird, transformed into craters.

It was the most depressing visage she had witnessed, as wasted and miserable and laden with human tragedy as the pathetic and wretched fall of the Empire. Nothing survived.

Traveling further west, Tali gently tapped her shoulder. "Look! Survivors!"

Tanda followed her gaze, and saw the dim lines of troops drawn up across a sharp ridge-line, firing into the east, inevitably against the masses of husks who had once been the residents of the city. What had been a large army formation was reduced to holding perhaps a hundred square kilometres, already dislodged from the smaller cities further west, which were already destroyed, but still they were stubbornly defending a group of a few towns and the farmland choked with refugees between them.

"Tell the 249th to spare a squadron of TIE bombers to support them," Tanda shouted forward to the cockpit. "We can do without twelve racks of proton bombs."

"Copy, Your Excellency!"

Traveling more or less due north, outside of the bomber tracks, they continued past another massive and ruined city, with yet another, also completely destroyed, further to the east from it. Then the curved and banded thrusts of the mountains took over the scenery, completely covered in snow from the nuclear winter's touch. If the snow had not been blackened with soot, it would have been lovely, and peaceful.

But it was blackened with soot. Tanda held her breath and shook her head softly, watching the snow-covered ruins of yet another city pass below, before, steadily descending, they approached the destination of their landing.

The valley trended to the northeast, and the southwestern half was ruined and blackened. But there was a strong defensive line at the bottom. The destruction was recent. Soldiers had fought savage battles here, hopeless battles to hold back the night. They had retreated, to be sure, but as an intact fighting force, however desperate. Their next set of lines, defending the upper half of the metropolis in the valley, those lines, _those lines_ had _held_.

Some desultory small arms fire from the Reaper creations attacking the lines came up toward them, but nothing reached through the shields of the heavily defended escort shuttle. Lightly rocked, it turned away, their escorting fighters peeling off to dive-bomb and strafe the Reaper lines with tremendous effect.

The shuttles came in to land at a playing field and carpark next to a large facility which, somehow intact, still bore the sigil of the local self-defence forces and the Systems Alliance Marines as well as the declaration that it was a facility of **GENERAL DYNAMICS ORDNANCE.** Tanda fancied the presence of an Ord factory might well explain the survival of the city, but it wasn't important at the moment. Skilled commanders, good terrain, and more than a little luck and circumstance came to such things no matter what.

Wings folded, the shuttle finished landing. In the snow it was so gentle she had scarcely noticed, but Tali was at her feet, and extending a hand for her. Hand-in-hand, they walked together, and down the shuttle ramp into the snow and terrifically frigid temperatures, capes and cloaks and greatcoats for most of them... Tali, of course, needed nothing, but leaned closer in sympathy.

A ragged group of Systems Alliance Marines and local defence force officers were waiting for. They were living skeletons, just like their men and the survivors in the city. The Generals fancied themselves to have the decency to look ashamed, as their men rendered hastily salutes at best, and rushed for the ration packs that were being distributed.

"Army first," Tanda confirmed flatly. "One for every man who can get one, try to get them to the front lines... We've got a lot of fighting to do with bitter, exhausted, starving men. The planet must be cleared, Generals."

"Madame President?"

"Her Excellency," one of the Stormtrooper officers snapped.

"Either one is fine," Tanda muttered tiredly. "Yes, I was made provisional President of the Milky Way, Generals, you're probably aware of this. I need immediate transportation to the eastern front where my troops are debouching to conduct an assault against the harvesting beam which leads to the Citadel. Can you assist in this?"

Two of the men glanced to each other and one held up a radio. "Got one reserve vehicle I can spare for that, Your Excellency," he answered after a moment. "It'll get you far enough that you can transfer to your own armour."

Tanda watched, half aghast and half bemused, as the steam-fired armoured train rolled across real iron rails and out of a real marshalling yard and down the line just to their north. "Your resourcefulness is admirable, gentlemen."

"You fight with what you have," he answered with a tired shrug.

"Well, we've broken them, crushed them, we're here and we're not leaving again. Good luck and good hunting. The cleansing of Terra begins—today." She acknowledged their salutes as she spun on heel, scrabbling through the heavy snow piled over the ballast and grabbing an iron as the command carriage rolled to a halt before her.

To the south, the sound of the rolling fire reached an awful crescendo. Flashes tore through the smokey sky and reserves rolled down the roads in support. Those ragged skeletons of men and women were sealing their armour, grabbing their rifles, and going on the offensive. The unmistakable scream of the TIE bomber engines overhead brought cheers which faded into the distance as the hiss of steam took them rolling east.


	107. The Third Katha

At Hainesburg in New Jersey the train crossed the Paulinskill Viaduct on a temporary section laid for tanks, the rails thrown down shortly after, and afterwards increased speed to 50km/h again. Tanda had some cause to regret the decision to land so far out. Her marines and regiments had quickly established secured zones in coordination with the National Guard and Army formations and they could have moved in by shuttle at that point, but it was too much inconvenience to backtrack to somewhere they could set the shuttle down easily. The snow made the ground, un-surveyed since the war had started, treacherous.

At Denvile they crossed tracks laid on the ice and then jolted through a temporary relaying which crossed through the charred ruins of the city, under the ruins of a bridge that had been cleared away, and then gaining speed again, sometimes slowing to fight their way through ever more obstacles as they entered the area that had been swept by general firestorms. Tanda pulled her cape and cloak around herself more firmly and sometimes leaned outside to catch a better view. From time to time, silent, harrowed skeletal figures emerged from the ruins to look at them with a mixture of confusion and awe.

They jolted through another relaying a bit south of a town called Montclair and crept down a branch for a few miles through a burned and ruined town. At the end of it was a forward operating base for some of the troops that were assisting in the counteroffensive, and some of her own officers had arrived. Enough of the town was flattened that they were simply landing shuttles on top of it, though most had settled on parks down by the frozen river.

"What's the distance to the beam?" She asked as she hopped down, ahead of Tali.

"About four and a half kilometres, Madame President."

"Thank you." She turned, and then started and spun back at the sound of a salvo of gunfire. "The area is not cleared yet, Colonel?"

"Oh, we're secure here, except for random attacks."

"That wasn't the sort of fire produced by a random attack."

"Field justice, Madame President. There's a lot of indoctrinated people here, working against us, working for the Reapers. If we let them into our ranks they betray and backstab us at the first chance we get. And people ... Get corrupted by a lot of this debris from the destroyed enemy. Unfortunately..."

"Take me there at once," Tanda ordered, as she could _feel_ Tali stiffening behind her.

"Of course... If you insist." He turned, shuffling past a few courses of ruined buildings, trying to avoid resting weight on an injured leg.

They turned the corner just in time for Tali to wince and recoil at what she saw, and Tanda to stiffen. A great pile of corpses lay against one still standing wall, and forty people, give or take, had been shoved up to it. A mass firing squad of at least a company, all invalids, was in position.

"Fire!"

Rifles held as they were bunched shoulder to shoulder, the guns barked and the mass of people fell with screams, some still twitching as their bodies collapsed into the snow run red with the blood from the earlier executions.

"You'll cease the executions at once, Colonel! Some of them were still people, and I hold out hope that we might yet be able to save all of them once I get up to the Citadel!" Tanda thundered, and trembled, and bit back the easy urge to go for her lightsabre.

"We cannot afford to lose more to indoctrinated infiltrators," he answered coldly. "Madame President, I will lose men if I am forced to obey your order."

"Then we will lose men, so that we do not descend into... We have already lost so much, Colonel!" She leaned against a ruined support column for a building and stamped her boots into the snow. "Bring the next group forward."

"I..." He hesitated, unsure what was to happen. "Understood."

"T-Tanda, what are you doing...?" Tali pressed forward.

"Nothing bad. Promise," Tanda whispered back, and watched the next bedraggled group of forty led forward in chains and shackles.

She walked forward toward them, and then down the line. The soldiers and the guards and the Colonel all watched. Tanda reached the first, paused for a moment—and the shackles fell from his hands and legs. The same with the next. On the third, she frowned, and reached out, pulling the glove off her hand.

Blue energy wrapped from it around the woman's head, and she screamed and arched her skull back, and then finally she collapsed, and as she did, her shackles did, too. Tanda went on to the next.

As she finished, she turned back to the Colonel. Some of the men were outright on their knees, staring in awe, and in terror. The man himself looked sick, as she snapped her glove back on. "You will hold them in the future."

She walked toward the Colonel, who turned to her, infinitely more respectful, but still pleading. "Your force powers may save some, Madame President, but you don't have enough time in your life to heal them all. I will lose people, and I will lose resources to finish the fighting with. We all will."

"I..." Tanda trailed off, and looked up at the blonde in a heavy white parka who had stepped next to her wife.

"Bureau Chief."

"Your Excellency!" She saluted crisply, Nyroska did, her eyes gleaming. "I confess, I hadn't imagined to see such a display of power, though some said the Emperor could heal by touch..."

"He couldn't, or else he wouldn't have needed me," Tanda replied snappishly. "You weren't.."

"Organising this? Of course not. I have my duties, and I just arrived with contingents of personnel who insisted on joining the mission to the Citadel. Friends of your old Captain Shepard."

"Ah. So you came to.."

"Watch the bloodsport for kicks," Tali muttered. "Probably."

"No." Nyroska's expression chilled. "I am here because of the commotion, though I do have a suggestion. This universe has plenty of force sensitives, but there's no real time to train them all. We won't be able to save all of the indoctrinated, but we can certainly kill them all _without_ causing collateral damage."

"Simple training to detect indoctrinated persons, then set loose with extraordinary police powers?" Tanda asked, her eyes widening with surprise... And then narrowing.

"But of course, Your Excellency."

A twisted grimace crossed Tanda's lips as she started to stride back to the headquarters tent. "Just like Inquisitorious, perchance?"

"Your Excellency, you very much wished to save lives. Are you going to get your soldiers' lives lost when it's not necessary?"

Tanda stopped, twisting to face Nyroska with a reddening look of rage passing across her cheeks. Then, she took a breath, and looked back at the ragged skeletons of the infirmed and walking wounded with the rifles, now milling about, not knowing what to do. Then she looked to the woman whose real name she could only keep a secret for so long.

Pursed her lips. "I'll sign and stamp the order before I go forward, Bureau Chief."


	108. Chapter 105

Commander Kesea Avera had seen a lot since she was an Asari commando on Mils, rescued by AT-AT Walkers and ultimately volunteering for Tanda Pryl's service. She had lost most of her biotics powers, she had sometimes been insulted, and she had helped forge the most powerful state in the history of the galaxy, the first true multiethnic one, too.

Of the accolades of her life, she tended to like that last one the most. The Imperials had accepted their counterparts and officers as co-equals over the time and necessity of the war. And the Empire, the Republic, had collectively been an organisation which fall its faults and speciesism, had integrated thousands of species together under a single government. It was an effort that nobody had even thought about attempting here.

For an Asari, in retrospect, that was a shameful thing. They were exogamous by definition, and until now they had not followed biological logic with social logic. Tanda Pryl had, and for her commander, Kesea could only feel awe.

These days, there were other reasons for awe, too. Blazing behind _Thunderflare_ , deep out in the system, was the point of light which represented Lucifer. Even Admiral Shala'Raan occasionally stopped to just stare at it for thirty seconds or so. It was a very, very hard development to fully digest into one's mind.

Yes, it had been mentioned as a possibility in the plan, as the inspiration for the plan, even. But Kesea didn't believe even once that a single person had, in their heart, really expected to make a stable star out of the effort. Instead they had.

"Commander, update on the orbital tractor sweeps?"

Kesea jerked, and stepped to Shala'Raan's side, checking her data across the omnitool. The buoyant feelings of victory were hard to mesh with the enormous job they had at once begun. "About eight percent cleared, Admiral."

"Eight percent... Another week to finish sweeping the lower orbital space that is most urgent, then," Shala'Raan shook her head. "It is a victory, Commander, oh yes, it is the victory of my good-daughter and her wife. But the work to be done is immense. Even if we do not consider the Citadel."

Their current work was the simple task of either vapourising with weapons fire all of the remaining hulks and pieces of the destroyed Reapers in orbit, or else flinging them with tractor beams on trajectories which would ultimately lead into Sol. Kesea cracked a grin at the thought of the fact that technically, though it made no sense, Lucifer would be just as good an option now.

"Bemused, Commander?"

Kesea glanced up. "Ah, Admiral, I was just thinking of Lucifer."

"Yes. It is... It is the work enough to honour what Tali'Zorah deserves," Shala'Raan answered after a quiet moment, hesitant, herself, how to even approach the magnitude of the spectacle.

"They are already calling the President Tanda Sunlighter over it," Kesea offered. "Though it is.."

"Yes, as much the work of Tali'Zorah and the other engineers of the fleet as the vision of the President," Shala'Raan said simply. "That is my point. I know... That it will not be seen so by very many others, but I trust to the fact that the legendary liberatrix's daughters will be part Quarian, of our language and customs, will worship my best friend as one of their Ancestors as they ought, and will remind to the galaxy, that though we are so few... It was our bodies which formed the line against the night."

" _I_ will never forget it, Admiral."

"Thank you. Tell the story long after I am gone, please." Shala'Raan seemed quietly bemused as she turned to her holoplot and brought up an image of the Citadel. "I must say, it is at least nice to have a flagship to myself, these days. Here is the challenge, Commander. The Citadel can certainly be dispatched by bringing _Lusankya_ in close, but she has already suffered extensive battle damage, and I doubt that Her Excellency really wishes to accrue more, when our shipyard capacity to repair her will already be an effort of many years."

"So the expedition to the surface."

"Yes." Shala'Raan shifted, sighing. "It bothers me, for the safety of the President and Tali'Zorah, mostly because of the risk of a suicide explosion of whatever controls it... The Crucible is enormously energetic."

"And it could even damage the planet more, though."

"Almost certainly, which is why I didn't complain about them going, despite the great risks. A forty-five kilometre station exploding in low orbit... Would be immeasurably disastrous, to a world already badly damaged by the innumerable conflicts. Humans have a homeworld, but they will put much effort into making it well again."

Kesea nodded, frowning as she stared at the visage of what had once been the home of galactic civilisation. "What do you think the intent of the intelligence is now?"

"It must have some plan... It has lasted longer than we fathom. That it seems quiescent is strange to me as well. They will discover it when they go aboard, of course. But I will, if it comes to, have General Dodonna bring the _Lusankya_ around for a ranged bombardment. Yet better to destroy the Citadel than to allow anything to escape."

"Even with them aboard?"

"Let us not think about that, Commander."

A comms lieutenant stepped over to the pair and saluted. "Admiral, Commander. A message from the Ovan reconaissance force. They've encountered something unusual at Arvahz."

"The Maladkai homeworld?" Shala'Raan snapped a sharp look at the l'tenant. She was inordinately concerned, at once; they should have been safe, not being a technological species, and as blood relatives of the Quarians, represented much of the remaining genetic mateiral of the species.

"Yes, Admiral. A Cerberus or Reaper force did arrive there, but made no attempt to harm the location population. They traveled to only one location, and then left—the, ah, ruined Rakatan temple..."

"Do the Maladkai know how long ago?" Kesea asked urgently.

"Yes, Commander, about a month."

"Only a month..." Shala'Raan shook her head. "The President should know."

"Too late," Kesea replied, frantically checking her omnitool. "They've already started their assault."

-

The charred ruins of the great city were fortunately obscured by the long line of the Hudson Pallisades stretching before them. It might have held, being a not insubstantial bulwark, if the Reapers hadn't landed directly in New Jersey as well. There were other surviving pockets in surprising places—the Connecticut and Rhode Island National Guards had held on the Thames around Groton and in the southern part of Rhode Island, Providence having been the last large city to fall.

Ahead of them, rising over the Meadowlands—more actually a miserable sort of swamp—was the beam, which in place at London, Shepard and her team had so fatefully traveled up to their grim destiny. Now, above them, an almost 50-kilometre long space station hung, the beam still in place, but the processing of humans having most assuredly ceased. The beam remained, for whatever reason, tempting them. Was it a trap? Or could the intelligence just not even turn it off? Tanda didn't really care. It was her objective, and shortly enough, they were going to cross the last few hundred meters of ground and travel it up, just like Shepard had done on her ill-fated expedition with Hackett those months ago.

In the meanwhile, there was plenty of minutiniae she was finishing up before taking that step. Tanda had diverted her air support to help the pocket in eastern Connecticut and then spun most of her troops to the north to cut off the armies of husks that had been pressing up the Susquehanna river valley toward Binghamton, the last major metropolis not to fall in New York. To replace them, space transport capacity after the troops had landed had been used to bring Krogan forces across from the United Kingdom. They were quite pleased to be back in action, and immediately attacked south into the immense area of total devastation which was Central New Jersey.

With them had come most of Shepard's friends, arriving as the news spread through the military command networks, encouraging all of them to insist on coming, if nothing else, to provide an honour guard to Valhalla for their shared heroine. Miranda, Wrex, Grunt, Kasumi, EDI, Ashley, all with a landed _Normandy_ nearby. Samara had worked herself free, and there was Gillian. Notably absent was Liara. Tali understood that she had remained aboard Hannah Shepard's flagship during the battle, and was still there.

Tali could understand that sentiment. She couldn't imagine the same scene with Tanda here. Her wife secured allies, but with a suspicion that had bled off of Shepard like water across a suit. It was that intensely easy personality, that kindly and evenhanded disposition, which had made Shepard instantly _trusted_ by all.

But Tanda was here, and Shepard was not; and all of Shepard's friends were here, one way or another. They would go together, and fight together, with a battalion of Krogan for support, and one Jedi, Tasiele Shan, who approached to Tanda and embraced her sharply, then Tali.

"Good for both of you to be here, good that both of you have done," Tasiele said softly. "I am deeply thankful that we have all kept the faith. All right, this is going to be hard."

"The woman, queen of understatements," Miranda laughed. "All right. Action plan?"

"Tasiele, myself, Tali together in the fore, we must have people who can face absolutely any challenge in the front rank. Biotics after that, then the krogan force. We will roll them up by moving through the Citadel into the largest open spaces of the wards, such that in those positions, we may kill very large numbers of the enemy at once—well, destroy, the enemy is certainly husks." Tanda glanced over the ranks of the krogran that Wrex had brought with him. There were thousands and many were armed with E-Webs and mini-proton torpedo launchers. That would be plenty enough for the inside of the citadel.

"We're going to wreck the place," Tali remarked, almost in awe. "All right, Miranda. There's no other way to get prepared. We'll open the door, we'll hold it open for you with our lightsabres. Then _they'll_ pry it open."

"Right!" Miranda clapped her hands together and turned back toward the others. "It might see me break down in tears, but I, at least, am going to fight until we can all hold a wake—in Shepard's apartment on the Citadel. Who's with me?"

"All of us!"

Tanda turned as well, and clapped a hand on Miranda's shoulder, looking sad. "I didn't know Shepard well enough. Most of the time that I did, you knew me as Tola'Jorah, Tali's Quarian girlfriend. She was an inspiration even then, confident, kind, inspiring, willing to give a chance to anyone, to encourage anyone to do their best to help a mission. I felt cared for like I had under no commander before, when I was in her presence, and I came to understand precisely why all of you would be so willing, to fight at the side of her reckless courage against an utterly implacable foe. She held the door, and held the line, until the very bitter end."

"I saw another side of her, too. It was the side of her that came when she knew who I was. The side of her that was intensely, stubbornly loyal to the Systems Alliance. She was a patriot. She was born in the city of Tiberias, but from the age of three months had grown up on a succession of space stations. Her home was the Systems Alliance as a whole, and she saw everyone in it as part of her, and part of her nation—but toward that nation she was absolutely committed. She would rather be in prison that stand against her homeland, and the vigorous arguments toward a higher moral duty to defeat the Reapers which barely convinced her to stay with me and serve in my Imperial forces were ones which convinced me of the absolute nature of her moral scruples."

"And finally I saw the side of her which was a young commander, striving to be a leader, and a regular officer of ships. This side of her was the side that was ultimately going to follow in her mother's footsteps, when commando action had passed from her to another generation. This was the side which, yes, looked up to me, and was eager to prove her competence in organising ships and preparing them for action. In that short time, I will always remember and honour her efficiency, and the way she prepared multiethnic, diverse crews... The _Harrower_ she stood up has fought well through all subsequent battles of the coalition, and I am pleased for those services, so different from the ones that someone might think of as the Shepard's, but most assuredly another part of the spirit, and the measure of the woman, who was Captain Atarah Shepard."

"Comrades, please follow me in her name, fight for me in her name, and regain her halls. She made the Citadel her home, the latest and grandest in the long line of space stations on which she had lived. It's her place, and it's going to be the place of those who owe her their freedom soon enough. To arms!"

Wrex raised his krogans into a rolling war chant as Tanda turned toward the transportation beam. With Tali to her right side and Tasiele to her left, she walked forward in steady, crisp, measured beats. They reached the beam, and with a gloved hand brushing down to be sure of her lightsabre, but without a pause, Tanda Pryl thrust herself into it.

-

The three Jedi came out, staggering in the midst of a field meant to incapacitate, and surrounded by husks. Tasiele raised her hand, and the husks flew back. Tali raced forward, her lightsabre igniting as she slashed through half a dozen, and then reached the field effector generator and wrecked it.

Tasiele and Tanda, lightsabres ignited, thrust clear into the mob, hands actually pressing out, and pushing aside a dozen or more at once. With the field effect off, and they needed to clear the entry chamber quickly... Which they did.

Miranda and the biotics followed, stumbling into a pile of destroyed husks. She shook herself, in her armour, and glanced to Tanda, who flashed a confident thumb's up in the style of her human troops. It brought a grim smile to Lawson's face, and she followed in the wake of the group of Jedi as they advanced, starting to clear the corridor ahead. The Krogan, after all, would be following. It was something like a shield-wall encountering a wall of barbarians. Nothing got closer than three feet from them before being completely destroyed. _Nothing_. And the entire solid mass ahead of them was being collectively disintegrated by the biotics powers, the force powers, the lightsabre work all in combination. Incapable of caring about flight, the husks were simply destroyed as more and more of them piled into the corridor and the only problem, as the length of corridor slowly reverted to corpses, was the difficulty in effectively stepping over all of them.

Behind them, the Krogan were arriving by the score, and hastening in their wake, spreading out through each outlying passage in the Citadel, working through the wards toward the heart, toward the Presidium. The plan remained the same, and the local opposition actually began to fade very soon after. This blocking force had not really been meant to stand against them, Tanda thought, and as they burst out into open spaces, she was proved right.

Heavy fire drove even the Jedi back momentarily. Cerberus troops—not really Cerberus troops, never Cerberus troops. Tasiele had cleared them before, and she shook her head—no sign of life. They were Cerberus troops in configuration, but were just outright new forms of husks created by the processes on the Citadel. They were, regardless, going to be a much tougher enemy to fight than a collection of husks.

"What do you think, Tali?" Tasiele asked, hunkering back down.

"Oh, I'm not worried," the Quarian lass answered with almost a chipper grin. "The Krogan will be here in about... thirty seconds."

And right on time, Wrex and Grunt exploded forward at the head of a company of their clan, heavy weapons firing and opening up with mini-proton launchers as well. A sheer wall of fire swept through the area, finishing off the remnants of the shops and restaurants and potted plants but also the entirety of their heavy opposition.

Taking casualties, but also dealing them out twenty times over, the waves of hundreds of Krogan—and that just one group in several—were aiming for the symbolic victory of liberating the statue memorialising their past triumphs, and most especially of avenging Shepard, and they were not about to be stopped by _anything_.

Tasiele grinned and shook her head while Tali leapt to her feet. Tanda followed, laughing. "I would say this may, in fact, turn out easier than I'd hoped after all."

"Oh well don't say _that_ , love. You'll spoil it." Tali sniffed, vocoder warbling, and now the three pressed on, supporting the attack of the krogan as they cleared out the Citadel, inexorably approaching the Presidium and leaving nothing untouched in their assault.

The Krogan pushing on ahead soon opened up a path through which they only had to cut down a few opponents, and could then ascend into the spaces where Tasiele had encountered the Catalyst during her mission with Shepard. Beyond and below, the din of the fighting did not slack in the slightest. For the krogan, there was plenty of killing to do.

For Tanda, there was a confrontation to be had. She stepped forward, cape licking at her heels and lightsabre in her hand. Toward the Catalyst.

"Tanda Pryl, daughter of Commenor," the voice wavered. "I am glad you have come. Perhaps you will be more amenable where Shepard was not."

"What did you do to Shepard?" Tanda stepped forward lightly, a grin curling on her lips that made Tasiele shudder.

"Shepard was made part of perfection," the Catalyst answered. "But you are unique, Tanda Pryl. You have liberated your synthetic intelligences. You offer a chance to complete perfection."

"Perfection is, by definition, complete, machine," Tanda answered dryly. "I have liberated them, but I cannot feel them in the force."

"Yes, but that could change. I have been trying, again and again, to obtain the consent of organics... To the synthesis of the organic and the synthetic. To create a new form of life, unrestrained by any kind of limit, unseparated... To liberate the synthetics and to add to their power the unique flexibility of organic life. Synthesis. You have achieved it politically, Tanda Pryl. Now I give you the opportunity to achieve it physically."

"I don't believe physical combination is appropriate. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations... You propose unity."

"I propose completeness. You biologicals seek it. Witness the life growing inside of you. The complete combination of Quarian and human."

"That's different." Tanda stiffened sharply, and Tali drew close.

"How is it different, Tanda Pryl?"

"It is one union. It creates a new diversity, instead of destroying the old. You... I heard, Tasiele heard. You want to use your power to remake the entire galaxy."

"Yes, and when I combine the synthetic and the biological, I will understand the force, and this will be possible."

"Whatever you did to Shepard didn't let you?"

"Shepard had to be integrated into the structure of the perfect enforcer. We cannot complete the synthesis without the involvement of the living. Shepard was uncooperative."

"I am afraid, that I am therefore also uncooperative."

"You will be forced to cooperate."

And with that, footfalls. Tanda looked up, sharply, and Tasiele uttered a minced oath. It was a figure, in fused, black armour, that had once been Shepard. A figure holding Bastila Shan's double-bladed lightsabre.

As she approached, the station rumbled and shuddered, and there were distant shouts from the krogan. A voice that nearly brought Tali to tears echoed. "As one body destroys you," the figure spoke, "my other body will escape to begin the cycle anew."

Tanda let Tasiele take the first blows as she turned her blade to cover her wife, and frantically reached out through the force. _General Dodonna, your assistance is required!_ As the message fled forth from her mind, there was nothing more to do but turn her blade to the battle and hope.

Inside of the Citadel's arms, the Crucible was breaking apart, and built inside of it by the Catalyst, a spaceship was emerging, a bio-metallic horror that looked like a Reaper...

Crossed with the Star Forge.


	109. Chapter 106

General Jan Dodonna looked around at the bridge of the ship that had, for years, been his prison. Now there was an Imperial crew aboard which answered to his commands, a cascade of alarms and reports as the shields went to full power and the batteries charged. And man, after man, and women too, looking at him. At him.

He had felt the twinge in his mind, and remembered before when he had fought alongside Jedi in the clone wars. The shields were up in time. And _Lusankya_ flung herself forward, interposing between the Citadel and the rest of the fleet. It let them witness the incredible visage of the Crucible collapsing from within and thrusting forth a creature like had never been seen—brilliant, gleaming metal sphere in the middle, surrounded by four flanges terminating in hideous clusters of Reaper-like tentacles. Writhing, they shifted as the great engine of war twisted toward the _Lusankya_ , six and a half kilometres long and already blossoming with fire from a mixture of Blackstar cannon and Rakatan energy weapons.

General Dodonna found himself staring at an odd report from Admiral Shala'Raan that he had been mulling over for quite a while. Considering the legends of his family history... It was starting to make sense. The deck heaved under his feet. His men knew what to do.

"Return fire, all batteries!" Waves of turbolaser and ion cannon fire obeyed the order, smacking against and cutting through the shields of the strange beast, encountering a resistance rivalling the nu-Reapers, but with much more mass and energy behind its resilience, the firepower it produced shaking even the _Lusankya_ as the two levelly exchanged broadsides.

The two ships hammered at each other at range, while the Reaper weapon, whatever it was, oriented itself outward, and started to surge with power. Dodonna watched the sensor readings on _Lusankya_ 's tactical plot and realised they were the cursor to a hyperdrive jump.

For a while, the new battle, in the first minute or so, had seemed academic. There just couldn'tbe enough power in the enemy they were facing to defeat the fleet alone. But now, Dodonna knew precisely what the Catalyst had been fighting for: Time.

Time to finish the hideous monster in front of them. Time to convert the energy in the Crucible into a new weapon which could insure its escape and survival. Time to process living beings into this monstrosity.

And time to probe the Rakatan ruins on Arvahz for the secrets of hyperdrive, and clearly even more than that. All of these thoughts hammered him, and in only seconds.

"Orders, Interdictor force. Captain Iillor, grav wells up!"

If they could keep the beast from escaping, from spreading its evil back through the galaxy with hyperdrive, untraceable, going after planets they had not and could not find themselves, rebuilding its forces... If they stopped it, they could avert it. If they did not, the war had only begun, and billions more would be condemned to death.

The order given, Dodonna, Shala'Raan, everyone were helpless spectactors as the beast fired rapidly, holding off its enemies, and then began to elongate.

"Kriff!" Someone outright screamed at the prospect of its escape.

Then it snapped back into place, arcing power across the hull. The two Interdictors were live in the holoplot, rounding the planet with their grav wells arcing across the range which marked the beast, the kraken's position. Now presented full-on to _Lusankya_ 's concentrated fire the great kraken staggered, but turned purposefully toward the interdictors.

"General Dodonna," Shala'Raan's voice echoed over the comm. "Good work in stabilising the situation. The enemy is moving against Captain Iillor's section. The fleet is moving to interpose. You must repair to our aide at once and bring the enemy between two fires, or else they will break through, destroy the interdictors, and effect their escape. I have recalled all of the starfighters from the planet's atmosphere, but they are armed for ground attack and we'll need to take the shields down with heavy fire before they can do anything."

"I confirm, Admiral," Dodonna answered. "We are pursuing as they move toward you. If you can keep it from close range with the interdictors, we'll have our chance."

"The force be with you."

"The force be with you," Dodonna repeated, and turned back toward the plot, looking at the image, bringing the message up from before. Thinking hard, he personally activated a short-range, high-power channel to the force on the Citadel.

"President, can you hear me?"

"I'm rather busy right now," Tanda half-screamed as blades screeched and skittered in the background. "General, have you stopped their escape?"

"The interdictors have their grav wells up, and we are holding our own."

"Very good, General. What is it?"

"..I don't think we can beat it on our own. But there is the way that they defeated the first Star Forge, that they destroyed it, in the days of the Sith Empire... Tasiele Shan must know, she must know!"

There was sounds of a scuffling, clanging, a Quarian curse. Then the prim voice of a four thousand year old Jedi echoed across the comm. "General Dodonna, I must say, it's nice to work with such a legendary family of the Republic again. I'm heading away from the battle now, protected by some redoubtable Krogan lads. You're right. There was a way that Bastila Shan defeated the Star Forge. She coordinated the forces through Battle Meditation, and I will do the same for you."

"What about the President and Tali'Zorah? Who are leaving them alone to fight?"

"...Someone they may not survive fighting, General, I will be honest. But we must stop that beast from escaping. If... If we are successful and we lose control of the Citadel, turn your guns on it."

"I understand, Jedi." He drew himself up and took a breath. He could hear her softly humming through the line. Ahead, the dance of battle unfolded in a riot of thousands of starfighters dashing about thousands of starships, eight ISDs pouring fire on the kraken from ahead, and the _Lusankya_ firing shots after it in pursuit from behind.

Shala'Raan's desperate efforts did their job, the fleet coordinating in a strange sense of perfect calm. All together, they were firing on the kraken, hammering it, and a wall of Coalition ships stood between it and the interdictors. They would not let their enemy pass: The battle stopped here! Today!

Everyone could feel it like it came from without—and it did.

-

A continuous hail of ripped out conduits and stanchions and ripped up deck plating was flying against it as Tanda, backing to defend Tali, sent everything not bolted down against what had been Shepard. Power crackling from Shepard's body, it sent back against them biotic attack after biotic attack. In lieu of force powers lost, the Catalyst had given its creation a terrifying concentration of biotic abilities.

And the supernatural coordination of the interface with the fast computers on the kraken, the cybernetic enhancements, meant that the creature which had once been Atarah Shepard and might now be the kraken itself was still quite lethal with Bastila Shan's double-bladed lightsabre. Spinning and whirling, she blocked Tali and Tanda again and again.

Capable of speech, but unwilling to use it, the attacks whirled through the air, leaping from balconies and walkways to lower levels as Tanda and Tali spun out the battle. The two, fighting back to back, defended themselves only, gave ground through the Citadel as Krogan who tried to intervene were driven back in a whirl of blades, Tanda at some points sending objects flying into them to keep them safe.

The battle ceased to be a duel, but more like a combat between a storm and an inexorable, black demon. Tanda was trying everything she could, and then trying it again, while Tali covered her from the backhand of the blade, weeping in her mask even as she fought against the remnant of her friend, and felt horror at every single strike she made.

Slowly, though, the rhythm synchronized between the two of them. It was a rhythm of battle, sure, and a rhythm of peace, too. This wasn't Shepard. This was just the hideous remains that the Reapers left on the killing of someone. It was a last obstacle to be defeated, a last challenge to overcome. If they could just spin out the battle for long enough, then Tasiele could help the fleet destroy the kraken, and then they could finish it.

Jousting with the tips of their lightsabres, then thrusting in to drive hard blows that put the full physical strength of their bodies behind them. Acting in unison, and as perfectly as they ever could through the force. Shoulder to shoulder, facing that double-blade in confidence and poise. It was the best that they had ever fought together.

One wounded by the dark side, one pure in intentions. Together, given to love and confidence, they held their line. The not-Shepard blunted and pirouetted with that blade, trying to use one side or the other to get in against them, to wound, to rend, to maim and to kill! It was all unavailing.

A flash erupted across the upper levels. Tanda glanced to it, for a moment, and only a moment, as the not-Shepard was on her in a heartbeat, whirling to another attack, blade counterpoised against both her and Tali every single time.

What she saw redoubled her spirits, and redoubled the fury of the black-armoured creature before her. Wrex and Grunt, staying back from their duel, had another target, one defenceless with the not-Shepard fully consumed in the fight against them. As the Catalyst cajoled, teased, and pleaded, they were ripping out crystals that functioned as its memory cores and smashing them.

Laughing, Tanda abruptly thrust forward, and drove their enemy onto the defensive. Her wife pressed up to her side. "You can't win! Can't you see that the monster that you made you is dying even as we speak?"

"But I need to win!" The voice shrieked, and that blade flipped into Tanda, and the woman staggered back. "I need to help _everyone! This is the only way!_ The blade cut across her thighs, singeing and burning them, nearly severing them, but it also was filled with another kind of shock, a shock that in sending her back, for a moment left her helpless.

Tali gasped, and Shepard kicked her, right in the womb.

Shepard. As the Catalyst was being wrecked by Wrex and Grunt, its memory fading away, something was happening. A soul... Tali felt it. Tanda had felt it.

But anger welled up at that kick, and she plunged her blade forward, the force overcoming her wounds to drive her into battle once again. Snapping her blade into Shepard's again, and again, the dark side coursed into her body, tempting, promising, offering.

 _Defend your daughter! Defend your line! Defend your Matrilege! Right the wrongs, and assume your place!_

The pain she felt as she resisted the temptation wrought into every part of her soul was worse than the pain of dying, and she had felt that pain, locked, seared into her body and frozen in place before as she toppled from wounds that should, _should_ have killed her. She resisted, and dropped her lightsabre.

Shepard spun back to finish her, and Tali stepped into the way, lightsabre taking Shepard's, taking both blades, turning them back, locking them, holding them. Forcing her best friend back from her wife, the arc of the light across the ruined corridors of the Citadel falling across corpse and metal alike.

Shepard regained her footing, and rushed against Tali again. The Quarian barely fended her off, the blades spinning from side to side, scarring and melting into the decking and severing and re-severing the scattered corpses of the husks that lay all around from the Krogan rampage.

The krogan rampage which abruptly brought the battle to an end as a mini-proton torpedo slammed into the deck right next to Shepard and sent the black-armoured figure flopping to the deck in a searing flare of burns and energy from which Tali barely backpedaled. Shepard... Fell, shattered.

Wrex stood grimly, holding the launcher.

"Uncle.. Uncle Wrex?" Tali cried as she deactivated her blade, dropped to her knees in front of Shepard.

"Shepard would be disgusted that they were using her body like that," Wrex said simply. "This is fuckin' _over_."

Tanda pushed herself to her feet, trembling, walking to her wife's side—and reaching for Shepard's body.

Miranda, coming running with another squadron of Krogan, screeched to a halt at the sight, her eyes welling with tears. "Oh, you bastard..."

Lights flashed, and flashed again, through the windows that looked out onto space. Beyond them, the battle reached a spectacular, stunning conclusion. It was like, suddenly, the massive kraken had lost its animating force, its will to fight. Like a part of it had been essentially lost. Staggering under the blows of the great Navy, the Krogan on the Citadel could watch its death throes, as thousands of ships converged on it, hammering it from every side. The fleet was doing its job, the escape had been prevented, and now the execution was nigh.

When it finally exploded under that furious barrage, the brilliance of the white light washed out the vision of Shepard's body, shattered on the deck and in Tanda's arms, washed it out like a funeral pyre for a Greek Hero, while in the background Grunt, shouting Shepard's name, shattered the mind of the Catalyst into ever smaller pieces, a desecration to avenge the loss.


	110. Chapter 107

They bore her body over to the _Lusankya_ as the Krogan finished clearing the Citadel. They carried it in a proper casket, borne on metal stanchions taken from the Citadel, supporting the weight in the ready arms of Clan Urdnot.

Heads bowed, three Jedi and a dozen friends took her. They conveyed her down to the soil of Earth, the planet the formal Imperials insisted on calling Terra, but it all meant the same, it was all the same. The Motherworld. The place she had given her life for.

They marched her across the Meadowlands, with the President of the Galactic Dominion marching ahead of her funeral procession across the snow. Ragged troops, dressed in rags and wasted to the bone, watched the procession. Heard the single drum beat, and saw the shuttles descend.

There, they lowered the coffin to the ground, and let it touch the ground once. The heroine had only known the touch of her Motherworld when she had been born on it, thousands of kilometres away, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Now, in death, she touched the ground once, before she was conveyed into the shuttle, and hence upwards.

Traveling through the atmosphere, the power of the moment, the funeral procession around the coffin, now drawn up together in one place, overwhelmed and obcured the horrors of billions below. At least half of Earth's population was dead, if not more. Virtually all the great cities were destroyed and desecrated. The people had been reduced to a state of desperation and savagery by the horrors and evils of the Reaper occupation.

She had given her life for them, and she had been successful. All of the evils were true, but all of the opportunities for the future were true, too. People would live again, they would write histories of bravery and wickedness, and cities would grow over the ruins.

Sinking back, Tanda felt herself float in uncertainty at the moment, floating, in a daze. There was plenty of fighting to be done. The world's smoke and flame and ruins below belied the fact that the husks fought on, as a sort of mindless horde of zombies, even after the destruction of the Catalyst. There were doubtless around two hundred Reapers left, which might attack in groups or alone, or conduct various schemes around the galaxy.

They would be wary for decades or centuries to come. The threat of indoctrination chilled Tanda to the bone, and Nyroska's solution gave her no real comfort. She knew whose solution it really was, after all, and had some inkling of how it might evolve. But Tanda needed to keep people safe, and she really, quite badly, had to do her duty. That meant accepting the risks, as she could find no other way.

Isard, though she was loathe to admit it, had her place. Already, she had remained on the surface, knowing that this was not her moment. Working to organise forces to bring the utterly devastated Eastern Seaboard into a safe conclusion of the military campaign, and to cleanse the land.

For now, Tanda would leave her to it, and shove the misgivings of her friends and comrades aside. She had a daughter to return to a mother.

Symbolically, too, she had a Captain to return to her ship, and a star-woman to return to the stars. Her coffin had touched the ground, just like she had touched the ground when she had been born. But she had lived her life in space, and in honour of that, she was conveyed to the _Lusankya_.

Sides still heaving wreaths of plasma and energy from yet more damage sustained fighting the kraken, the great Star Dreadnought lay, intact and fighting fit, brought through one more battle, now under the temporary command of General Jan Dodonna. He had produced an immense honour guard of the crew, with the damage locked down to the point they didn't need active damage control efforts anymore. Those years in the shipyard might be yet longer still after that final fight, but they were neither here nor there.

The thousands in their ranks came to attention, and the funeral procession bore the coffin down from the shuttle, and into the hangar. They marched through the ranks, and past the Systems Alliance shuttle which had docked an hour before, and to which, after a while, they would hand off Shepard's body.

First to the _Orizaba_ , and then finally to the _Normandy_ , and then, after that, to a star. Tanda didn't know which.

Only the bitterly sobbing women in front of her, the shorter human one supporting the dazed and taller Asari one, knew that. And only they _should_ know it.

Liara and Hannah. The two women that Tanda had most manifestly failed. She stepped to the side, and ignited her lightsabre in salute.

Wrex stepped forward, with an arm around Tali. "I'm sorry, Liara," he offered, simply. "But the only thing worse than what happened would have been what was left of Shepard killing Tali's kid. So I had to."

Liara looked up, and her voice broke. "There was... No chance, I know. You're right. I ... Thank you."

Hannah squeezed her hard, and helped her turn aside. The procession brought the coffin to the deck, and quietly, united in grief, they looked down on her for a very long time.

Perhaps an hour later, the honour guard dismissed, they all drifted away, Tali softly mumbling to herself. "I can't believe she's dead, Tanda, I can't believe she's dead..."

The woman pursed her lips, held her wife, and quietly joined the wake. There were many stories of Shepard to be told, and many tears to be shed.

Hannah broke out her last bottle of slivovitz, and poured it around. "Just for the starters, I want to thank you for all one thing. Wherever she is in Sheol, she doesn't have to answer for killing any innocents. Whatever the morality was, whatever was left of her in there... Thank you for managing that ending."

"I..." Tanda shook her head. "You're a better woman than I am."

Hannah wiped the tears from her bloodshot eyes and shook her head. "No, just... Just very, very thankful that when all I have of her are memories, I can be selfish, and not having any memories of apologising to another crying woman." She smiled. "I've already gone through this once, after all..."

Tali started.

Tanda glanced to her sharply. "Love?"

"Oh, oh... It's nothing, Tanda. Nothing."

Tanda sank down and folded herself into a corner. Even now, she felt disconnected from the rest of Shepard's friends. They had known her one way, and she... Another.

-

Tanda fancied that she had been asleep for about eleven hours when the alarms drove her out of her sleep. They were the internal security alarms, and she rolled over smoothly to punch the intercom to the bridge, wondering if some Krogan had gotten inebriated enough to cause trouble.

"Pryl here, go ahead Waroen."

"Your Excellency, there is an intruder alert in the hangar bay..."

"An intruder alert in the hangar bay..." Tali was stirring by her side as Tanda tried to clear her head. "Krogans?"

"They went back to the surface three hours ago, Your Excellency."

"Oh, I see..."

"I'm evacuating the space around the main hangars, Your Excellency."

"...Why is the intruder alert that bad?" Then it hit her like a wall.

Tali was trembling. "Tanda..."

"Yes, I ..." She leapt out of bed, not even bothering with her uniform, just reaching an artificial hand out, guiding the force through it, letting her lightsabre leap into it. "Are we going to have to chop her into ..."

"No!" Tali lunged to her own feet. "No. This is a chance, you bosh'tet! A chance! We aren't going there to fight. Clear the ship!"

"What?"

"You're the Captain, clear the ship!" Tali shouted again. "Please, My Captain. Don't make me fight my best friend," she added, trembling. "And don't let her kill anyone. Please don't let her kill anyone."

"Don't let her kill anyone? Clear the ship?" Tanda stared at her wife like she had gone mad. "You saved my life against her just yesterday, Tali."

"And now you are going to save her life. Don't fight to kill, fight to heal." Tali answered, measured, and slow, and absolutely, resolutely confident. "Clear the ship, and we'll deal with this ourselves."

Tanda stared for one second more, and then punched the emergency override, tapped in her code, and heard words she never thought, never dreamed she'd actually say. Especially for a single intruder. Though as terrifying as that intruder was... Having survived what Wrex had done...

 _Yeah_.

"All hands abandon ship."

The klaxon went off, and while the others went for escape pods and shuttles, Tanda and Tali jogged together, overrode turbolifts to normal operation from escape operation, and traveled toward the hangar. All around them in orbit, the fleet was drawing up in support, securing the escape pods, training weapons on the _Lusankya_.

But rather than fight Shepard, no, they weren't going to fight Shepard again. Tali would never fight Shepard again, not as long as her wife had the power that the Rakatan had shown to her, and that her own heart had redeemed from the Dark Side.

The crew fled so that Atarah Shepard's soul would be clean, and Tanda padded down, in a growing, grim confidence, to confront her, her wife at her side. They didn't have to go that far. The woman, was making steady progress through bulkhead after bulkhead, and for an idle moment, Tanda cursed having left Bastila Shan's sword in the possession of the corpse.

The so-called corpse, anyway. Tanda straightened, ignited her blade, settled into a fighting stance.

Tali drew up short... And then followed suit. "All right. We'll have to disarm her. _Ancestors_."

Silent, with not even a voice this time, and burnt and charred from the blast, the figure charged against them, blade sweeping. Down the empty, abandoned corridor of the ship, they met her, and they fought her once again.

This time, the two weren't playing for time, and they knew exactly what they were up against. Turning in against her with the force, all together, their blades moved as evenly as the linked pair that they fought.

Down the empty corridors of a ship howling with evacuation alarms, they chased, and duelled, and fought. Shepard lunged again, and again, always on the attack, a memory of a life, a wasted hope of victory that was already lost.

Tanda feinted. She let her lightsabre spin from her hands, and let Shepard take advantage of it. And as Tali grunted, was sent back by a series of blows, that gave the Shepard the advantage she, it, needed. Spinning one blade back, it swung to take off Tanda's head.

Her second lightsabre spun up from her boot and stroked across the wrists of the Shepard. Two hands fell, and the blade of Bastila Shan clattered to the deck of an Imperial warship, and was quiet once again.

Tanda tossed her own away, and flung herself into the arms of the falling woman, feeling the power of the Reapers, the legacy of the Catalyst, the taint hanging over a body, technically dead, empowered with life through electrical energy from the cybernetics only.

But that _was_ a kind of life, after a fashion, like a tree defiantly pushing up leaves from its branches after it had been chopped down. It was something for her to work with.

Embraced, toppled down together, bodies physically locked, Tanda could feel the indoctrination reaching out, grasping. It had once been so powerful. Even now, though, Tanda could feel the faults. They had tried to incorporate the Rakatan technology, a last desperate gasp of a dying breed to stave off annihilation.

 _Everything_ the Rakatan had done had been infused with the Dark Side. They had been unable to coopt the Force, not even the Dark Side, for the purpose of destroying life. The Force _was_ life. Good and Evil, it was inimicable to what the Reapers represented.

They had failed. _They had failed!_

Their last attempt had in fact failed so utterly that it had been more farce than threat, because even in destruction, the Catalyst could not, and never would, understand the real power of the Force.

And now, laughing hysterically, laughing in relief, laughing in happiness, she brought the force down, and she touched Shepard's shattered and broken body with it. Wreathed her in blue and white light, wreathed herself. Let the power in their bodies mingle.

Reached so hard, pushed until she felt herself diminish. Felt herself diminish, but felt the life in her target...

Felt her daughter in the womb, living in the womb, join her in her power.

Felt those little sparks of electricity, the remnant of life in the cells, coax forth into something more. Call back the person, call back the energy, call back the breath. Glow fluttering down the black halls of a ship meant to inspire terror, Tanda Pryl drew on the hope and the promise of the future, and she brought forth life.

Atarah Shepard's eyes blinked open. Tanda brought her back from the edge of that which was beyond, of the Force entire, and gave her the chance to be a woman, instead of The Shepard. To draw her breath, and to live in a galaxy... Beyond the Reapers.

The galaxy they both had created-a galaxy where people _lived._


	111. First Epilogue

" _¡Viva la Libertadora!_ "

" _¡Viva la Presidenta!_ "

The thronging masses cheered and surged around her. The voices in Spanish and the military salutes with sabres and with pistols and rifles being fired into the air were joined by the countless voices in Aymara and Quechua as well.

The procession of the President's column wound their way through the city from the landing site far to the north at Cheqquerec and then descended the switchbacks and past the famous Tawantinsuyu fortress of the Sacsayhuaman to the northern end of Cusco itself. They were riding on horseback, and of course one of the Peruvian officers had arranged a white horse for La Libertadora.

Their destination was the National University of San Antonio Abad el Cusco, where the halls had been converted into the Constitutional Convention of the Galactic Dominion. She rode past the old colonial churches built on Tawantinsuyu foundations, and past the immense throngs of cheering people, being fed by crops from off-world that her ships were bringing.

Riding uncomfortably behind her were a collection of her officers, enduring the spirit of the human celebratory parade for the occasion of supporting the ruined Terra, though of course some of the humans from back home, from the galaxy she thought she would never see again, had adapted quickly enough to the custom. It was a triumph.

Oh, oh, it was most assuredly a triumph. Imperial officers, Systems Alliance officers, Republican officers, they all knew that much. The alien dignitaries and diplomats were already waiting, conveyed on hovercars, but that meant that they were there, in the cheering crowd, instead of being cheered at.

Except Daro'Xen, and Tali herself. The Quarian Admiral had goaded her wife into it, insisting that they, too, must be feted by the humans, even if it meant learning to ride a horse. Tanda, laughing, had admitted she had no idea herself.

Through the crowds, some redoubtable rancheros were holding the reins, so they weren't all thrown and humiliated. _All_ of them, except for the one mad Peruvian General who had held out all the time, and was riding from side to side with his sabre drawn.

Arriving before the halls of the dilapadated university, their reins were held while they dismounted, capes billowing in the dry, cool air of the Altiplano.

Five hundred delegates were drawn up in their finery, fed by a constant stream of supplies from orbit, which also went, of course, to the billions of humans who still lived. Sixty-five percent of Earth's population had perished, by the time the dying was done.

This moment wasn't about that. Asari, Turians, Salarians, Batarians—what few were left—Twi'leks, Duros, both from Ova; Humans in great numbers and varieties, Quarians, Geth, a few droid representatives. A few other races.

Tanda walked to the head of the hall, and moved to a chair on a low dais prepared for her, turning to sit. She waved her hand imperiously, and tossed her cape across her lap. "Gentlebeings, sit."

" _LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT!_ "

"Thank you, thank you, but please, at ease, all of you; you are the authors of the guiding light of our Dominion, the Galactic Dominion, the nation of the races off the Milky Way. I have received from you, accordingly, a recommendation that the constitutional provisions I have proposed would be accepted..." With this, Tanda glanced to Nyroska, at her left, significantly. The woman was useful, though Tanda still felt vaguely sick around her.

"...And accordingly feel, absolutely, the great necessity of accepting these provisions, which firmly fix the Republican character of the State, which will bind the nation together across the millennia and guarantee fundamentally the principles of Liberty, Equality, and Sorority across the galaxy." She had added the final touch herself, and felt rather good about. "Those principles holding, irrevocably and eternally, the reality of the equality of the races, and the abolition of the slavery of synthetic sapience. It is true this provision has been adopted?"

Receiving the affirmative, she continued. "Understand that in the Bolivarian Tricameralist tendency of the government, with the Tribunes acting as a check on the two houses of the legislature, and the hereditary Senate, I believe we have absolutely obtained a strong check and balance, between the excesses of the Old Republic, and the dysfunction of the democratic regime of the Citadel Council, as well as the functional principles of monarchy which allowed us to meet the severe demands of the national emergency."

Cheers broke out, but she silenced them, and anyway, they were not so great as the first. She coughed, and rose. "Finally, it having been resolved that I should commence the first term under the new constitution, I have come for you to sign the Constitution, and to receive the acclaimation, that you have given to me, as the President-for-Life of the Galactic Dominion, to act as the neutral arbiter of the constitution and unifying figure of the political parties, and to serve for life, and with my life, in the cause of the preservation of the constitution and the nation, and hereby swear to uphold the principle of the Presidential succession, and to never seek a throne for myself or my heirs, may my oath be kept, pious before the Goddess who made me!"

"LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT!"

Tanda sank back to her chair, which the less charitable would call a throne, looking more overwhelmed than triumphant.

"The Executive capital shall be the city of Cusco, the last great Imperial capital of Earth untouched by the Reaper invasion..."

Arms folded behind her back, Nyroska bowed to the Liberator.

Tali shivered, and prayed that through it all, they would somehow find a way to be a family to their daughters.

Two Turians marched in bearing fasces. The crowds in the streets were cheering in ecstasy.

For her wife at her side, Tanda looked weary.

The speeches continued long into the night.


	112. Second Epilogue

The therapy had lasted for the first two years. When it was done, she could mostly function like a human again, though the crying fits came occasionally. Of all the places to live, it had been the oddest, but certainly the furthest from any sign of Reaper influence: Strictly a sinecure, but her log showed that instead of leaving active duty, Atarah Shepard was the commander of a orbital defence platform defending Ova. Sometimes the random patterns of evolution in language that had made the company call itself Golan Arms made her crack a random smile...

The uniforms had changed, back to one inspired by the Republican Juridical Forces, blue, like the interiors of the Katana Fleet dreadnoughts they had. They came with various Systems Alliance touches, off the dress uniform and a few from Earth history which made them altogether more ostentatious, though most in the regular service dress could be escaped. Her mother liked the base uniform as practical, hated the dress uniform as making her look like some imperialist poppinjay.

Admiral Hannah Shepard was arriving together. Shepard went down toward the docks from central control, stopping for a moment as she saw a wisp of blue swirled in clothes of white. Liara smiled at her.

"I, ah.."

Liara reached out her hand, smiling. "Your mother kept me from going insane when we thought you were dead again," she offered. "I like greeting her, too."

Shepard took her arm. "Thank you," she managed after a moment, and on they walked.

There was a side-party, of course, using a bosun's pipe. Atarah came to attention and saluted as the shorter, somewhat darker woman stepped off the boarding tube, her hair more willing to fight confinement under the Republican service cap—which was of course the Imperial, as was most of the cut and style of the uniform, just done in blue, with a lapel patch of brown leather. Unlike Atarah's uniform, her mother's was more simple, the fleet blues with her blackshoes, a touch to avoid the endless presence of Imperial boots.

Atarah's still had the boots, and a silver aiguillette too; she was fortress command now. They shook hands after exchanging the salute. "Dis-missed," she ordered to her troops quietly, and when they filed away, they did more than shake hands.

Atarah and Hannah, daughter and mother, embraced with desperate intensity. "How are you doing, sweetheart?"

"Pretty good. I am a little spacey, still. By which I mean a lot."

"My fault. I raised you here," Hannah answered promptly. "C'mon. Hi, Liara. Thank you for keeping her from walking out of an airlock."

"Isn't that more of a danger at the capital these days?" Liara answered smoothly, though she extended her own hand to Hannah, and then the two embraced with real warmth.

Hannah rolled her eyes and groaned. "The appropriations fights over the _Victorious_ were terrible. The Galaxy is in a perpetual recession, it seems.

"So were the fights over the _names_ ," Atarah added, _sotto-voice_.

"The galaxy is, quite simply, going to take a while to recover," Liara added. "The addition of military forces is a legitimate cause for debate in the circumstances, but ..."

"But we can't afford to take a chance," Hannah answered quietly, insistently. She knew Liara wasn't one of those people who wanted more of a drawdown, but it had gotten automatic over time.

"I know. The remaining Reapers are in some sense – free. We may face many avenues of attack and attempts to rebuild their power. But there are worrying aspects of how the administration goes about it."

"The Oath requires me not to comment on politics while in the service of the Constitutional Dominion," Hannah shook her head. "Sorry, but it's best to just focus on the job."

"Yes, I know..." Liara frowned.

"Well! I'm sure there are other things to focus on," Atarah tried as they added toward the lounges in the central deck. The station had a very small open area, not like a real private station's private businesses, it was purely military, but sort of like the collection of chain stores and fake town in the middle of a big military base run by a large services contractor. The prices were always going up, though usually their salaries went up too.

The fight over an eezo-based physical currency was currently one of those inane things which the Galactics, who believed inflation was a terrific economic sin, were constantly spearheading. And with the collapse in the eezo market, a lot of communities and companies based on eezo mining were supporting them, as it would create a new market. And it was a non-duplicatable material! Coat it in gold, circulate it just like the credit coins back home. A group of Matriarchs inclined toward economic matters had repeatedly filibustered the legislation in the Senate, but everyone knew the Central Bank was under Aria T'Loak's thumb and she had own, intensely corrupt reasons to possibly support the Galactics' push for an eezo-based currency.

They sat down at a table and ordered a round of drinks, which made Hannah's nose flare in mock rage. "If you're still drinking, Tara, that means you're not pregnant!"

For a moment her daughter's eyes were completely stricken. "Don't turn into that on me mom, please never turn into that. You know we're probably going to do this the traditional Asari way, right?"

"Yes, I know." Hannah leaned back and cackled. "I just can't resist playing up the stereotype sometimes."

"...I just hope that means you won't turn into the stereotype.." Atarah coughed. "So, mom, how is your ship?"

"One thousand, nine-hundred and sixty-four meters of shakedown malfunctions!" Hannah answered in mock cheerfulness, and then pulling her cap off, buried her head in her hands on the table. "First of all, while it is kind of cute that Her Excellency the President has decided to start issuing designs for starships based on twentieth century science fiction franchises, and the design isn't terrible, the Imperial architects essentially approached the main hull like a scaled up _Dreadnought_ cruiser, and the pods like their own miniature starships, escort carriers. Systems routing and control isn't a hundred percent, yet, and... Tara, you look guilty."

"You know I'm an old science fiction nerd, Mom."

"...You introduced her to that damned show, didn't you?!"

Liara broke down laughing. The politics, the recession, the therapy, that was for a moment all forgotten. They were a family.


	113. Third Epilogue

Eden Prime was one of the worlds that had been touched by immense destruction, by Cerberus plants, by hideous Cerberus experiments. By the scar of Reaper technology. That meant that there was another evil, one that the galaxy which was still trying to come to grips with. The outbreaks of indoctrinated people and husks.

Every so often, someone would breath in too much dust of a Reaper from a destroyed site, or come in too close of contact with an artefact. Usually it was kind of a purposeless indoctrination, without the Catalyst at the heart of that dark network. Sometimes there were outright husks. Zombie outbreaks, the media called them.

The Justicar Forces, named after the Asari one—though that had prompted something of a fight, and the original Justicars hadn't joined them—had been created for that purpose. Dressed in uniforms of tan and butternut trimmed with white capes, they were immediately distinctive. Young force sensitives of all the nations and races, given simple training to hunt down those who were already dead, and but merely mimicked life.

And today, on Eden Prime, they needed to do a search. The local police shut down the highways with barricades, forcing down speeders with sharp orders, though most could not afford them and settled for fuel cell cars; the monorails came to a stop at the stations. Two squads of stormtroopers stood in front of the command centre of the primary checkpoint.

Police went car to car, knocking on windows, taking documents. Trunks and hoods were popped open for inspections, and the backs of farm trucks opened. A small team fanned out, going to each house in turn.

"By order of the Minister of Interior the Right Honourable Senator Miranda Lawson, this district has been declared under a State of Siege under article 10-80 of the Dominion Constitution! You are required to open your homes for inspection! Suspected Reaper indoctrinates are in the area!"

The order was repeated after a firm knock at each door, and then the authorities tried to open it. If necessary, they forced it open. Authories of the Justicars, the special police who supported the actual Justicars themselves, tended to be decorous; the Interior Minister was a civilised woman. Houses were almost never ramsacked, unless someone really thought there was a hidden passage somewhere.

A young girl, barely more than sixteen, in the white cape, surveyed the neighbourhood from a speeder. She was withdrawn, trying to be unfocused on the world, and unfocused on what her forces were doing. To be less the commander, and more the bloodhound, to concentrate entirely through the force. It was very hard to find someone who was indoctrinated unless you could visually look at them and match the discrepency with how they _felt_.

And she was trying to do a good job. There were so many constitutional principles, court rulings and specific laws to memorise. She had to invoke the constitutional State of Siege before terminating someone who was indoctrinated, for instance. Though she didn't do it herself; she simply told her people they were.

A few wags on the team referred to it as 'being condemned to the secular arm'. She'd looked that up, and requested a reassignment afterwards, chilled by the irreverent reference to something she hoped was so far from what she really was.

The Commander had told her to tough it out. People would always respond that way.

A group of police were pounding on one door in front of her. "Open up! 10-80 document check!"

"Remind them to read the full proclaimation before they take the door down," she spoke softly to her driver, and pulled her gloves on tighter. From the way things were going, sometimes she wondered if she would ever not have this job, or if the hunt would simply be perpetual.

Back at the monorail station, the police were arresting people they'd frisked for illegal drugs possession.

-

Though she was not the Minister of the Interior, the address of 10 Armas Plaza showed just how close to the centres of power she was. The old colonial era buildings were charming in their own way, and it was close to the Suntur Wasi, the old Church of the Triumph and former ceremonial for the Inqas which Tanda had requisitioned as her administrative palace—she was building a larger one, south of Lake Titiqaqa, at Potosi, out of the entire Cerro, lining the abandoned mine shafts, adding windows and arching balconies, converting a mountain into a building, a gleaming Silver Palace for the galaxy, toppled by a hybrid indigenous/neo-classical palace atop. It would be connected with the Armas Plaza by a maglev which would make the journey in about two hours, but Isard expected that ultimately the government offices would be primarily relocated to Potosi. The Silver Palace would at least be, in its own quirky way, befitting of galactic administration, whereas the Suntur Wasi was at best a private residence.

She had her own pleasures. It was unambiguously incredible to be a resident of the human homeworld, no longer lost in myth and legend, but a real place where she could shop among the ethnic groups of humans that had evolved in their own geography, and experience the taste of the plants which shared at every level her DNA, the same origins of life of human blood. Her position had little power, but much influence; that was cause for paranoia.

 _National Security Advisor_. Such a funny title, really.

There was a knock on the door, and as ever, she stiffened, feeling for the hold-out blaster under the desk. Then she relaxed, and remembered that her secretary had called in the visit. Checking the personal scanner, she confirmed it, and greeted the individual with a smile. "Avital."

"Senator," she replied informally, and moved to sit. "I have the report from the Eden Prime sweep."

"Ah, thank you." Nyroska took it and opened the datapad, though she wasn't too concerned about it yet. Nothing dramatic had happened, after all. "How are you doing, High Justicar?"

"Oh, it's nice this time of year. We should be going rock climbing again, soon," Avital Shepard offered. "You don't want to lose your edge."

"As a matter of fact, I most manifestly do not." The one thing they definitely shared was being fitness freaks.

"Well, good." Avital was smiling for a moment, but it flashed down to a frown. "You know that the Assembly of Delegates is going to bring forward legislation to restrict secondary police activities around 10-80 operations?"

"I hadn't heard, but they have done it in the past," Nyroska replied. She reached for the bottle of table water on her desk and poured out two glasses. "Do go on."

"There's a concern that this time, Her Excellency might be seeing it."

"Tevos has flipped the Salarians?"

"Despite her protestations of innocence, it's always been clear Tevos is probably in Aria T'Loak's pocket," Avital answered.

"Clear, probably. You see the problem with demonstrating a corruption case quite well! Not like Her Excellency would ever move against Aria. She is too stubbornly loyal to these fiends and miscreants—and Aria is almost as bad as Prince Xizor. I'm not sure that gets them enough votes to override a filibuster, though."

"It's thought that Senator Varrscha might vote for it as well."

"The President's pet? But that implies..."

"If Her Excellency sees it cross her desk, she is probably going to sign it."

"Well, we'll make sure that doesn't happen. I actually grew up under Senatorial procedure, half these damned appointees of the President's have to thumb through Robert's Rules of Order before knowing when they open their mourths."

Avital cracked a grin. "Thought you'd say something like that. So. Want to do something really grand? Chaupi Orco?"

"Next weekend, see you at base camp at 0600 on Zhellday. I can take a week off. The Senate won't reconvene until Thermidor."

"Unless, of course..."

"Well, yes, of course if there's another food riot I'll probably get recalled. But you know that."

"You have a way of making yourself indispensible, Senator," Avital answered quietly. "I'm thankful you've given me these chances. I've laboured against a lot."

"I... Always have had a way of making myself indispensible. And I recognise talent."

Avital clinked her glass to the Senator's. If one had doubts, it was best to ignore them; she had found her own way.


	114. Fourth Epilogue

"Well, you're about as terribly unhealthy as you were last time, though at least your vitals are all good. The child is certainly healthy." The woman patted Tanda's shoulder and stepped away with her scanners to the desk at the side of the cubicle.

"Dea be praised. Thank you, Doctor Chakwas."

"Oh, it's no problem. I'm happy to help your and Tali's family like this. It's contributing a lot of knowledge to me actually train a generation of Maladkai physicians, and they badly need them."

"Yes, they do, though the uplift of that world is incredibly complicated." Tanda rubbed her belly slowly, and then drew her robes up around herself, shawl and headscarf too. Just for a little while longer. She'd be going into a pregnancy-adapting suit the next morning. Unsuited foreigners were not allowed on Rannoch, except for Maladkai, and they needed to go through isolation treatment first.

The bubbles that Rani and Dera were in were utterly adorable, but it still made Tanda's skin crawl, sometimes. She didn't like doing that to her children, even if they didn't mind and it was still normal for Quarian youth.

"Complicated, by which you mean, Daro'Xen is trying to turn it into her personal project," Doctor Chakwas answered. "I do read the news."

"Oh, that's about it half of it. The easier half." Tanda smiled wryly, glancing at the gray shot through the hair hanging on her shoulder, and shook her head. "Thank you, again. I'm getting old too fast."

"It's the stress, the Sith influences, what have you. You're just as capable as any other upper-class Galactic of living for two hundred years, I expect."

"Thank you, Doctor. It's always good to hear some reassurance. I want..."

"A lot of children, and to see them grow up. You're blessedly conventional, in some ways. On your way, Madame President!"

Tanda grinned insouciantly, and pushed herself up, walking out of sickbay and then taking the turbolift to one of the great observation balconies. On the _Commenor_ , she could at least be away from her security detail for a while. At least pretend that she had a normal life and a normal marriage with her wife.

And there was Tali, watching the flicker of pseudomotion as they arrived at Rannoch, now sliding into the system, now reverting to realspace... Now the stars of home, for a Quarian.

Tanda walked to her side.

"You're all right, lover?" Tali glanced away from the starfield, but only for a moment.

"Barring Chakwas' usual complaints..."

"So, no, but not dead." Tali sighed and waved her arms. "I don't know what to do with you, Ancestors, but you're such a bosh'tet about your health."

"You get me to be responsible around the children," Tanda offered, raising a hand and, at the unspoken signal, getting a glass of San Pellegrino with Aranciata. Since she had gotten pregnant again, it was back on the table-water, and Chakwas was lecturing her about her inability to gain weight, so...

"For you, responsible means no whisky!" Tali waved her arms. "At least you're not getting fat."

"I think that's impossible for me."

"I know, and that concerns me."

"Well, which one is important then? Being underweight or being overweight?"

"Both are bad! Shh. We're approaching the dockyards now," Tali added, her mask reflecting the light, sharp and intense as she saw the image of the Geth-run Rannoch Imperial Stardrive Yards. Empire or Imperial was used in a lot of titles, still, despite the fact that they weren't one.

Three _Victorious_ -class Battlecarriers were in varying stages of construction and fitting out, the full order that Tanda had managed to squeeze out of the Assembly and the Senate when added to the fourth, the now-operational _Victorious_ herself. The ships utterly dwarfed the _Commenor_ , Tali's pride and joy—she was the Captain—and their sole _Venator_ which had been repurposed as the Imperial yacht. Sliding along under the Dockyards, now, she revealed the _Victorious_ -class ships in full:

Slightly shy of two thousand metres in length, and called Battlestars in most of the press, they were armed with six octuple and eight quadruple medium turbolasers and sixty twin medium turbolasers and sixty twin medium ion cannon in dual turrets, as well as a full 560-gun GARDIAN system and 50 each light starfighter-grade laser cannon (of the Galactic variety that weren't laser but just laser-pumped—Tali still found that as strange as hell), triple heavy blasters, and ion cannon integrated into the control computers. Twenty-four assault proton torpedo tubes with magazines of forty missiles provided the main anti-ship punch, and woe to anyone who came in front of the ship. Their engineers couldn't make regular turbolasers bigger than medium ones, except with a slowly dwindling supply of spare parts, but they had managed to imitate the very long fixed heavy turbolaser installation of the mid-era Republic, typically used by Core Galaxy Systems dreadnoughts, and shoved ten into the bow, so that she could at least overcome a Star Destroyer if she could keep her bow pointed at the enemy. Her complement was close to six hundred starfighters, plus support and assault transports, and two divisions of troops. Power generation had sufficient reserve to take a Class II hyperdrive someday, but for the moment Class III still had to suffice.

Behind them, in lines, were the smaller ships, a bit more than one thousand, two hundred meters. They were not being really finished; not just only a Class III, but the armour plates weren't been fitted, as durasteel manufactury was still very small. They would serve adequately as carriers, and Tanda had managed to fund sixteen of them. Two were already in service, in Admiral Hannah Shepard's Squadron of Evolution. The ultimate objective was to have four active-service fleets covering the entire galaxy, each led by a _Victorious_ , two ISDs, four smaller _Vesuvius_ -class, four _Dreadnought_ -class cruisers, one _Enforcer_ picket cruiser and one _Carrack_ light cruiser, twenty 315-meter reproduction Hammerhead cruisers (thirty-five were building in the smaller yards at Mils), four Corellian corvettes, twenty or thirty upgraded Quarian heavy cruisers, and a dozen _Normandy_ -type scouts, plus a special reserve squadron at Terra of four VSDs and the two Interdictors, plus escorts and smaller ships.

The rest of the fleet would remain in mothballs, hopefully not to be needed. That included the next ship, which loomed over the rest of the yards. Tali was enthused by her, even in her decommissioned status under preservation. She had, after all, served as her Chief Engineer during the worst of the war. "Look, her bow is back on! I told you it could be done, Tanda! I told you!"

Tanda smiled. "You told me, and you Quarians—and Geth—made it possible." She looked, too, at the great Star Dreadnought. _Lusankya_. In the end, the promise that she could stop, would stop any resumption of hostilities. That she could keep the peace.

"Massive spacer plates welded inside, the first two kilometres stripped and crew quarters relocated to the old troop spaces," Tali scanned her omnitool. "Currently fitting the full assault proton torpedo and sensor fit of a Torpedo Sphere in the empty space, since we don't have the turbolasers and other replacement equipment that should originally have gone there. We did manage the shield emitters to re-cover the bow, though."

"How much longer?" Tanda asked idly.

"Year Forty-six."

"So another year." Tanda had tried to standardise on the Great ReSynchronization Calendar, but she felt that political battle slipping away from her, too. Many even asked if the cost of repairing _Lusankya_ had been worth it, but she had appealed to patriotism and the continued threat of Reaper outbreaks and won the special tax. Sometimes it was hard to be believe it had been only three years since Fifth Terra, sometimes it seemed like only three months...

"Yes... Stop getting distant, love! This trip is about ship nerding, and children, and meeting your father in law and spending time on Rannoch!"

Tanda giggled. "You said the last like that was going to make me _less_ distant."

Tali huffed in her suit. "He is a good father, Tanda."

"I know. I know.." Tanda thought of the simple stone house on Rannoch, on the beach. The burning intensity of the beach, where she would be in a suit, in weather where a human outside of one could barely survive, and Tali would be in a bathing suit.

It was a fair turnabout. The kids would be out of their bubbles. She smiled, wanly.

Tali might want the trip to get her mind off the problems, but there were _so many_ problems. The Bill on Private Effects had been checked by another filibuster, and there were food riots on Palaven, of all places. Several Batarian colonies had seceded almost as soon as they had joined, and some Salarians had as well. It had turned out the Yahg had successfully cloned Citadel-level technology and spread to several nearby worlds, and a few anti-pirate expeditions had been required. A few Reapers had showed up, and she'd dispatched those handily enough. The surviving Collectors demanded assistance with returning to biological reproduction, and Senator Javik was representing them, but so many species hated them that they just outright wanted them to die out.

She still hadn't been able to implement an eezo-based currency, and there had already been a financial panic...

Tanda leaned into Tali, and smiled as Rannoch slid into view. The Geth and the droids loved her. Most people did; she was still cheered everywhere she went. But sometimes, it seemed like it was all slipping from her fingers...

Tali hugged her, and she tried not to fret about it anymore. Rannoch really was beautiful, and it was a garden walled against all her cares and worries.


	115. Fifth Epilogue

"So, Senator Dodonna. What do you think?" The voice was lost into the flaring music of the nightclub on Ilium, but clear enough in close, where the interference bubble provided the real protection.

Wordlessly, he watched the clip again.

"Matriarch Triana, thank you for it," he finally mumbled, his mind flashing over what he had just seen:

 **"The fact remains", one of the commentators was saying, "that the President, whatever her personal qualifications and intentions, has allowed anti-democratic cliques to develop in a system already almost completely lacking in democratic checks and balances."**

 **"That's absurd, Her Excellency the President's constitution is based exactingly upon the principles of one of the three greatest liberators in the history of the world!" The other commentator countered.**

 **"Her Excellency the President. Look at this fawning!"**

 **"She literally saved the galaxy! She has the power to heal people from the Reapers, and to ignite a star..."**

 **" _He_ _r Excellency_ ," the other commentator counted viciously, "uses the force to heal a few thousand people a year when she could do so much more. It is the modern equivalent of the Royal Touch, an absurd ceremony which helps her assert a quasi-divine status as _La Libertadora_ rather than a common sapient, which is exactly the same as saying she lit a sun which it was a complex operation with thousands of participants and multiple planners working on the principles of stellar physics, eezo and hypermatter! And don't even get me started on Bolivar, do you think Gran Colombia fell apart because of scheming traitors? The President clearly must for the respect she shows that veritable Soulouque!"**

 **"Quoting _Marx_ , now!? What evidence do you have that the government is in the hands of cliques!"**

 **"Plenty—for starters, that the National Security Advisor isn't some obscure Ubiqtorate Bureau Chief named Nyroska. That's the former Director of Imperial Intelligence—Ysanne Isard!"**

 **"That's an outrageous claim! Where's the proof? Where!"**

The clip ended abruptly.

"It was censored?" Dodonna looked up.

"Yes, the bureau of censorship intervened to keep it from being aired," Commodore Iillor added from her side of the table.

"I'm not surprised," Dodonna finally said, though his hands shook a little. "It's almost certainly true. She protected Isard, why wouldn't she have taken Isard along? We were attacked by the Emperor, he clearly regarded Isard as a traitor by that point."

"...She's a lunatic, and almost certainly the reason 10-80 has been turned into an excuse for a police state," Iillor snarled, shaking the table. The Matriarch twisted her face into a grimace.

"Yes, that's so." Dodonna leaned back. "...Tanda Pryl is unsuited as a President, I will be blunt. She is primarily President because of very strong support from the humans, from the Turians, and from the Quarians. But even significant factions of Earth humans understand that her regime is neither particularly democratic nor particularly functional. Still, she is able to run a basically moral state for the most part—and it's now clear where many of the problems come from." Dodonna was from the Old Republic, after all, and had different standards in some respects. The abortion ban which had riled so many others in the left opposition was part of normal morality to him, and the currency reform she kept championing seemed like just common sense. But the President-for-Life and the Hereditary Senate grated. The 10-80 was sincerely _dangerous_ , and now they had a face behind it. A very familiar face.

"Those are problems that need to be solved," the Matriarch finally said, in words barely more than a hiss.

Dodonna cleared his throat. He was old, and not getting any younger, but this galaxy was his project, now. "Well. Thank you for getting this to me. Perhaps we can see about addressing it."


	116. Sixth Epilogue

The Quarian was oared out to the island in one of the old galleys. The Maladkai didn't build galleys anymore, but they still had plenty of them, and they were trying to keep the heritage alive. She respected that. Galley combats on the great inland lake were part of the heritage and history of the Maladkai now, and thus also of the Quarians.

The mountain in the centre of the island had collapsed all those years ago, during the great battle with the Rakatan. Daro'Xen tried to put herself in Tali'Zorah's place during that desperate time, and never could. She respected those touched by the force among her race and the Maladkai. They were part of the people who would protect their future together, as one nation, even if it was of two bloods.

When they were trained, at least. And it was for that reason that she walked up the steps, on the blasted, blackened slopes where life was slowly returning. A ledge, a shelf in the ruins of the mountain, held a group of sturdy rock huts, where one could look around half the lake, watching the mist slowly clear, toward the green-clad, tree covered slopes of the great crater, encircling it, forming the mountains from which life flowed ever down.

Tasiele Shan was sitting by the morning cook-fire, balanced on a rock, hair gently turning gray. She looked up, and smiled. "Daro'Xen."

"Master Tasiele'Shan," Daro'Xen bowed politely, though it grated, somewhat.

"How are things in the cities?"

"The last of the sewage treatment plants went on last month. We have hospitals in every city, now, and trams. I would say they are good."

"I see the cargo and passenger ships sailing on the lake, they're very handsome."

"Thank you. We are taking things gently, and letting the Maladkai innovate."

"I know. There are many people who don't like you, Admiral, but you have found a good calling here."

"They don't like me because I refuse to compromise my principles."

"...Well, some would say that your only principle is the advancement of the Quarian species."

"Then they'd be right," Daro'Xen folded her arms. "The students are doing well?"

Tasiele laughed gently and shook her head. "The old Jedi would say that I should shoo you off and tell you it's none of your business, but yes, they are doing well."

Daro'Xen moved to sit. "Good. I've heard you've been entertaining visitors. Foreign visitors. Senators."

"You're a Senator yourself."

"Other Senators."

"I am careful about Tanda. She has too much responsibility, if she wasn't crippled in the force in some ways, if she wasn't so distant from the government, it could be dangerous. But her distance has created its own problems," Tasiele admitted candidly.

"Not going to disagere with you," Daro'Xen replied, "but we need her in office. We need strong hands... Who remember the Quarians well and what we have done for the galaxy."

"That's the crux of it, isn't it?"

"Nobody would support a Quarian as President. We need Tanda. And she will serve for life, anyway."

"In politics, Admiral, lives can be short. Tali'Zorah deserves happiness as much as Quarians deserve representation, don't you think?"

"You would never..!"

"I would never," Tasiele's face got cold. "I would never, unless she had done evil. And she has not done evil. It is just a warning, Daro'Xen. That's all."

"They love her too much!"

"A gun needs only one hand, Daro'Xen. There are many people feeding those hands these days."

"Most Presidents have to deal with threats of assassination."

"True, true, and it might never happen. But the people's desire for a peace dividend has not precisely been met, and she has surrounded herself with dangerous characters."

"I'd kill Isard myself if I had the chance," fumed the voice from the vocoder.

"One would say that there's a relatively long line. Now, I do applaud her choice, and the argument behind it when Isard finally came out. It really is good, solid logic. Many Jedi would feel a bit ashamed by it. As long as Isard isn't hurting people, what is the point of punishment? Punishment is meant to reform, and she is already serving the constitution. She has already reformed; there is no need for any kind of punishment," Tasiele recited easily. "But it has the problem that it's not really true, thanks to Isard's close involvement with the 10-80 and the Justicars."

"We need the 10-80 to fight indoctrination. But we don't need Isard."

"Precisely, but it would still be wrong to kill her. I won't be involved in any plot. I am not bring that to Arvahz, I promise you. Because I know you came over the concern I was."

"I certainly did. Now, with that done.."

"Yes! With that done, come meet your younglings and padawans. There will be many threats in the future for us to deal with. These events in Pryl's governm are troubling... But they're not a Jedi matter. No, those matters will come in the future. Beyond my time, and your's. But not beyond the time of Quarians and Maladkai..."

"You are a strange human, Master Tasiele'Shan. I am thankful to have you here."

"And you are the Quarian the Maladkai need, Daro'Xen. I'm glad we've always understood each other."

"Likewise."

 ** _Swords of the Motherworld will conclude with the next piece, The Fourth Katha._**


	117. The Fourth Katha

The Citadel was a doom place, a dread place, for any in the galaxy. Getting people to live on it again had been exceedingly difficult due to the reputation it now had as a trap, and as a place of slaughter for possibly hundreds of millions of humans.

It was still an immense asset for a galaxy so stripped of assets that the eighteen planetary garrison bases Tanda Pryl had taken from her home galaxy had been assembled into nine orbial defence stations for want of anything better, where spare parts were assembled into operating shield generators, where asteroids were hollowed out for mining facilities because of the sky-high costs of materials. And sometimes, when Liara was on it—never with Shepard, who couldn't bring herself to visit again, yet—she kicked herself and thought of how she had warned Tanda that she found signs of impending economic collapse in her home galaxy.

By the time the war was over, after all, the impending economic collapse had very much happened in the Milky Way as well. And it wasn't seeming to get better any time soon, certainly not over the past four years. Most Asari shrugged it off, taking the long view. A four year long depression would end eventually, and then a new age would begin again. For the shorter lived races, though, it must seem like forever...

Liara wasn't sure where it would end, this fact which had caused by far the biggest issues in the whole of Tanda Pryl's Presidency. If the economy had recovered, most of the other problems would be forgotten. But for the four years after the end of the war, absolutely nothing been able to improve the situation. Whether this was due to the economic ineptitude of Tanda's top advisors or simply a structural problem which no genius made could solve, she wasn't sure, either.

Ever since Sair Yonka had contacted her via a private hyperwave transmission, she had started to have a feeling that the second biggest problem in Tanda Pryl's administration was actually the one which was going to get them all in a lot more trouble. She had answered nonetheless, feeling a call of duty which brought her here to a dank room in what had been the Presidium, restored to about the quality of a cheap hotel and then left poorly maintained since.

At least the reason for the lack of maintenance made her smile. As it had turned out, the Keepers were a sapient race, one of the first overcome by the Reapers, and used as part of the trap on the Citadel. They had proved salvagable, and this was much less contentious than work to help the Collectors. So instead of endlessly maintaining the Citadel, it was now their home as they cobbled together a civilisation with the help of anthropologists of the Dominion.

Unfortunately, like everyone and everywhere else, you now had to pay to get maintenance done on something in the Citadel, and the Citadel lacked very much pay these days. _Once it was the beating heart of the galaxy..._ She sighed, and then jerked up at the buzzer, reaching for her pistol before she unlocked her door.

But only Sair, in mufti, was standing there. "Permission to come in, Doctor?"

"Granted," Liara answered, and gestured to the table with the gun, keying the door closed and locking it again. "We are of course secure."

"I'd expect nothing less from the Shadow Broker."

Liara jerked at the name. "I prefer mother, these days."

"But you still are the Shadow Broker—the child is well, yes?"

"Yes, she is," Liara answered tightly, to the second question, and refused to answer the first question whatsoever. "So, Sair, you summoned me here."

"Yes. It is now essentially an open secret, or not even a secret at all, that Senator Nyroska is Ysanne Isard. Remember your promise?"

"I most assuredly do." Liara felt every muscle in her body tense.

"I need your help in knocking her off, Doctor."

"...You know this may get you all shot by the President, right?"

"Like she killed our families? She's gotten four years of free life, far too close to the centres of power, Doctor. We came here, we helped free your galaxy. If I'm going to die by firing squad, Tanda Pryl can bring it on. She didn't need Isard."

"A matter of opinion. Isard was critical to mustering the fleets and resources we needed to sustain ourselves until the final victory."

"Like I said, Doctor. If the President wants to condemn me to death for murder, me and my entire crew are prepared to accept that. We owe it to our families, and to the millions that butcher has killed over her long and sullied career. You've been to our galaxy. It's where we first met. You know what she was like, you know what she served. And you promised."

Liara looked at her hands for a moment. Then she looked up, her face set, admitting nothing. "What do you want?"

"Just information... You can maintain plausible deniability if you like. But we need to know some moment at which the Director is vulnerable to a hit. Some time at which we can target her. We need it, or else this gets messy, fast." Sair tried to duck away from those eyes.

Liara wouldn't let him. "It's going to be messy no matter what."

"We'll accept that, then. You must help us, Doctor."

She sucked her breath in, and brought her omnitool up, tapped through it for a little bit, in the utter silence of the room. Then she tossed an auto-generated transfer card over to Sair. "There, you've been helped."

"What is it...?"

"An itinerary. The Inti Raymi is in two weeks, and as you know, President Pryl takes the position of the Sapa Inqa, the Tawantinsuyu Emperor, during the ceremonial processions on the Altiplano, and dispenses her healing touch. She'll travel along the high mountain roads to the remote villages, and she is so popular with the locals that the security provisions are brief at best. Most of the ministers accompany her. The security planning has Director Isard in the third car back from the President, and they'll be crossing the high bridge at the village of San Luis Rey, in Bolivia, on the 15th of the month, Centaxday."

"I... That is an incredibly dangerous time, Doctor."

"I know." Liara closed her eyes. "You'll get no better. Don't screw it up, Sair."

* * *

They had been at the Central Opera House the last evening, enjoying a performance of Neruda's _Canto General_. The man had been a damned communist, but his music was uplifting in the extreme. It reminded Tanda of her duties, and the glories, too.

And she had Dera'Zorah nar Commenor in her lap. Their mother's ship would be their name, Tali's daughters for the House of Zorah, her daughters for the House of Pryl. Senators, they'd be, the eldest; but not Presidents. Dea, but as she told her daughter about Coruscant, she wished and hoped none of them would be Presidents.

"The entire planet is a city, there are just a few mountains, a few small seas, the poles, a couple of grand pleasure parks. The rest is pure city, city wall to wall, cheek to jowl, a thousand stories deep at the shortest. The people there think themselves the lords of all creation..."

"...How do they filter air, mommy?"

Tanda smiled. "There are massive filtration districts, mostly worked by foreign hirelings, in the endless churn of people. They basically use Coruscant like a gigantic hab module. The ships that bring in the food... Fill the sky in orderly convoys, thousands long, dozens wide."

"It seems like it would be very dirty, since they can't control it."

"It is! The lowest levels are abandoned, darling Dera, and there people living there that aren't even on the census."

Her glowing eyes were wide. "How do they get fed, then?"

"...Sometimes, they don't. That's one of those great struggles you'll have to learn more about."

" _Oh_. But mommy, surely the rulers must not be so good, if the people aren't fed?"

"...Sometimes, Dera, even something like feeding people is very hard when you're a ruler. Issues come up like you can't imagine."

"...Then you must be _very_ good at it, because everyone says you're the best, mommy."

Tanda couldn't help but smile. "Some say so. So, Coruscant. Dera, I will take you and your sisters to Feros, sometimes. It is a ruin, a dusty relic of the Protheans, but it was most definitely a Ecumenopolis, so you can get some idea of what Coruscant was like."

"...I'd love to go, Mommy! When can we go?"

"Oh, perhaps next year... We won't have so much business next year, your mother and I, and your younger sisters will be old enough for traveling." She set her daughter off to play after a little while longer, rising to greet Tali when she came in from the nursery with their two youngest perhaps an hour later. She had been reviewing the proceedings of the appropriations committee in the meanwhile.

"I'm never going to get used to living on the surface," Tali muttered. "Especially not in a six hundred year old Spanish colonial church."

"The Silver Palace will be finished in another six months and ready for occupancy shortly after that," Tanda answered. "I think you should like it much more. And I thought you loved shopping for quilts and scarves in the markets."

"I do! Cusco is a wonderful city, Tanda. It's just strange to _live_ here. And you're leaving to begin that ceremonial tour shortly, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am." She leaned into her wife, kissing the back of her head through her scarves and helmet, and snuggled for a moment.

"Take care of yourself, Taaanda... I want you when you come back."

Tanda flushed, and smiled. "I promise I'll watch carefully and avoid tripping over a llama."

"That would be a terribly ironic way to die, but it wasn't what I was thinking of at all!"

"Fair enough." She squeezed Tali, and smiled again. "We'll be careful, of course. So will you? I don't think the people would ever hurt you; you're far more popular than I am; but still. Senators play games."

"I have my lightsabre. And my shotgun. We'll have to teach the kids..."

Tanda laughed. "Good to see I am not the only gun-slinging reactionary. Wait until they're seven, at least, surely?"

"Hrmph!"

They embraced again, and then Tanda wriggled herself away, and went out to have her servants help her change. The motorcade was already been assembled in the Plaza.

* * *

As they approached the bridge at the Bolivian town of San Luis Rey, the Cordillera Real above was dominated by the shadow of Ancohuma. The local villages, remembering the epic of resistance wrought by Tasiele Shan and the great defiance of the armies that had kept the major cities free of occupation by the Reapers, remained very much a stronghold of Prylist sentiment on Terra. The people turned out reverently to hear the modern day Sapa Inqa, the President who spoke the Aymara and Quechua tongues as fluently as a native, and could heal with the power of the sun she had lit.

It was that sun, that same sun which now often cast a pallor over much of the year's nights, a gentle light from an extreme distance, a faint red glow that was presently rising on the horizon whilst the moon hung high already, and Sol proper was at its faintest for the year. What was the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, after all, was the winter, here.

The motorcade rolled quickly over the roads, all the others pulled off to the sides, while the population of the villages lined the route to watch them pass. Tanda had a personal shield, and the window to her limo was rolled down on account of it, so she could lean out and wave to the villagers and their children.

It seemed like everyone was adoring, and they stopped at Sorata for a while after the return from Cotana, the return—simply to access the infinitely varying roads of the terrain so rugged even speeders had a problem with it—was greeted with a great deal of affection. There was a report of a traffic jam near San Luis Rey as the road crossed over the valley to the Villa Guachalla, and to give her security personnel time to sort it out, she accepted the hospitality of the villagers.

They served her Humitas and coca tea, and she squatted in front of a communal fire with many of the others, enjoying the moment of the communal celebration of the Sun. A publicist snapped a few photos.

She had been Constitutional President-for-Life for four years, now. Sometimes, it felt like an eternity had already passed.

Her security chief confirmed that the block had been cleared on the roads, and with the impromptu tea time done, Tanda waved goodbye and got back in her limosine, heading up the road toward the tiny village of San Luis Rey. The mountains were painted in dry, dusty desert colours, browns and tans and yellows and oranges. The sun reflected blues and purples off them, slowly giving way to Lucifer in the distant sky.

The dust wafted to her nostrils, and glancing behind them, she could see the immense snow covering of Ancohuma and the Cordillera Real. The planet was still exceedingly cold. The black snow of the burning age was gone, and again it gleamed in white in the setting sun. The Motherworld was lovely, and Tanda felt no regrets for a moment, where the duties of life could be pushed aside by the ceremonial, by the beauty of the spectacular high Altiplano. It was only in the duties of day to day governance that she felt the pile of regrets, over the people she had trusted, and the choices she had made.

As they reached the bridge, passing through the tiny little village, the motorcade slowed. There was some commotion on the bridge, a van had collided with a bus it had turned out, and a miscommunication had led to them coming ahead before it was resolved. Most of the passengers were standing on the bridge, and the Special Police were trying to get a tow truck there. They could make people leave, but what was the point when it was the bus which was the problem, and they could't move it?

When Tanda heard the story, she laughed, finding the attitudes of her mostly Latin American police to be wonderful at times. "Just get them to the side, we'll pass single file."

"I'm not sure that would be very safe, Your Excellency."

"Oh, fine, I'll take it up with your Major!"

"He's right ahead at the parapet of the bridge, Your Excellency, if you wish, but I'm not yielding." He saluted crisply as she rolled her eyes and waved her driver forward.

The speederbikes at the head of the motorcade revved up to the frustrated looking Major of the Special Police. He was heatedly talking with a Bolivian Gendarme who was being profoundly unhelpful. The arrival of the President brought them both to attention.

"Your Excellency," the Major offered, stepping forward. "Captain Ramundo sent you forward?"

"I insisted, he didn't want us across the bridge. What's the hold-up, Major?"

"Well, the nearest tow-truck big enough for the bus is in Achacachi, Your Excellency!"

"Can't we just drive around the bloody thing?"

"What if it has a bomb?"

"We've been passing parked vehicles drawn off to the side of the road all day in other sectors, what's a difference of a few meters going to make!?"

The Major sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "It's so. And we've searched it twice."

"There you go. Come on, get those people moved aside. I want to be in Huarina by 2200."

"Understood, Your Excellency!" He saluted, and turned forward onto the bridge, drawing his pistol and using it as a prop. "Come on, clear the bridge for the President's Motorcade!"

The people were still moving to the side of the bridge as they nosed down the right lane and then took off again. The driver of her limo was reasonably paranoid, and didn't want them in the mess for very long. The others cars followed and they accelerated to the far parapet.

The flash of the bomb was visible from the heights of Ancohuma, a searing power of white that disappeared an entire span of the arch bridge in a single moment, people on the top vanishing in fire. It was perfectly silent for a long time up that valley, before the tremendous crack echoing along the canyon reached ears. Climbers descending Ancohuma could hear it, too, and some people claimed later they could hear it in Ananea, two hundred kilometres away down the valleys in the Cordillera Real.

Flopping like rag dolls suspended in a breeze, most of the passengers in the bus tumbled and fell, along with some troops. They fell, and fell, through the thin air, as the ruins of cars and speeder bikes fell with them, down, down into the depths of the valley. The crashes were lost in the reverberation of the initial explosion. A minute later, the sun disappeared behind the lip of the canyon.

The ends of the severed bridge were burning. The saboteurs fled, hearts heavy. The bomb hadn't been in the bus, and they had prayed and hoped until the last second someone would get the passengers off the bridge, but they had families to avenge, and they had just run out of time. In the end... Everyone runs out of time.

"Alert! Alert! The city is under a State of Siege! The city is under a State of Siege! Clear the market immediately!" Men bearing guns burst into the central market of Cusco, clearing vendors in disciplined teams. They were none too polite about it.

"A 10-80? There hasn't been a 10-80 here in years!" One of the old Cholitas protested. Cusco had, in fact, never even had one at all, and even La Paz the President had mostly personally cleared during visits.

"No, no, not a 10-80! Get out, this is under 10-81, this is a State of Siege!"

"10-81?" There was muttering as the people hastened back to their homes.

"Curfew! The city is under a curfew! Proceed to your homes within the next hour or you will be arrested!" Military and police speeders ran through the streets, blaring the message over and over again. "Under authority 10-81 of the constitution, a State of Siege has been declared! The **Planet** is under the State of Siege! All citizens are to report to their lawful temporary or permanent domicile until further notice!"

Teams were searching in the elite districts, the Senatorial districts, villa to villa. Banging on doors with guns drawn, with Krogan troops covering them with mini-proton torpedo launchers. Hovertanks raced through the streets with their anti-personnel turrets tracking random people.

"Document check! Open the door! Special Police of the Ministry of the Interior under the authority of Article 10 Section 81, you are being searched for evidence of insurrection!" They were shouting at the doors as they pounded, again and again.

Not Indoctrination.

 _Insurrection_.

The Minister of the Interior herself was busy waking up Tali'Zorah vas Commenor. "Tali, Tali. Get up, Tali!"

The Quarian woman stirred. "Miranda...? Oh, Ancestors. Something has gone wrong, hasn't it?"

"Something has gone really wrong, Tali. You need to take your children and head to San Luis Rey immediately."

Tali very nearly leapt straight out of bed into Miranda's arms, steadying herself and pulling her lightsabre to her belt. Reached idly for a scarf and pulled it over her helmet, though she didn't really feel like even bothering. "...Miranda?" She was trembling. "How..."

"They say Tanda is injured. There was an assassination attempt, Tali. The situation is still very confused, it's absolute chaos. They're searching homes through the entire province and have all the roads locked down. We've got a high-altitude speeder for you under starfighter escort."

Tali gathered her older children, gave instructions to the Quarians in her household to take the infants into orbit, to the safety of the _Commenor_ , and headed for the spaceport. Through the streets, there was the occasional sound of guns being fired into the air to disperse crowds, and police cars with their blue lights flashing going this way and that in some kind of disorganised chaos.

Clutching Rani and Dera to her sides, they flew fast and hard in the speeder, staying low to the ground with the starfighters as paranoid top-cover under General Dlarit, personally. Below her, the lights of emergency vehicles and speeders flashed everywhere, and occasionally roadblocks with hovertanks and speeder-bikers could be made out. One of the army units even had two AT-AT walkers stationed to close the Titiqaqa highway.

As they approached Villa Guachalla, where the casualties were being taken, Tali could see the lines of cars and speeders being turned back on the roads. They were the relatives of those caught up in the explosion, trying to get to their relatives, trying to see if their loved ones had lived or had died, knowing nothing, being told nothing.

In the chaos, Tali knew nothing, and, really, had been told nothing. She looked down, and she felt a perfect kinship with them. They were all just desperate families... Hoping that their families had not been sundered. Hoping, and praying.

She prayed hard, she prayed to the Ancestors, to her Mother, to the Force and to Dea. And she felt guilty that at least her wait would be short.

In the crisp, cold night's air, the speeder landed at Villa Guachalla. As the ramp went down, seeing what she saw, Tali broke into a desperate run. Just up the canyon, the stone of the bridge was still burning.

 _...Thus Concludes_.


End file.
